#and the fins up! ad when dolphins were playing

[shushiyuii]

tiny!mer tommy with giant human sbi member noms

HAHAHAHA ANGST TIME, i'm kidding. its all fluff! MUHAHAHAAHAA!

Warnings: Soft vore

Words: 1.4K+

(@ghostan0n here you guys go!)

Tommy swam and splashed happily around his pond. The pond was a fair size considering Tommy was only about half a foot in height, not only that but the pond had a good ecosystem going for it with no other Mers around, meaning it was the perfect safe haven for the little Mer.

Growing up Tommy had been the runt of him and his siblings and because of the smaller size, he got blown away in a current from his family at a young, leaving him to learn to survive without the help of his parents.

He luckily found the pond, so it greatly helped him in surviving. He learnt how to live completely on his own.

He wasn’t alone though; he did have some frequent visitors.

“Tommy! We got you some treats!”. Tommy slowly and sneakily made his way to the surface, out of the way from the human’s view, to deem this treat worthy of his feast.

Surprisingly it was his favourite, little choc chips. They were sweet and full of flavour! Tommy loved them! He dove back under the water and happily pounced onto Wilbur’s hand. “There you are!”, he was just smaller than Wilbur’s hand.

He chirped back happily and began to eat his chocolate, he wasn’t allowed much and afterwards Wilbur was supposed to give him fish food, which wasn’t the worst food out there, but it tasted rather bland if he was honest.

Wilbur chuckled as he witnessed Tommy straight up gobbling the chocolate with what he could with small fangs. He honestly found it adorable. “You doing okay, Today?”, Tommy chirped happily in response.

Sadly, Tommy couldn’t speak English, only understand it. He learnt it through many years of living in the lake. But what he could speak was his own language known as Oceanian, which consisted of thrills and chirps.

And luckily for Tommy they had a translator as Wilbur’s dad, Phil worked with Mers and had a good understanding of the language. Meaning he could communicate with them. Only with Phil present though, he had yet to learn sign language.

Once Tommy was finished with his chocolate, he dove back into the water as he couldn’t stay on the surface forever.

Tommy is honestly quite happy where he is now, he would never want to leave the pond. It was his home now and Wilbur, Techno and Phil were his family, even with the creature difference.

Tommy gestured for Wilbur to join him in the pond and play. “You wanna play?”, he got a splash in response. So, Wilbur happily walked into the pond, with it barely being his knees length he could easily sit down.

Once he did sit down, Tommy swam around his legs. Breaching the surface much like a dolphin now and again. It made Wilbur happy to see Tommy happy as cheesy as that was.

“So, what’s happening in Tommy’s chaotic life Today?”. Tommy stopped for a minute and surfaced his upper body. He pinched his chin in a thinking position until he seemed to remember something.

Tommy dove back into the water and didn’t surface back up for a couple of minutes. It made Wilbur curious about what he was doing. Then Tommy came up to be carrying a small shell, which fit nicely into both arms.

“Another shell for my necklace, huh?”. Tommy nodded and chirped happily in response. Wilbur was going to have to drill a hole into this one in order to fit his necklace that was laced with shells already given to them.

It was always a gesture Tommy gave them; it was always a contest between the three of them who got the most shells from Tommy. And not to brag but Wilbur was winning.

Tommy continued to swim around Wilbur and getting the occasional hand cuddles, then it was time for bed, “Alright Toms, I think that’s enough for today.”. He whispered to the half-asleep Mer sleeping on his hand.

Tommy lazily chirped back as if saying “I don’t wanna sleep!”. But Wilbur moved so he could put Tommy into his grove.

But Tommy wasn’t having it, he clung onto Wilbur’s hand when he tried to retract it. “Tommy, it’s getting late! Phil will be mad if I don’t get home for dinner!”, he chirped back frustratingly in response.

“Tommy we can’t be arguing right now, I gotta go. I’m sorry”. Tommy began to aggressively chirp at Wilbur as if he were screaming profanities, he probably was. “Tommy! First, language! Second, I can’t stay! Sorry bud. I’ll come back tomorrow though”.

Tommy’s ear like fins lowered as he made the saddest puppy dog eyes he could. He didn’t want Wilbur to leave obviously. Wilbur sighed, “Why are you being so clingy today, huh?”.

Tommy thrilled sadly. “Alright, alright. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes, okay?”. Tommy finally let go of Wilbur, trusting him to come back and Wilbur wasn’t just going to let him down.

Wilbur made his way back to the house, “There you are Wil! How’s Tommy?”. He asked as he continued to cut the onions on the cutting board. “Just fine, he’s being really clingy Today.”.

“Ah, Mers can be like that sometimes, they don’t want their pod to leave.”, “Tommy wouldn’t let me leave one night actually, it was annoying”. Techno added, but it was clear no ill intent was there. It was just Techno’s way of being playful.

“Hey Dad, is it okay if I skip out on dinner tonight?”, Phil looked over with concern on his features. “How come?”, Wilbur stumbled on his words, whilst grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “Uhh-“.

Wilbur looked away when he couldn’t answer. There was a moment of awkward silence as Phil thought for a moment. Then he pieced it together. “Oh! Got it! Go ahead! Stay safe alright?”. He sighed in relief, “Will do!”. Then, he left the house back to the pond.

…

He then made his way back to the pond, “Tommy! I’m back!”. In a second Tommy was at the surface, swimming towards Wilbur. “Okay, you clingy bitch! You know what we’re going to do?”. He asked sarcastically. Tommy chirped back in determination. He knew what he was going to do.

Because of Phil’s job as a Mer biologist, a professional one at that. He knew a lot about Mers. And he made sure his kids knew a lot too. So, when the family met Tommy, they already were well aware of how to take care of the Mer.

That also included other things too, such as the fact Mer’s were able to be swallowed and safely be stored in a human’s stomach since they were acid-resistant. The first time Phil had done it so they could transport Tommy safely was rather shocking for Wilbur and Techno.

But then they did it themselves and were actually quite surprised it felt like a giant hug, so they honestly didn’t mind swallowing Tommy, they did it now and again. So, it seems like it was one of those days for Tommy.

“How about a challenge Toms?”, Tommy furrowed an eyebrow. “Try and land in my mouth. I dare you.”.

Tommy made a determined expression and quickly dove back into the water. Wilbur sat down, opened his mouth, and waited. After about a minute, Tommy breached the surface as high as he could. And missed.

So, he tried again, this time Wilbur gave him a helping hand and let Tommy land in his hands. And then quickly shoving him in his mouth, much to Tommy’s dismay. He wanted to do the challenge. It made Wilbur laugh as Tommy’s tail hung out of his mouth.

Tommy chirped angrily and slapped his tail against Wilbur’s chin. In response, Wilbur just softly swallowed, then proceeding to slurp up Tommy’s tail like a noodle. He then swallowed again and traced Tommy’s descent with his hand. Making sure his little brother was again.

Once he felt Tommy land in his stomach, he put a hand to his stomach. “You okay Toms?”. He got a chirp in response and felt Tommy get comfortable in his stomach. He signed in relief, he then grabbed his water bottle and chugged down the bottle. So, Tommy was sure to be safe.

“Alright, time for bed.”. He then made his way back home, grabbed his guitar and played a soft melody until he heard Tommy’s sleepy chirps. Then made his way to bed.

[snini-9]

Abnormal Behaviour

All information and images can be found on this site. *as by request, some of the videos here were originally from PETA* As seen with other highly intelligent animals such as apes and elephants, cetaceans often exhibit stereotypical or abnormal behaviour. Repetitive in nature, this behaviour has no obvious goal or function and is thought to be a result of boredom, distress, and frustration related to an unnatural environment. As a cetacean’s natural repertoire of behaviours cannot be satisfied in a barren concrete tank, they may try to reduce the resulting tension by developing destructive behaviours such as self-stranding for prolonged periods of time, biting on metal gates/chewing at the environment, vomiting and self-mutilation, or non-beneficial behaviours such as comatose-like states/lethargy, head bobbing and pacing/circling.

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Self-stranding is a particularly notable stereotypical behaviour due to its potential to become life-threatening. In captivity, cetaceans are taught to beach themselves on concrete slide outs to present themselves to an audience, or to participate in husbandry behaviours such as having their weight taken. This taught behaviour quickly becomes an abnormal habit as cetaceans have been seen to repetitively slide out and lie motionlessly on concrete surfaces for up to 30 minutes. Killer whales, the largest species of cetacean in captivity, can weigh up to 22,000 pounds. Once beached, the orca’s weight begins to slowly crush its internal organs and damage its muscles, causing stores of myoglobin to be released. Travelling in the bloodstream, the protein reaches the kidneys where it is highly toxic. After a prolonged period of time, the damage to their kidneys is irreversible. Re-entry into the water allows their blood to circulate more freely, and this carries even more myoglobin to the kidneys leading to severe kidney damage.

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Photographer Reginald Andreas captured the moment a transient orca stranded whilst hunting elephant seal pups on Sea Lion Island, the Falkland Islands. After vomiting repeatedly, the male died.

Additionally, on top of this risk, beached cetaceans can also perish from dehydration and heat exhaustion. Their thick layer of blubber and the lack of water causes cetaceans to overheat, become dehydrated and dry out. In February 2016, Morgan, a female orca at Loro Parque, intentionally beached herself on a slide out for around 10 minutes.

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Morgan beaching herself on a concrete slide-out at Loro Parque. The skin on her melon began to dry out leading to her trainer, Rafa Sanchez, signalling her to return to the water.

Within this time, the skin around Morgan’s melon dried out in 19°C heat. Following this incident, Kelly Flaherty Clark, SeaWorld Orlando’s director of animal training, admitted she’s seen orcas “slide out for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, even 30 minutes, on their own.” If Morgan’s skin can dry out in 10 minutes in 19°C heat, it’s unimaginable how damaging this abnormal behaviour can be if performed for 30 minutes at SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, which regularly sees temperatures of up to 28°C.

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In the wild, only one small population of Patagonian transients in Argentina intentionally strand themselves for hunting purposes. Consisting of around 22 individuals, the whole population was taught how to perform the unique hunting technique by two male orcas named Mel and Bernardo. This cultural behaviour is passed down from generation to generation of Patagonian mammal-eating orcas and, as no captive orcas originate from this population, it’s completely unnatural for the behaviour to be replicated in captivity. Kshamenk, a bull orca at Mundo Marino, is indeed an Argentinian transient but it is unclear whether he is directly related to the stranding orca pod.

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Despite not originating from Patagonian transients, orcas at Kamogawa SeaWorld seem to be avid participants in this behaviour, as do various other species of cetacean trapped in Japan’s often horribly inadequate tanks.

​https://youtu.be/hJVybEhJGV4

https://youtu.be/CW6-8t_RSyM

Other damaging abnormal behaviours include wearing the teeth by chewing at the environment and regurgitating food. It’s common for under-stimulated and bored orcas to “chew” metal bars and mouth concrete pool corners, like the main stages and concrete slide outs, consequently causing their teeth to become worn, chipped and broken.

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Morgan chewing on concrete.

Following feeding sessions, captive orcas have been seen to regurgitate their food and play with it. Although this may provide the orca with some stimulation, obsessive regurgitation can lead to health problems as the corrosiveness of stomach acid can damage the lining of the oesophagus as well as already worn teeth. According to John Hargrove, a former senior trainer, all of the whales at SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Antonio and Marineland Antibes frequently regurgitated their food, to the point that it became a notable problem. Trainers at Marineland Antibes attempted to discourage the behaviour by mixing spiny mackerel (a fish with painful spikes) into their food to make regurgitation painful, and therefore less appealing. However, unwilling to give up their harmful habit, the orcas figured out how much spiny mackerel was in their food, when they ingested it, and when it was less painful to regurgitate it.

​https://youtu.be/Pnj4rvV4htQ

Perhaps the most worrying of all abnormal behaviours witnessed in captivity is self-mutilation. There are various ways a cetacean can harm itself in a captive environment but the most commonly observed behaviour is for a cetacean to ram its head or body into the walls or gates of its tank. A particularly disturbing example of self-mutilative behaviour in captive orcas would be the behaviour of Hugo, a male Southern Resident killer whale who was captured from the wild in February 1968 and housed at Miami Seaquarium. Prior to being moved to “The Whale Bowl” (the tank that currently houses Lolita), Hugo was housed in “The Celebrity Pool” which is so small that it now houses manatees.

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​Hugo housed in the “The Celebrity Bowl” in the late 1960 – early 1970s.

“The Celebrity Bowl” now housing manatees.

During his stay in this pathetic pool, Hugo developed self-harming behaviour that consisted of him slamming his body into the tank walls. This resulted in a nasty injury on October 1st, 1970 when he slammed his head into the circular ‘acrylic bubble’ feature of his tank and punctured a five-inch hole into it.

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The acrylic window Hugo smashed his head into

The acrylic sliced off approximately two-inches of his rostrum. Hugo had to undergo a 45-minute operation without a local anaesthetic for his severed flesh to be stitched back onto his rostrum. Despite his veterinarian’s best efforts, the sewn-on tissue turned completely white, died and fell off completely after seven days, although Hugo did make a full recovery within just four months.

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Newspaper clipping of Hugo’s injury.

Hugo’s self-harming behaviour continued when he was placed in The Whale Bowl with Lolita. On March 4th, 1980, his behaviour proved to be fatal as he slammed his head into a tank wall and suffered a brain aneurysm resulting in his death. He was just 15 years old.  

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15-year-old Hugo being removed from his tank shortly after his death in 1980.

However, self-harming behaviour at Miami Seaquarium did not end with the death of Hugo. As recently as September 2015, multiple bottlenose dolphins who take part in the oceanarium’s “Top Deck Dolphin Show” were seen to repeatedly hit their heads on the bottom of their tank floor. Watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/QpANcUismqU​

Just like Hugo, Kanduke, a Bigg’s transient housed at SeaWorld Orlando, was also known to participate in self-mutilative behaviour. According to Carol Ray, a former SeaWorld trainer, Kanduke would ram himself as hard as he possibly could into the cement walls, metal gates, and glass panels in the show pool on a daily basis. He bloodied his chin, teeth, and rostrum so badly on some occasions that he was not allowed to participate in shows because management said he looked too bad for the public to see. More recently, Skyla, a female orca at Loro Parque, displayed similar behaviour when she breached onto concrete, effectively slamming her body onto the stage, prior to a show.

Skyla, a female orca at Loro Parque, slamming her body onto a concrete surface.

Morgan, another female orca at the same facility, repeatedly rammed the gate of the medical pool she was held in after she was separated from her tank mate, Tekoa.

https://youtu.be/JIqmG_PE7kQ

Some captive cetaceans take it a step further and leap out of their tanks, hitting the hard concrete floor below. Kotar, a deceased male orca who resided at SeaWorld San Antonio, reportedly jumped out of his tank twice whilst at the facility, requiring staff to clear and flood the entire stadium so that they could float Kotar back into the pool. In 2002, Hudson, another deceased orca, jumped out of his tank at Marineland Canada during a feeding session. Reportedly unharmed, Hudson was placed on a stretcher and lifted by crane back into the pool. Eight years later in 2010, Kuru, a female false killer whale, jumped out of her tank during a show at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. She sustained minor scratches and bruises from the incident.

​https://youtu.be/wxzTyQillMQ

As recently as 2015, a dolphin jumped out of its tank at Gulf World, landing directly on its dorsal fin. According to former Gulf World trainer, Ashley Guidry, the marine park’s dolphins would jump out of their tanks so frequently that a metal rail was added to the top of the show tanks to try to discourage the dolphin’s dangerous behaviour. It wasn’t uncommon for trainers to come into the park in the morning to find a beached dolphin lying on the concrete walkway beside their tank.

​

Other abnormal behaviours, such as comatose-like states and logging, are not necessarily harmful when performed, but do carry risks of their own – risks which have been held responsible for contributing to the deaths of two of SeaWorld’s orcas. In captivity, it’s extremely common to see lethargic cetaceans floating motionlessly at the surface, known as logging, or lying perfectly still at the bottom of the pool.

​https://youtu.be/4dHLzWuVvl0

https://youtu.be/A2qhfcTYP8E

https://youtu.be/vkpOzTETYY0

https://youtu.be/RWq7ZxsadAM

These lethargic behaviours are explained to guests who query it as how dolphins rest. However, although this may be the captivity-adapted version, wild dolphins do not stop moving to sleep. As dolphins must be conscious to breathe, they use unihemispheric sleep, in which they shut down one hemisphere of their brain at a time, to rest whilst remaining alert and able to breathe. Whilst in this state, dolphins remain in close proximity to their pod members, slowly moving forward.

​

https://youtu.be/W8UyuSijYsE

​

According to Dr. Naomi Rose, a leading marine mammal scientist, it’s “extremely rare” for wild orcas to remain still for a minute or two, unlike captive orcas who log for hours upon hours at a time. Dr. Rose believes this highly abnormal behaviour is the result of “chronic stress, boredom and inhibition of natural behaviours that occurs as a result of inadequate living conditions” at marine parks and aquariums alike. As for captive orca deaths related to this behaviour, Kanduke, a 19-year-old male, died in 1990 with the St. Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) implicated in his death, followed by Taku, a 14-year-old orca, who succumbed to the West Nile Virus (WNV) in 2007. Mosquitoes, who swarm the orca’s exposed dorsal fins and backs when they’re logging, were held responsible for transmitting the viruses.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Ebb and Flow Chap. 7 Disaster on Board

Hey everyone! Back for another chapter!

I tried to get this one done sooner, but work the past few weeks have been rough! I got longer hours, and the weekends are a big punch to the face! AKA SO BUSY!!! During those times my mind goes blank and I can’t get a single thing done in my stories other than a word, sentence or paragraph in. My days off from work, I’m drained from the weekends and need to rest and play videogames.

Despite all that, I was glad to get this chapter done! I made a bit of a reference to the Little Mermaid in this story as well as revealing a new potential ship!

Enjoy!!

On a small ship miles away from Subcon, a crew of people were setting up tables for a big celebration. While everyone was setting up a young girl with long blonde hair was looking out at the ocean board out of her mind. She let out a long sigh as her blonde hair, and fake mustache blew in the wind.

A boy, who looked two years older than her, was humming as he brought over a box of decorations. He saw the girl staring out into the ocean and went up to her. “Hey Mu, what’s wrong?” The boy asked. The girl didn’t reply and just looked out into the ocean. “Come on Mu, I can’t expect my cousin to be sad on her birthday.”

Mu gave a sigh. “No one showed up. Well, except you and Uncle Gio, but I invited the entire class to join and have an amazing time and they all ditched.” Mu felt like she was ready to cry as she told her cousin everything. She hoped a boat birthday party would have everyone show up, but nope.

The boy sighed and put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey even though no one showed up. We’re still going to have a fun time!” He exclaimed. “And if it makes you feel better, you could lie and tell everyone what they missed so they can feel guilty and promise to show up next year.”

This made Mu giggle a bit. “Thanks Timmy.”

“No problem.” He replied as he ruffled Mu’s head, which made her giggle. “Now come on, your mom is baking your cake and I want to see how it looks, and tastes.” Mu nodded and the two went inside the ship to check out Mu’s mother’s baking.

Not too far from the ship, Lucas, Hali, Willow and Vanessa were in the water. Willow was having fun getting used to using her fins, but Vanessa just sat on a rock as she watched her best friend enjoying the time of her life. Lucas took notice of Vanessa just sitting there and swam up to her. “Aren’t you going to join us?” He asked.

“I am, but isn’t just being a mermaid like regular swimming just breathing underwater and what not?” Vanessa replied.

“It’s not like that Vanessa!” Hali spoke up. “Being a mermaid also has survival in it. Not sure how you humans can survive big scary storms, garbage destroying your homes, or humans coming to capture you one by one!” She listed, overexaggerating all the disasters a mermaid can go through which horrified Vanessa. “So, it’s best you girls know.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes as Willow swam over to her. “Come on Nessa, it’s fun! You can swim gracefully!” She beamed. Vanessa sighed and slid off the rock and fell into the water.

“Well now that we are all here,” Hali started. “Let’s go exploring!” She then dived into the water splashing the older mermaids.

“H-hey! Hali! Wait!” Lucas shouted following after her. Willow and Vanessa looked at each other and nodded to follow after the mermaid siblings. In the ocean, Hali looked behind her brother and the girls before swimming off faster. Lucas and the girls tried to catch up to her, but the mermaid siblings were a bit faster than Vanessa and Willow. The two were getting exhausted following after the mermaid siblings, and had to stop to relax their fins. Lucas turned back and stopped seeing the girls had fallen behind. He turned back to see Hali was swimming back to them.

“Hey slowpokes why are you just floating there?” Hali asked. She then turned to see Vanessa and Willow slowly swimming to the siblings.

“Lucas,” Willow tried to catch her breath before continuing. “Your sister is a fast swimmer.”

Hali laughed nervously, and rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry. I'm a fast swimmer.” Soon her laughter was put on hold when she heard chirps coming from a distance. Hali started to swim again following where the chirps were coming from. Lucas, Vanessa and Willow looked at each other worriedly and followed Hali again.

The younger mermaid swam faster and the chirps and calls were getting louder. Once Hali got closer to the chirps she gasped seeing a dolphin tangled up in a net. Quickly, she swam towards the dolphin and started to remove the net so that it could be free.

Lucas, Vanessa and Willow finally caught up with Hali and saw her trying to rescue the dolphin. Not wanting to see it suffer, Vanessa and Willow swam by to help Hali with the netting.

The three untangled the net and freed the dolphin who chirped happily doing some flips. “Aww don’t thank me, my friends helped too.” Hali said, not wanting to take all the credit.

The dolphin turned to Willow and Vanessa and each gave the girls a kiss on the cheek. Willow giggled and Vanessa gave a smile. The dolphin then gave his kiss to Hali, making the mermaid giggle before swimming away.

“Goodbye! Be safe!” Hali yelled, waving to the dolphin.

Vanessa was surprised over Hali’s kindness with animals; she just saw her as an annoying brat, but saw she had a sweet side to her too. “Hali you were amazing back there!” Willow beamed, which snapped Vanessa out of her thoughts.

Hali gave an embarrassed smile, “It’s just what I do. I love to help every creature in need.” She replied. Speaking of creatures, Hali heard another cry for help not too far from where they were and went to swim in the direction of what animal needs help next. Lucas, Vanessa and Willow followed her and the four saw a mother whale crying as her baby was stuck between some rocks. Hali looked at her brother and gave him a quick nod as the two siblings went to help rescue the baby whale.

The mermaid siblings helped the baby whale with Lucas giving the baby a push so he can be free. Hali carefully pulled on the whale’s fins and soon enough the baby whale was free and reunited with his mother. The two whales gave a call before swimming off together.

“You’re welcome!” Hali called out, waving goodbye.

“Aww. That was sweet.” Willow sighed happily seeing the wholesome reunion.

Hali and Lucas smiled. “Thanks Willow.” Hali replied. “Now you see I’m the fastest and my big brother is the strongest.” She added giving her brother a pat on the back. Lucas gave a nervous chuckle and gave an embarrassed blush.

Vanessa and Willow giggled at Lucas’s expression. Vanessa gave a smile to Lucas, still having her crush on him and knowing how strong and caring he was, fueled her crush on him further.

After saving sea creatures, the rest of the day was exploring other parts of the ocean where Lucas and Hali would usually hang out when getting away from their kingdom life. Vanessa was lying down on the rocks staring at the sunlight beaming through the water. It felt magical to her to the point she closed her eyes and started to remember something in her past.

She remembered jumping into the ocean swimming down below, before feeling pressure on her chest for being underwater for so long. Before thinking anymore, Vanessa snapped out of her thoughts to see Hali right in front of her face.

“You okay?” Hali asked.

“Y-yeah I’m fine. Just thinking.” Vanessa replied as she got up.

“Thinking about my brother?”

“No.” Vanessa glared back at the younger mermaid. “Just an old memory.” She replied, turning away from the younger mermaid.

Hali stepped back and turned away as well. “Sorry.” She apologized. “Was it a good memory or a bad one?”

Vanessa scoffed, “Why do you ask?”

“I’m just asking.” Hali quickly replied. “You just were spacing out and looking uncomfortable.” Vanessa blinked in surprise. Hali looked at Vanessa and sighed. “Look when I see someone looking sad or uncomfortable I just need to know.”

“Sometimes you don’t need to know.” Vanessa replied. “Unless the person feels comfortable with telling.” It was then the two girls realized they had a conversation that didn’t involve them yelling or screaming insults at one another.

While that didn’t mean they were friends yet, it did show Willow that Vanessa was progressing with Hali well.

“Hey, can we show you a place where Hali and I usually hang out?” Lucas asked. Willow and Vanessa nodded and the four started to swim off again. The four made it to some rocks, the same rocks where Hali would stare at Subcon all day and what made the mermaid siblings start their adventure.

“A rock?” Vanessa asked.

“This is my special rock, I’ve been on this rock for three years watching Subcon.” Hali explained as she got up on the rock. “If you're here at the perfect time the sun makes the island shine.”

“Yeah. That’s Subcon for ya.” Vanessa replied. The mermaids watched the sun setting on Subcon before they heard voices coming from the distance.

Hali turned to see a ship and people celebrating a birthday party. “What’s going on over there?” She asked. Before anyone could respond, Hali jumped from the rock and swam towards the ship.

“H-Hali! Wait!” Lucas shouted following after his little sister.

“Not again.” Vanessa sighed as she and Willow went to follow Hali and Lucas. The four mermaids swam towards the ship, once they got close enough they stayed underwater so no one could see them.

The mermaids saw Mu’s birthday party going on with everyone dancing, eating and celebrating. Hali’s eyes sparkled seeing everyone gathered together having fun. She realized that mermaids and humans celebrate the same way, no differences except feet and fins.

Hali heard the strings of a guitar and turned to where the music was. Her eyes then gazed at Mu and Timmy playing their guitars to get the party moving. Hali’s eyes were more focused on Mu as she wanted to get a closer look, but couldn’t as she would be seen.

“Wow! She’s amazing!” Hali commented.

Vanessa and Willow looked up at the young girl the mermaid was talking about and recognized her. “Oh yeah she’s part of the Captain family.” Vanessa revealed.

“Captain family?” Lucas asked.

“Their another famous family in Subcon.” Willow replied. “They aren’t big as Vanessa’s family and just have a well known business with training goods.”

“Then.” Hali started. “Who is she?” She asked, pointing at Mu.

Willow turned to who Hali was talking about and told her. “That is Emily Captain, aka Mu. She’s Giovanni Captain’s niece who lives in Subcon.” Willow introduced.

“Mu.” Hali sighed saying her nickname. Vanessa looked at Hali and recognized that look. It was the same look she gave when she saw Lucas for the first time.

The four kept spying on the party, until Mu saw them. Quickly, the mermaids dived down before Mu caught sight of them. The birthday girl looked at the ocean, but with how dark it was starting to get she couldn’t see what was near the boat just now.

Timmy caught his cousin looking at the water below and walked over to her. “See something Mu?” He asked.

Mu turned to her cousin and looked back at the ocean. “I thought I saw someone or something, staring at me.” She told him. Timmy looked where Mu was staring at and saw nothing then the ocean.

“Probably just a fish.” Timmy told her. “Come on we’re about to have cake.” Mu smiled and followed her cousin, which made her pull away from looking at the water. Hali was the first to peek her head up as she slowly went around the ship, keeping her eyes on Mu. She didn’t know why, but something made her want to jump onto the ship and talk with Mu, which was crazier than it sounds, but she wanted to.

“What are you doing?” Lucas asked, whispering. Hali didn’t listen and kept staring at Mu. With a sigh he grabbed his sister by the shoulder and pulled her away. “Hey! Ocean to Hali!” Lucas yelled. Luckily, no one heard it, except Vanessa and Willow. Hali snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her older brother. “What’s wrong with you?”

Hali nervously chuckled as she played with her hair. “S-Sorry.” She stuttered. “I just seemed interested in Mu.”

“You mean to be her friend?” Lucas asked.

“Y-yeah.” Though from the blush on her face it seemed to be a lie. Vanessa and Willow looked at each other knowing what Hali really wanted to be with Mu. The four decided enough was enough and decided to swim back to shore and head back to Willow’s for the night.

However, that became a big problem. Once reaching shore, clouds started to cover the evening sky and a few drops of rain fell from the sky preventing the four from drying their legs. “Oh great!” Vanessa complained. “How will I explain to my mom about this!”

Willow giggled. “Relax, she won’t get mad at you now for being out in the rain.”

“True.” Vanessa groaned in reply.

Lucas and Hali giggled as well, and sighed looking at the rain. It wasn’t a big storm or anything, just a rain shower. A cool relaxing rain shower. That is...until a large clap of thunder in the distance surprised them. “Quick, dive!” Lucas yelled. The mermaids all dived underwater, and saw it was completely different underwater then on the surface. You couldn’t tell it was storming unless you were closer to the surface.

Hali realized it was about to storm and got worried for Mu and the people aboard the ship celebrating the party. Quickly, she started to swim towards the ship hoping that Mu was okay. “Hali! Where are you going!?” Lucas yelled, but Hali ignored him and went to check up on Mu.

Mu however, was not okay. Everyone on the ship was screaming in fear after the clap of thunder spooked her and she fell overboard with a piece of rope tied to her foot. The rope was dragging the young girl down, and no one grabbed it in time to stop Mu from falling. “Mu! Mu!” Her mother shouted, almost in tears.

Mu was below the sea trying to remove the rope from her foot. She was slowly losing air trying to get the rope off from her foot. Her eyes slowly closed as she slowly started to lose air.

Just before Mu could drown. Hali finally made it to her and quickly removed the rope dragging her down off her foot. Mu slowly opened her eyes and got a glimpse of Hali before she closed them again as Hali helped Mu up to the surface.

“Mu’s okay!” Timmy yelled. Quickly, the crew reeled in a floater for the young girl and brought her back on deck. Her mother came by and held her daughter and cried seeing her daughter almost died.

“My baby! My baby!” Mu’s mother cried as she held her close.

Mu slowly opened up her eyes seeing her mother. “M-mom.” She groaned. Mu’s mother gasped and hugged her daughter tight. Mu slowly turned her head and saw a glimpse of Hali’s tail swimming away. Only she noticed it as everyone was worried for Mu’s safety.

Hali smiled seeing Mu was going to be alright, and quickly swam back to her brother and friends, seeing as they were coming towards her and they swam away from the boat and that it was time to call it a night.

Luckily, the rain quickly passed and soon the group was able to dry off their legs and quickly make it to Willow’s house for the night. Vanessa called her mom, and told her about the rain and she’ll be staying the night. Good news, her mom was understanding with the rain and let her daughter spend the night at Willow’s.

Hali was looking out the window relaxing after the long day she had. Lucas came by and went to stand by his sister. “Why did you do that?” He asked. Hali looked up at her older brother. “Why did you go back, almost risking yourself being caught.”

With a sigh, Hali spoke up. “I just wanted to check up on the girl and well I saved her life.”

Lucas sighed and put his arm around his little sister. “I know, but please be careful Hali. We don’t want to be caught.” He told her.

“Right.” Hali replied with a nod. For the rest of the night before falling asleep, the siblings watched the moonlight sky.

At another house miles away, Mu to was watching the moonlight from her bed. She was constantly thinking about Hali, and why she saved her life tonight. It was a surprising birthday for her to say the least.

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

The Sims 4 Island Living - Early Access CAS Review

Huge thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play Island Living early!

I’ve been hemming and hawing all day about whether or not to post this because obviously everyone has access to the game now but I figured I put a lot of work into it, so why not! I know it’s like way late but I had a lot going on during the very short time frame we were given for early access (less than 24 hours) and these reviews won’t be too in depth because I still haven’t really had a chance to explore the new pack fully, but here’s what I have anyway 😊

It’s all under the cut because I apparently had more to say that I first thought lol Seriously, next time a new pack comes out I might just stream. It’d be a lot less hassle for everyone involved and I could just waffle to my heart’s content!

See a preview of all the new CAS items here

From what I’ve seen so far of this pack, the Sims Team put so much time and effort into making everything look amazing, especially the CAS items, which might have meant less time went into making sure everything actually worked properly, but I’ll get into what that means for CAS items in a bit. For now, let’s just start from the top!

🌴 The Hairs

I think my absolute favourite thing about this pack by far has to be the hairs. It’s obvious the team have been working super hard since Seasons to give us better quality hair types and styles, and with all the new hairs in Island Living I think it’s pretty clear that they’re absolutely nailing it so far. They still have a long ways to go when it comes to inclusivity, but I think they’re on the right track and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future!

I mean all you have to do is look back at Base Game hairs to see how far they’ve come. Back then they had yet to figure out how to make not only simple wavy hair and textured up-dos look good, but more importantly they really struggled with natural hairs (I think we all know I’m referring to the infamous cauliflower hair fiasco).

But look at a few of these GORGEOUS Island Living hairs! I honestly would have paid full price for this expansion, even if I hated everything else in the pack, just to get my hands on those hairs!

I only have a couple minor issues with the hairs. The first being the curly side ponytail that was featured on the female sim in all the trailers. It looks amazing but it clips through literally everything the sim wears. I know there’s probably nothing they could have done about it though and it’s a beautiful hair, so I’m glad they included it.

The second issue I have is that yet again, there is a hair who’s texture overlaps an area it shouldn’t. We seem to get one of them in every single pack these days and this time it’s the big curly bun. The texture overlaps the back right section of the top and bottom teeth:

🌴 The Clothes

The clothes looks amazing as well, in general, but I do have a few issues with the clothes. Not major issues, just generally things could have been done a little differently I guess.

First of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Once again teen-elder males, children, and toddlers got very little in this pack. This has become a trend with all new packs now and honestly, it’s never really worried me before because I have pretty much always played female sims, but now that I plan on playing Island Living with Luca I’ve realised just how annoying anyone who plays exclusively male sims must find it! I’m also just realising now as I type this that none of the clothes would suit elder sims either which is kind of sad.

I wish I could say I was exaggerating when I tell you I spent the better part of five hours in CAS trying to give Luca an Island Living make over the other day, but I can’t. I legitimately spent almost five hours in there. The new CAS items for males fall into roughly three categories; traditional islander, cheesy Hawaiian tourist, and swimwear. With an added smaller category of what I like to call “Was I in a shipwreck or did I drop my clothes in wood chipper?”; a handful of clothes that are all torn and ripped for some reason. So, though all the new clothes do look really nice, none of them really suit the style that I wanted Luca to have, and because there is such a limited amount of adult male CAS items in general, it took me forever to find stuff I liked on him and I’m still not entirely sure I like most of what he’s wearing, but I just couldn’t spend any more time in CAS lol

I was also quite disappointed that there were only two hairs for children and none at all for toddlers. Toddlers only got eight things in this pack. Adult females got 67! And as far as I’ve seen toddlers can’t really use any of the new gameplay items either. So pretty much all they can do with this pack is play in the sand and splash in the shallows. What we need is just a whole pack full of stuff for every age and gender EXCEPT young adult females.

This is also one of the areas I think suffered from too much focus being on making them look pretty instead of making sure they actually work properly. If you look at the image below you can see by the top three that some of the clothes have very visible seams and quite bad clipping, especially with muscular/heavier sims.

As for the three images on the bottom... Listen, I love the concept of the bikini bottom with the transparent wrap, and the one piece with the tied top but the textures on all three of these pieces are just... not great. It looks like whoever made the green swimsuit and the pink shorts went absolutely bonkers with the normal maps and highlighting; they look like they’re made of rubber.

The swimsuit is also supposed to be tied at the top but the knot is just a flat texture, there’s no dimension to it at all. The same goes for the bikini bottom and wrap, it’s not only a very low quality looking texture but the bikini bottom is just painted straight onto the outside of the wrap, which bothers me probably more than it should lol I think most people probably wouldn’t even notice or be bothered by these things but this is supposed to be my honest opinion of the pack and I honestly feel like a few of the CAS pieces (like the three above) don’t fit with the rest of the art style of the game.

Side note that has nothing to do with Island Living: I also wanted to add that I’m not happy at all that the pride content we got with the patch did not include a Simlish version of the “It Gets Better” tee. Like MANY other people, I don’t like having English in my game, so I won’t be using that particular swatch I guess.

Overall, I really do like the Island Living clothes a lot. I just feel like I probably won’t use many of them outside of Sulani, and also that more effort could and probably should have been put into making sure they didn’t just look good but also that they worked properly on sims of all sizes and didn’t clip or have holes in them, and that they all fit in with the art style of the game.

🌴 The Mermaids

If I’m being completely honest, I’ve never really cared much about having mermaids in my game. I played with them for a few weeks when The Sims 3 Island Paradise came out and then didn’t touch them again. I haven’t had much of a chance to play with them in Island Living yet, but I can already tell you that I do like them more than TS3 mermaids. However, I’m probably going to stop playing with them in TS4 after a short time as well just because they don’t really have a lot of replay value for me.

They look amazing though! It’s clear a lot of effort was put into making their animations look very natural and organic while they’re in the water. The added animations like their tales hanging over the edge of the tub when they have a bath and the funny little dolphin squeak thing they do randomly were really fun to see happen in game and made me giggle, and I really like the addition of them having a hydration bar instead of hygiene. I’m very happy that they can swim in pools as well! Ooooh and that mermaid kiss 😏

I do wish some things about them were different though. For starters, I wish there was more customisation options for them. Four tales and two “scaled” tops for females, only one top for males that doesn’t have scales on it, and with the exception of different colour options, none of them can be customised any further than they are already are. I really wanted options to add little fin pieces and spikes off the sides of the tales or some barnacles for the elderly mermaids. Maybe some tail scars and missing pieces, and definitely some more facial features like gills, fin-shaped ears, even more scars. You know, basically just anything other than typical Disney style mermaid appearances. I think I might have been far more interested in them if I could have made a mysterious, dangerous-looking siren.

But mostly I just wish they had been made more... I guess MORE of an occult life state? As they are now they’re very similar to the way aliens were made and I’ve always thought EA did aliens hella dirty with the way they were kind of just added as an afterthought in Get to Work and make no real contribution to gameplay. The only occult state that I feel hasn’t been done poorly was vampires and I was REALLY hoping mermaids would be more like that. Instead mermaids have powers that don’t really do a lot, a hydration bar that doesn’t kill them if it drops too low, they can drown human sims but not other mermaids, and when a human sim eats mermadic kelp and becomes a mermaid... nothing happens. They just have a tail when they next go into water; it’s very underwhelming.

I wanted them to be able to earn points to spend on leveling up their powers like vampires but with maybe an added bonus of... something like reputation. So depending on how they use their powers and what traits they have, they could earn a reputation as either a good, wholesome mermaid who just wants to live among the humans and be happy. Or, they could turn to the dark side and become an evil, scheming siren who spends their time plotting how to torture any poor humans unlucky enough to be lured in by their songs.

But that’s obviously not how they ended up being made, and I’m probably just gonna end up playing with them for just long enough to see everything they have to offer and then moving on to more interesting things. I knew that would probably be the case going in to this knew pack though,  so I don’t really consider that a deal breaker when it comes to the pack as a whole.

🌴 The Verdict

Overall I really like the CAS items in this pack. I have some issues with them, but as I said, none of those issues were deal breakers. In fact, every single piece of clothing could have been broken in some way and mermaids could have been absolutely awful to play with, but as long as those hairs were exactly as they are; I’d buy the pack just for them 😍

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. I am not paid by EA to “hype” their games; I am given the opportunity to review their games early in exchange for an honest review.

[agwitow]

The Rites

[I started a new story, to go along with the world building I did earlier... it’s not getting any current WIPs closer to completion, but it feels good to be writing again]

Along the broken cliffs that cradled Wilsevain Cove, where progressively smaller spits of rock trickled out into the ocean, a lone mer lay out of sight of any humans. She let her braid trail in the water while the sun and wind dried her skin. Her nixies played in the light surf as gentle waves splashed against the rock, and she savoured the peace she only ever found between the mer and human worlds.

Jana!

The shivering sound of her name floating through the water brought a sigh to her lips. Her time hiding from responsibilities was at an end. She clicked softly to her nixies and rolled into the water. The silvery little fish burrowed back into the heavy braid of hair and she waited only a moment to ensure they’d all made it before diving below the surface.

She knew the sound of her elder sister’s song, and also knew her sister would be at the caves, too scared to venture out of them. Small groups of mer tended to Amelisn’s crops in the seabed around the cave entrances. The fields of kelp, seagrass, algae, and soft corals stretched away from the cliffs until the ground dropped away into true oceanic depth. Most of the farmers ignored her as she swam past.

Sure enough, Amelie waited for her just inside the First Cave.

Where have you been? Amelie demanded, her song full of sharp clicks.

I was just bathing, Sister.

Amelie’s dark eyes widened and the pargills on either side of her nose flared. Outside of Amelisn? What if a human saw you?

Jana’s eyes darted to the scars crisscrossing her sister’s arms, torso, and tail. They were an unnatural white against the near-black of her skin, and took on a sickly green tint as they cut through the green and blue scales on her tail. Though she chafed at her sister’s fears, she could not discount them. I was careful, she sang as soothingly as she could. No humans fish near the broken rocks.

Amelie’s eyes flashed. That is almost worse! If any of their merchant ships saw you there, you’d have led them almost to our doors!

Jana could feel the vibrations in her throat wanting to burst forth to argue, but she forced them aside. Ever since Amelie and their mother had been caught in the steel-spiked nets of fisherman from Leualam, Amelie had been terrified of humans. That their mother had not escaped only added to the fear. She remembered her own fear, eight years ago, when Amelie had dragged herself back to the caves, torn and bleeding. The pain of losing their mother was intense, but Jana still believed what her mother had taught them—that mer and humans could learn to live peacefully together.

Neither Amelie, nor their father, agreed.

I’m sorry, was all she could sing. The air chambers are just so stuffy.

But safe.

Why were you looking for me?

Amelie narrowed her eyes, but didn’t comment on the change in topic. It is time for you to choose your Rite.

Jana grabbed her sister’s hands and spun with her. I get to choose my Rite?!

She jerked her hands back, tail fluttering to still the spinning. Of course you do. It is forbidden for even the King to remove a mer’s choice from them.

Father never told me that before.

Amelie ran a hand self-consciously over the scars near her hip. Why would it matter? You certainly wouldn’t think of taking the Human Rite.

Jana faltered for a moment. She had always wanted to take the Human Rite—to walk amongst the humans as one of them was a dream of hers since she was a calf—but fewer and fewer mer chose it. Ever since Queen Salana, her mother, had been captured. How many more years before none chose it at all? How many beyond that before there stopped being a choice?

Do you…do you ever regret choosing the Sea Rite?

Amelie stiffened. How can you ask me that? I would sooner cut off my own tail than ever willingly spend a moment in a human’s presence.

She nodded. She hadn’t really expected anything else from her sister, though she would have liked for her to have paused to at least think about it for a moment. She tried to imbue her song with a cheerfulness she didn’t feel, What must I do to prepare?

Go to the nixies garden to be cleansed. I will meet you there with your adornments.

Jana nodded her understanding and swam through the water-filled channels cut into the cliff. Most had started out as natural cave formations, but generations upon generations of mer living in Amelisn expanded them into a beautiful web of tunnels and rooms. A little over ten thousand mer made their homes in the city, with another several thousand living nearby. It was one of the largest city-kingdoms in the ocean, though there were multi-city kingdoms with many more mer.

Despite the size and complexity of the cave systems, mer who grew up in the city rarely had trouble navigating. The twists and turns were as familiar as one’s own scales. And so it didn’t take her long to reach the nixie garden—a large, shallow cave with a thick coating of seagrass along the bottom, and a series of small holes in the ceiling that let in tiny bits of fresh air and sunlight.

Her own nixies mingled with those that lived in the garden, either because they were too young or too old to be paired to a mer, or because their mer was away where it would be harmful for the little fish. Within moments, a swarm of nixies surrounded her. Their flexible fins gripped her while their beak-like mouths nibbled along the skin, clearing away any bits of debris or spores that she might have collected outside of the caves. It didn’t take long for the swarm to make her feel like a fresh-scrubbed calf.

Amelie arrived shortly afterward. Even in the safety of Amelisn, she flinched away from the tiny shafts of sunlight. For you. Her song was distorted when sang in the air, but it still held a tremor of her emotion.

Jana carefully took the kelp-wrapped bundle and laid out the items. The kelp itself turned out to be a delicately woven shawl, made with a pattern like the way light and shadows dappled across rock when the sun bounced off the surface of water. Wrapped inside, she found beautiful coral cuffs that strapped to her arms and covered her from wrist to elbow. Careful swirls were carved into the surface, and strange rocks half the size of her palm sat in the center. The rocks were almost clear, with a yellow tint that glowed like fire when they caught the light.

Humans call it amber, Amelie explained when she caught Jana’s questioning look. Mother said an ancient human king had given it to her great-grandmother as a sign of peace between our people.

Jana wanted to ask how she could have so little hope of peace when they held the promise of it in their hands. Instead, her heart swelled at the thought that these beautiful adornments had been their mother’s. Did…did you wear these during your Rite?

Amelie nodded. Just as you will, and just as any daughters we have will.

Thank you, Amelie, she sang, throwing her arms around her sister. It was a childish gesture, but if the eve before her Rite wasn’t an appropriate time to be a little childish, she didn’t want to know. After a moment’s hesitation, Amelie returned the embrace.

Yes, well…a mer only turns twenty-three once.

She burbled happily and slipped the cuffs onto her arms, tying them in place with bleached kelp laces. Amelie helped drape the shawl across a shoulder and wrap it around her torso. It felt strange to be so covered—most adornments were chains or ropes that looped around arms and body—but she couldn’t help feeling proud in the cuffs and shawl. They were symbols of her family’s status and history. They were a symbol of the status of Amelisn itself.

Amelie cupped her cheeks, as if she were a calf, and pressed their foreheads together. After, she led her out of the nixies garden. They traveled at a leisurely pace toward the throne room where their father and the Elders would be waiting. The Rite was a sacred thing that symbolized a mer’s progression from youngling to adult. Each and every mer who called Amelisn home had the chance to go before King, Elders, and family to choose a Rite.

Though the only two that had been performed in living memory were the Human and the Sea Rites, there were technically six possible choices. But given that the Human Rite entailed living amongst the humans, as one of them, for a month, and that the Sea Rite involved communing with the Vast Goddess and her emissaries, the others didn’t sound appealing. Fire, Blood, Steel, and Dark Rites. No one talked about what they were. Which only added to the sense that they were dangerous and to be avoided.

Jana wasn’t even sure if the Elders still remembered how to perform any of them.

But then…what if they weren’t as bad as they sounded? The Human Rite was well on its way to joining the others in being shunned by her fellow mer, and she knew it was just as valid as the Sea Rite. Was there some young mer, on their way to choose generations ago, that had thought similar things about any of the other Rites? Had they worried what would happen when the mer stopped performing those Rites entirely?

Her troubled thoughts were brought to an end when they came to the Royal Hall. Rounded squares of specially grown coral were carefully placed throughout the chamber. Each held a small orb which emitted soft blue light. Though the orbs could be made to emit white, yellow, or even green light, most mer she knew preferred the blue. Though few places in Amelisn were able to have orbs. They were too hard to make. So those places unable to have sunlight filtered to them were only ever seen through echolocation. The Royal Hall, though…well, its beauty was famed across the ocean.

The entrance was an archway carved to look like leaping dolphins. Orb light wreathed the shapes in a gentle glow that called a mer forward, into the room itself. Both sides of the chamber were carved to resemble giant clams, shells open in invitation. Cushions of the finest woven kelp lined the shells, and large faux-pearls glittered like moonlight in each one, making the carvings look all the more real. The far wall was entirely covered by a mosaic of gleaming stones. They depicted the Vast Goddess leading their ancient ancestors to the caves that would become Amelisn.

In the centre of the room was a piece of coral so large it must have been grown there, though no coral Jana had ever seen grew into such a perfectly round, smooth-topped surface. But the off-white colour and complex pattern of former polyps made it doubtful that it had also been carved. Precious stones and pearls ringed the edge of the table, while a circle of lacey fabric protected the surface from the heavy objects resting on top of it.

Six Elders waited around the table, with her father, the King, in the middle, directly opposite the entrance. The crown of tooth and bone atop his head was a reminder that he was acting as her King, and not her father, in this ceremony. It pained Jana a little that the only family there to witness it would be her sister. No mother, no aunts or uncles, no cousins. And poor Amelie would have had no one when she’d gone through it five years prior.

Come, Jana, daughter of Nian, daughter of Salana, it is time to leave the shallow pools of youth for the ocean that is adulthood, one of the Elders sang. His voice was deep and rumbled through the water.

Jana moved forward until she reached the near edge of the table. She looked across at her father and felt a frisson of fear slice through her. His dark eyes bored into her while his jaw clenched. The tightness in his shoulders suggested he was angry, but she hadn’t done anything wrong, had she?

There are many paths before you, youngling, another Elder sang, drawing Jana’s attention away from her father. No one may make this choice for you.

Her gaze darted back to her father, then to where Amelie waited off to the side. Both looked tense and angry. How could they be angry when she hadn’t announced her choice yet? The realization that it wasn’t anger, but fear, shook her. They were scared she would choose the Human Rite. And she’d certainly planned to, but already the fear in their faces was so close to anger. She doubted anything good would come of her choosing it.

So much for no one making the choice for her.

The Six Rites were given to us by the Vast Goddess. Each with a purpose.

Jana’s attention snapped back to the Elders. Something told her this wasn’t the usual song given to younglings. The confusion on Amelie and her father’s faces said it also wasn’t one reserved for royalty either.

The Sea Rite, bestowed so we may know the Vast Goddess’s love for us, will bring you wisdom and peace.

Another Elder continued, so smoothly they could have been the original singer. The Human Rite, granted so we may know our neighbours above, will grow your insight and compassion.

The Fire Rite, a third sang without any pause or hesitation, was given so we might discover our desires, will ignite hidden talents.

That was more than Jana had ever heard before, but the Elders didn’t pause to even let the information sink in.

The Blood Rite, gifted so we may remember all of Her creatures, will bind you more closely to the sea.

The deep-voiced Elder sang, The Steel Rite, imparted so we might protect all we hold dear, will sow the seeds of courage in your heart.

The Dark Rite, presented so we might truly know ourselves, will reveal all truths held within your soul, the final Elder sang.

As one, they concluded, Choose.

Jana sucked water through her pargills, desperately needing a moment to still the spinning of her mind. Each Rite called to her. She could almost feel the possibilities before her, as if each path was as tangible as the next. Wisdom, compassion, talent, courage, and knowledge. Each offered something she wanted. Each offered something she felt was important to Amelisn as a whole.

Her gaze settled on her father and the increasing tension in his face and body. Her heart sank. There was only one choice she could make.

Sea.

A collective sigh rippled through the Elders and one sang, So it has been decided. The youngling will come with us to the Vast Goddess’s Sanctuary.

Her father frowned. Can she not travel in the morn?

The Elder shook her head. The Goddess calls to her. We cannot gainsay what She wishes.

The Goddess? The Vast Goddess was calling to her? She still felt that slight tug toward the other Rites, but that wasn’t Her influence. Was it? Jana might have been a princess, but she was still an ordinary mer. Why would the Goddess herself have any interest in her? Especially when the Sea Rite was all about communing with Her. Wouldn’t that be enough?

I…but, she’s so young, her father sang, the worry clicking through both the sound and the sharp moments of his hands.

Her destiny, if she chooses it, does not wait for age, one of the other Elders sang sadly.

Jana frowned. There seemed to be something her father understood about all the strangeness, which she wasn’t grasping. None of it made sense. She wasn’t even a particularly devout mer!

Before she could voice her protests and questions, the Elders were bustling her out of the Royal Hall. She tried several times to sing, but the Elders quickly hushed her before she could get more than the first note of a song out. It wasn’t until they exited Amelisn through an old cave that they allowed her to sing.

I don’t understand what’s going on. Please, can one of you explain…anything?

The Elders kept a steady pace as they followed a winding path through wild kelp and seagrass, but the deep-voiced one at least answered, The Goddess has shown us that you are important to Her. Though we don’t know why, She has filled us with a sense of urgency.

When? How? WHY?

He shook his head. Without partaking of the Sea Rite ourselves, we have no further answers than this.

Partaking of the…? Jana had always thought a mer could only do a single Rite—it was why choosing one was such a milestone in a mer’s life. But the way the Elder spoke, it sounded as if they wouldn’t think anything of completing another Rite.

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[shijinpunnaykaljoseph]

# Blog Post 5. FROM CONDOMS TO FIRECRACKERS

Movies are primarily a visual medium, however without sound effects, even the most impressive visuals fall short. Foley (named after sound effects artist Jack Foley) reproduces everyday sound effects added in post-production for films, videos and other media to enhance audio quality. From the sound of footsteps creeping closer to the closing of a door foley sounds add depth to the film and plunge the audience into the world of the screen. There exist mainly three categories of foley sound:

1.      Feet: The sound of footsteps is the most common production sound a foley artist creates, as these are more difficult to capture accurately while shooting a scene

Foley recording studios have a wide range of different styles of shoes and floor surfaces that allow artists to reproduce steps on any surface from almost any foot.

 2.      Movement: Like the sound of two people brushing past each other, the sound of movement is a subtle sound effect that enhances a scene.

 3.      Specifics: Specifics are any noises that are not movement or footsteps, such as ringing a telephone or breaking a door.

  The secrets behind some classic cinema sound effects

 1.Lightsabers/ starwars (1977)

      Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt developed a lightsaber's distinctive sound by mixing an idle movie projector's hum with an old TV set's buzz. "I was carrying a microphone across the hall," Ben Burtt explained, "and I passed a TV set that was on the ground at the time without the sound turning up, but the microphone passed right behind the picture tube and, as it did, produced an odd hum. It picked up a transmission from the television set and created a signal into its system for reproducing audio, which was a great buzz. So I took that buzz and recorded it and combined it with the sound of the projector motor and the 50/50 combination of those two sounds became the basic lightsaber tone.” To get the additional sense of movement as the characters swished and clashed the weapons he twirled and swiped a shotgun microphone in front of a speaker playing the combined sounds.

 2. T.REX/JURASSIC PARK (1993)

Knowing that recording animal sounds correctly from 65 million years ago would be difficult, sound designer Gary Rydstrom from Jurassic Park had to be creative in making the T. The iconic roar of Rex. The frightening roar of the T-Rex is an amalgamation of at least six animal noises, including lions, tigers, alligators, elephants, dolphins, and a koala (ahem). He slowed down different animal sounds ranging from baby elephant’s squeal to an alligator’s gurgling to a tiger’s snarl which aid for the birth of T.REX’s sound. The unpleasant sound of Martin Ferrero getting eaten was actual sound of a horse munching a corncob.

 3. Liquid metal morphing/Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

‘‘It’s not even liquid ...’’ reasoned the sound designer Gary Rydstrom of the liquid metal T-1000.  ‘‘There’s no bubbles in it. It is not gurgling. Visually it does nothing but flow like mercury ...’ The ideal sound to suit the visuals was created by putting a condom over a microphone and dipping it into a bad water, flour, and dust-off furniture cleaner solution.    ‘‘It’s going to make these big goopy bubbles, '' Rydstrom says, ' ' and the moment the bubble is forming, it's like a cappuccino maker's noise.

 4. WOLVERINE’S CLAWS // X-MEN (2000)

Throughout the X-Men film series, Wolverine unleashes from his fists a trio of adamantium grips to waste anyone who dares to cross him. The metallic noise of Wolverine’s blades extracting and retracting is, reasonably enough, created by a knife being drawn from a sheath mixed with the sound of a chicken or turkey carcass being torn apart. "There were essentially two main elements I worked on for the claw sound," X-MEN‘s sound designer Craig Berkey said. "One was the sound of the metal blade as it goes in or out. The other was the actual physical sensation of flesh and retraction."

 5. GODZILLA’S ROAR // GODZILLA (1954)

The mighty roar of Godzilla has grown over the 62-year history of the monster. While the sound effects team tried unsuccessfully to use various animal noises and roars on the original Japanese film of 1954, the composer of the film, Akira Ifukube, had the idea of using musical instruments instead to create the iconic sound of the monster. The sound they ended up with was a double bass strings that were rubbed with a leather glove coated in pine tar resin. Intriguingly, the group behind the latest version of Gareth Edwards declined to reveal why they produced the newest roar.

 6. BALROG / THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

Sound designer David Farmer wanted to give the audience the feeling of “balrog”, the monster, which was trapped underground for centuries, before Frodo and the Fellowship accidently unearthed it. By recording the sounds of a cinder block dragged on a wooden floor, David Farmer created the Balrog's deep drones for The Ring Fellowship. There are donkeys and horses in the mix where it needed to sound more conventionally like voice-like (in the moments when it's blowing in rage or pain).

 7. Optimus Prime flying/Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen (2009)

It was a challenging job for Erik Aadahl, sound designer of ‘Transformers’, to add sound effects to such a sci-fi thriller movie. In the movie, Optimus’s flying sound was made from a very small source, “fireworks”. Optimus’s rocket jetpack were made from a fountain of fireworks. Erik was able to film the fireworks close up for a nice, warm, up front sound with eye and fire protection. Some cracklers gave an edgy item out of which he doppled to make some vicious flybys.

  How foley effects enhance a film

·         Foley sound makes a scene more realistic: Each moment of your day, even the moments of silence, has sound. The most powerful foley sounds are sounding so natural and real that they are not heard by the audience.

 ·         Foley sound adds immersion to a scene: Sound is a key part of the storytelling process. Sound effects create an atmosphere sense and attract viewers to the storey more closely.

 ·         More believable ambient sounds: In a field recording, background and ambient sounds are usually not loud enough to enhance the action alone, so foley artists reproduce them in the studio to be louder and more believable.

 ·         Without foley effects, it's too quiet: Movies without background sound are too quiet — audiences think the dramatic sound is gone. Foley sound fills the space, making the scenes feel more organic.

  References

1.      Balrog. (n.d.). [Image] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/652177589766375422/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

2.      Ben burtt during star wars. (2017). [Image] Available at: http://markwestwriter.blogspot.com/2017/12/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

3.      En.wikipedia.org. (2013). Foley (filmmaking). [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

4.      Godzilla. (n.d.). [Image] Available at: https://www.emilemagazine.fr/article/2019/10/15/cinema-et-apocalypse-quand-la-fin-fait-fureur [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

5.      Lightsabers/ starwars. (2019). [Image] Available at: https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=974267&lang=French [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

6.      Optimus Prime (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/108438303502630249/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

7.      Sound-ideas.com. (2000). Foley Effects | Foley Artists | Foley Sound | Sound Ideas. [Online] Available at: https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/what-is-foley.aspx [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

8.      Soundsnap Blog. (2017). 27 Secret Tricks and Ideas for Foley Sound Effects on Your Film. [Online] Available at: https://blog.soundsnap.com/2017/10/23/27-tips-tricks-creating-foley-sound-effects-for-film/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

9.      TERMINATOR. (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.alertacatastrofes.com/cientificos-acercan-posibilidad-crear-robot-metal-liquido-como-terminator/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

10.  T-REX. (2019). [Image] Available at: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49759/7-jurassic-park-dinosaurs-then-and-now Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

11.  WELDON, E. (n.d.). The bizarre ways movie sound effects are really made. [Online] Looper.com. Available at:  https://www.looper.com/138493/bizarre-ways-sound-effects-really-made/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

12.  WILLIAMS, O. (2015). The Secrets Behind 44 Classic Cinema Sound Effects. [Online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/cinema-sound-secrets-foley-artist/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

13.  Wolverine. (2015). [Image] Available at: https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/8-ways-fox-wolverine-3-classic/7/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

[magic-and-myths]

Intro to Old Pepper Place

Hello all! I did some backtracking recently and wrote an introduction to Old Pepper Place starring Chloe Pepper, the person who sells the house to my girl Maya. I hope you like it!

The sun was at its midday zenith when Chloe Pepper stepped off the train. Not that she could see it. It was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds and had resigned itself to showering the ground with weak, watery rays. Her weathered hiking boots crunched on the gravel, wet from the rain that had peppered the windows of the Emerald Express for her entire ride. It was a passive, ambient sort of rain, best described by the phrase ‘there was rain’ because ‘it was raining’ sounds much too noticeable.

As the brilliant green and gold train chugged off behind her, Chloe began trudging toward the house. The path was slightly overgrown, and Chloe had to push past overhanging honeysuckle boughs to get through. After thoroughly soaking herself on the waterlogged branches, she took the last few steps and emerged in the front yard. The yard was even more overgrown than the path, but the house seemed just as it had on the many times Chloe had visited as a child. It was the same peeling paint, same haphazard layout, and same rickety front steps. But that’s not why she came.

Turning away from the house, Chloe set off into the woods. She’d walked these paths thousands of times before, and no longer needed the glow of stardust and the blanket of night to guide her way. The earth was soft underfoot, and her hiking boots left distinct boot-shaped imprints in the forest floor that quickly filled with water. Looking at the trail of puddles she was leaving behind, Chloe sighed, and thanked the stars that she didn’t care about being followed.

By now there was no doubt that her presence had been noticed. The rustlings in the trees and ferns behind her were undoubtedly dozens of creatures, curious as to where she was going, and why she’d returned after so many years. Reaching the Heart of the Forest, Chloe slowed her pace. She stood on the edge of the clearing for a second, drinking the place in. Oh, how she’d missed it. It was a clearing at the center of the forest, where the trees around the edges grew tallest and the moss on the ground grew thickest. In the clearing, moss mixed with grass and ferns to create a soft, intricate tapestry of greenery that made an almost perfect circle. Spring’s first flowers were beginning to sprout up around the Heart, snowdrops and crocuses adding bright pops of color to the otherwise emerald carpet. At the center of the clearing lay the Heart of the Forest, a hulking granite monolith, plopped in the middle of the woods by some long gone glacier. It was covered in moss and lichen, and worn smooth by years of weathering and tiny feet. A bell was nestled snugly into a nook on the side of the Heart, almost hidden by its moss bed.

Chloe took a deep breath and stepped into the clearing. She strode calmly and confidently, trying her best to hide her anxiety. Upon reaching the Heart, she grabbed the bell and clambered up the side of the rock. It was a feat she’d seen done many times, but one she herself had done only once before. Standing on the Heart of the Forest was a real experience. The sense of history that flowed through the rock was incredible. Chloe was overwhelmed just thinking about how many creatures had stood on this exact spot over the hundreds of years the forest had been here. She closed her eyes, breathed in the breeze as it played with her hair, and rang the bell.

The sound was just as Chloe remembered it. It was deeper than the size of the bell would make you believe, and it rang with an ancient tone that reverberated through the damp trunks and quivering leaves. The forest instantly sprang to life.

The rustling noises that had followed Chloe from the house stepped into the clearing, confirming her suspicions. But more creatures also came forth, scurrying, running, lumbering, and flying in from every direction. Grumpy owls blinked sleep from their eyes, perched on the highest branches of the surrounding trees. Squirrels leapt through the trees, stopping in the boughs of a particularly old maple to Chloe’s left. On the exact opposite side of the clearing stood the chipmunks, angrily tittering amongst themselves. Fairies flitted into the clearing on glowing wings, carefully settling down in the flowers and fiddleheads of the clearing. At this point in the year they were spring fairies, dressed in pastel greens, pinks, and blues. Out of the forest trundled their seasonal brethren, the hardy flower gnomes proudly showing off their trademark conical hats, wreathed in all the flowers they could find this early in the season. More and more creatures came, piling into clearing or standing halfheartedly at the forest’s edge. Chloe spotted a few trolls amongst the trees, and two forest guardians had also bothered to make an appearance. A number of spirits materialized from the morning steam and forest shadows, floating and gliding noiselessly among the gathered creatures. For a second, she could have sworn she saw the bark coated tail of a woad dragon swishing about in the rainy gloom.

When the majority of the forest’s residents had jostled their way into the clearing, Chloe began her speech.

“Hi everyone, long time no see.”

Dead silence.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

Dead silence.

“Ok, maybe not then. I’m going to tell you anyway.” A squirrel tittered. Chloe glared at it. “I’m here because we sold the house.”

The crowd erupted into noise. The trolls grumbled, the fairies chirped, the gnomes yelled, the spirits stayed silent, and one of the forest guardians walked away.

Not entirely sure of what to do, Chloe waved her arms about wildly and yelled “Settle down, settle down. You all knew this was coming. My grandparents have been gone for over a year now. This was inevitable.”

A particularly snotty gnome piped up. “Why does anyone have to live in the house at all?”

Chloe gave him a look that could have shattered glass. “You know just as well as I do that someone always needs to be in Old Pepper Place. There’s far too many secrets lying in that house to let it fall to ruin. And besides, the forest needs a problem solver.”

“But why does it have to be a human?” This time it was a rock golem, calling in its gravelly voice from beneath a poplar tree.

Chloe bit her lip. “Humans are the best at problem solving. We may not be the best at…other things-”

“Like caring about anything but yourselves.” The remaining forest guardian had spoken up, always happy to guard the forest with the power of snark.

Chloe shot it another glare and continued with a new edge to her voice. “Look, you all know me. And you’ve known my family for centuries. We’ve always helped the forest. We’ve always helped all of you. And the new person will do the same. But you will have to treat her kindly, and maybe help her out a little if she needs it. It’s going to be a steep learning curve.”

There was mixed grumbling from the audience, but nobody seemed to have a real problem with anything Chloe had said. She began to climb off the Heart. As she jumped onto the springy ground, a troll rumbled off a question. “So who is this new person?”

Chloe grimaced, and sped up her walk off into the woods. Over her shoulder she called “I’m not entirely sure, someone I sold it to online. She seems nice enough.”

The crowd was immediately riled up again, and the cacophony of voices rose up out of the clearing. Chloe, however, was already gone. She slipped off into the woods, but instead of heading back to the house or the train tracks, she found her way to what was usually a dried up creek bed. Today though, a thin stream of water trickled through, birthed by the morning’s rain. She followed the creek bed through the forest, the damp stones clacking under her feet all the way.

After about half an hour of walking beneath the sunlit treetops and towering ferns that grew from the dusty banks, the vegetation opened up to reveal Chloe’s destination. It was a lake, grey as the sky. Birches and poplars crowded its banks, their leaves shimmering in the stiff breeze that swept over the valley’s leafy ceiling. A dozen yards to Chloe’s left stood a wooden dock, its planks sun bleached but sturdy, and its pilings coated in algae but still standing. As she stepped onto the dock the boards creaked, but held fast. Stepping gracefully as to not make too much noise, she made her way to the end of the dock.

She dipped her hand in, the freshly melted frost giving the calm water a bit of a bite. Why am I so nervous, she thought to herself. I’ve done this dozens of times. Taking a deep breath, she called out, “Hey. It’s me. Can I come in?”

A lone bubble rose to the surface, letting out a loud “glorp” sound as it burst against the still air. Chloe smiled, leaned forward, and fell in.

While the water had sufficiently chilled her hand, the sensation was intensified a hundred fold over her entire body. It felt like she was entering the home of a snow spirit, or diving into the maw of an alpine dragon. She floated suspended in the frigid water for a few seconds, briefly wondering if the bubble had been a coincidence and she wasn’t coming.

But in a rush of water and fins Chloe’s fears evaporated, and she was hurled to the surface of the lake. Her legs were straddling the thick, slippery body of a lacus, or lake serpent. Lake serpent wasn’t a very accurate name, as while the creature had the long rope-like body structure found in snakes, it had smooth skin closer to that of a dolphin than the scales of a snake. Its long, horse-like face gazed down at her with enormous watery brown eyes, and two tendrils which sprouted from the area just behind its nostrils tasted the air around Chloe. The lake serpent was a deep greenish-brown color, with hints of grey and blue sprinkled in, especially on its head and the tip of its tail. Six leathery fins grew at even increments along the lacus’ body, making it look almost as if three different whales had been fused together to create it. After wiping away the water on her face, Chloe looked up at the enormous creature and screamed.

“Ronia! It’s so good to see you, it’s been too long!”

The lacus responded by nuzzling her with its large head, almost throwing her off with the force of the gesture.

Chloe laughed, and said, “Easy girl, easy. I know, I’m happy to see you too.”

Ronia pulled her head away, and gave Chloe a playful poke with one of her slender tendrils.

“Oh so that’s how you want to play it, huh? Well take that!” With this cry, Chloe reached down and threw a handful of water at the lake serpent.

Barely fazed by this attack, Ronia slapped one of her six fins against the grey surface of the lake, sending a deluge of water flying in Chloe’s direction. She had already been incredibly wet from the rain and her dive into the lake, but this splash really added insult to injury. After she recovered from her sputtering, the lacus gestured towards its neck.

“You really think I’m going to play with you after you did that? Really?”

Ronia gave Chloe a long, sad look with her giant brown eyes.

“Okay fine, but I’m not going to be happy about it.” Chloe locked her arms around the creature’s neck. It was the only place on its body skinny enough for her to fit her arms around, aside from the tip of its tail.

As soon as her hands locked together, Ronia was off. Fast as lightning, she leapt beneath the lake’s surface, dragging Chloe with her. The lake serpent’s six fins and large paddle-shaped tail worked in unison to propel the duo through the water at an incredible speed. After doing a lap around the bottom of the lake in a matter of seconds, Ronia raced towards the surface and leapt into the air, a jump high enough for her entire body to leave the water and for Chloe to make a water-logged scream before being plunged beneath the surface once again. This went on for quite a few minutes, with Ronia whipping through the depths of the lake while Chloe clung on for dear life and was swept through patches of lakeweed and clouds of mud, only for Ronia to jump out of the water long enough for Chloe to catch a ragged breath, and then the cycle would begin again.

Eventually Ronia grew tired, and she slowed her pace, coming to a stop in front of the wooden dock. A shaken, drenched Chloe dragged herself onto the dock, and lay there gasping for breath.

“Wow, you never get used to that,” she said, laughing and coughing up water at the same time. Chloe had been riding Ronia since her arms had been long enough to reach around the creature’s neck, but the heart pounding, water inhaling ride never got old.

Ronia paddled over slowly, arching her neck to look down on Chloe. She wiped a wet tendril across the girl’s face in concern.

Chloe giggled. “I’m alright girl, don’t worry. That ride was incredible, I just need some time to recover. You really pulled out all the stops for our last run.”

At the mention of last run, Ronia’s eyes grew big, and she drew back her head.

Seeing this, Chloe sighed. “Oh. You thought I was back.”

Ronia let out a noise that sounded like a bubble popping mixed with a horse’s whinny.

Chloe bit her lip. “No, I’m not back. I just came for a really quick visit to tell everyone about the new girl. I didn’t even have time to tidy up the house. Gosh, I hope it’s not too dusty in there. Anyways, I came to say goodbye. I’ll try to come back sometimes, but it’s a really long drive and I don’t have much vacation time and I have Tess and we don’t even own the property anymore and I have to take care of grandma and grandpa and …” She sniffed. “I’m going to miss you so much. I already did, when I was away.”

Ronia whinnied again, and swung her head around so it was resting on Chloe’s stomach.

“Promise me that you’ll be good to the new girl, okay? She’s going to have a really hard job, and I don’t think anybody up there,” she gestured to the forest with the arm that wasn’t pinned down by Ronia’s massive head, “is going to help much. Promise?”

Chloe held up her hand, with pinky extended. Ronia carefully wrapped a tendril around the finger, and they shook. Chloe beamed, then sighed.

“I have a train to catch. I’m sorry.” Ronia lifted her head, and Chloe stood up. “Come here.” She hugged the lake serpent’s great big head and sniffled. “I love you so much. Stay safe. Stay smart.” She began walking back along the dock, and toward the trail. Looking backward, she saw that Ronia was still watching. “And remember to help Maya!” she called over her shoulder, before walking into the forest once again, pretending that the wetness in her cheeks was from the rain.

[broken-clover]

Illyria Aquarium AU

I think I’ve mentioned I have way way too many ideas when it comes to this series, and that also includes AU’s! I never got around to writing it, so maybe it’ll be fun to toss out some ideas instead of letting stuff collect dust in my docs.

-Not exactly a standard Mermaid AU, instead it focuses on the titular aquarium, which more-or-less functions as a sanctuary for various types of mermaids (or ‘mer’) for them to be taken care of and studied.

-Dr. Asuka R. Kreutz is the owner, director, and board head, but god help you if you actually see him come out of his office because that’s usually a sign that someone screwed up royally if he has to come intervene. He’s a shut-in in just about every sense of the word, but somehow everything still manages to get done.

-(Correction: The interns get everything done)

-Dr. Aria Valentine, Sr. is a big well-known marine biologist who’s worked with mer for decades alongside Dr Kreutz, at least until she moved on to solo work. Most recently, she did a study on two lionfish-types, Elphelt and Ramlethal, at least until part of her home facility collapsed, which forced her to find new homes for them and talk to her old friend for the first time in about ten years.

-In the process, she also kills two birds with one stone when she finds that the aquarium has a need for a temp worker.

-Enter: Aria Valentine, Jr., known as ‘Jack-O’ by anyone and everyone due to her love of candy and all things spooky. She grew up watching her mom’s studies, and has inherited a similar enthusiasm. She’s poured over books and mom’s research notes, but ultimately she’s in no way prepared for all the advanced biology stuff since she doesn’t have a doctorate, so she’s mostly responsible for giving everyone food and managing toys, general housekeeping and making sure none of the mer have killed one another.

-Axl’s the senior temp, which basically just means that he’s been there longer. But you’ll be damned if he ever actually shows up on time for his shift. The only reasons he hasn’t been fired yet is because 1, they are chronically understaffed, and 2, he is ridiculously good when it comes to some of the ‘trouble spots.’ For some reason, even the shier mer seem to take a shine to him. He and Jack-O get along positively swimmingly (lol) which is good, because sometimes when things go bad the two of them are stuck working ridiculous shifts and need to be able to get along.

-Dr. I-no (formally Dr. Ringo, but don’t call her that if you value your life) is one of the marine biologists, even though she doesn’t really seem it at first. Sure, she’s positively brilliant, but she’s also got the dirtiest mouth of anyone you’ll meet and has no filter (so obviously, she isn’t allowed to do the kindergarten tours) and is kind of an asshole. She isn’t completely heartless, though. She’s prone to being easier on Jack-O and offering her advice, and ultimately, she does care very deeply about the mer she’s in charge of keeping healthy.

-Nobody knows where Dr. Raven came from. He’s surrounded by rumors. All that can be confirmed is that he and Asuka have worked together for basically forever and he was around back when the Aquarium first opened. He’s scrawny and creepy-looking, has white hair, and talks like an old man, but he can also lift more than everyone else so there’s a rumor that he’s either unkillable or some sort of cryptid who really likes mermaids. Despite that, he’s actually really friendly, even if he seems to get into a lot of accidents and injure himself without really noticing or caring. It does help that he’s also the human doctor on-site, and knows how to patch up his own wounds.

-That’s it. That’s the entire staff. They have a lot to take care of but they can’t find many people who are both qualified and interested enough to do anything outside of temp work. So things going wrong is remarkably common, though fortunately, nobody has been killed yet

Mer Residents

-Sol is presumed to be a sunfish-type, which confuses everyone on multiple fronts. He’s a lot faster than he looks, and he’s also far more aggressive than a mola has any right to be. Most sunfish are chill and relaxed, and Sol can and will attack his tankmates unless he’s sleeping or tearing through his dinner. This does not, however, stop Axl from trying to befriend him, with Jack-O often having to pull Axl back at the last second before Sol can bite off his hand.

-Ky is basically the aquarium’s equivalent of a mascot. He’s an electric eel, but he’s incredibly well-mannered and good-looking, so he’s very often a star attraction for visitors, and appears on a lot of promos and ads for the facility (and yes, they do also have plushies of him at the gift shop. Jack-O bought one her first day and keeps it on her desk). He can easily get exasperated by the more rowdy fish, but still likes to socialize. He and Potemkin get along well, and he’s got a weird rivalry/friendship with Sol that on occasion results in the sunfish getting zapped.

-Nobody is exactly sure what Sin is or where he came from. He looks kinda like an eel and he’s got the blonde hair, so it’s presumed Ky is one of the parents. He’s a lot stronger than Ky, though, and doesn’t like to sit still, so Sol often needs to be enlisted to catch him for any number of reasons. Sin just kinda appeared one day and with an eye injury, so the staff taped on a waterproof patch. He still gets around okay, though he’s a bit dense, so on numerous instances he’s bumped into his own tank wall.

-Potemkin is a whale shark, and the biggest mer by far (though humorously, he’s considered on the small side for his species) and even though he could knock down the walls with ease, he’s a very relaxed fellow who prefers making drawings on the tank floor and playing with his super-reinforced toys than causing any kind of trouble. Since he’s so calm, he’s often used to try and encourage better behavior with their more troublesome residents, which is doubly useful since he’s hard to beat up if it doesn’t work out.

-Faust is a spiny seahorse, but like Sol, he moves far too fast for one. They also have to be very careful what tank they put him in. It isn’t that he’s asocial- in fact, he’s so over-social that it makes all the other mer uncomfortable. He seems half-convinced that he’s a biologist too, and likes attempting rudimentary ‘checkups’ on his tankmates. He even managed to get his hands on an aquarium labcoat, and he won’t give it back under any circumstances. His favorite toys are hats of all kinds. He has a collection.

-May is a bottlenose dolphin, and she has won the unofficial ‘most destructive’ award. The girl does not know her own strength, and has shattered a tank wall out of sheer excitement on more than one instance. When she isn’t causing damage, she tends to cling to Johnny since they were transferred there together, but she does also play with the other younger mer, like Sin and Bridget.

-Johnny is a grey reef shark, and also the smarmiest punk among all of them. Most of his time is spent either attempting to seduce female mer, or stealing anything remotely shiny and hoarding it. To keep his entertained and minimally destructive, it’s a common game to hide shiny coins in his enclosure or hidden inside of containers for him to find in ‘treasure hunts.’

-Baiken and Anji are a pair of koi who generally keep to themselves. Baiken was initially brought in after being found stuck in a dam, which resulted in severe damage to their eye, arm, and fin, all of which needed to be amputated. They’ve got a prosthetic arm and fin now, but it hasn’t done much for their temperament, and they’re rather sour and surly, preferring to keep away from crowds. They are a biter, and have caused fights in the past.

-Anji is basically Baiken’s opposite, which is good, since he seems to be the only one they can stand. He’s the arsty type, and likes to do little dances to flounce his fins whether or not there are people watching. He can be a bit mischievous, so it’s advised not to let your guard down around him. 

-Chipp is a rainbow trout-type that somehow became convinced that he’s a koi. He mostly tries to follow Baiken and Anji around, but Baiken inevitably gets annoyed with him and chases him off. He is also a troublemaker, but more out of stupidity and too much curiosity rather than malice. He is one of the more sociable, though, and a very friendly fellow who’s good at making friends, as long as they can put up with his seemingly-endless energy.

[jlynnhiddles-blog]

Chapter One: The Custom Client

Set in the present, this is a fairytale about a girl making her own way in the world whose work leads her to the man she’d cast as her Prince Charming. Will she try on those glass slippers or will she find out she’s met The Beast? Can two people from different realms risk everything and make it across The Bifrost? Can endings ever be happy? Join me on this adventure, send me a message or a poisoned apple and enjoy!

Jamie glanced up at her workscreen when she heard the incoming message alert from her lab manager, Charlie, requesting her in his office before the end of the day. It was a busy Thursday afternoon in the dental lab where she added color to synthetic crowns to match natural teeth. Most were from pictures, but she was also in charge of seeing patients who came to her for personalized work. Much of the company’s business was from local dentists and they specialized in high end fabrication. Jamie liked the people she worked with and felt lucky to be able to help people get their smiles back. She took a break from the case she was working on and strolled to Charlie’s office, tapping on the edge of the open door.

“Hey Jamie, have a seat,” Charlie smiled. “I need to send you out to do a custom job tomorrow afternoon.”

“Send me out?” she asked, with some surprise. She sat on the leather office chair across from him. “The patient can’t come here?”

“It’s one of Dr. Kline’s patients and apparently it’s a VIP situation. You’ll be meeting the client at their hotel instead of the doctor’s office. But someone from Dr. Kline’s staff will be there, too. They need help selecting the shade and material. It’s just one tooth but they really want to keep the patient happy.” Charlie leaned forward. “This case is really important. The office was happy to pay for your specialized services.”

"Any idea who the patient is?” she asked, intrigued.

“Important enough that they sent over a non-disclosure agreement. They only want you to deal with him. The file name is under Bobby. We have a few pictures but just of the patient’s mouth. I don’t think it’ll be a challenging case. Which makes me even more interested.“

Charlie handed her a copy of the prescription. "Here’s the file information I have so far. They’re sending a driver for you at three tomorrow.”

“A driver? Like an Uber?”

“Pretty sure it’s a private car service. You’re going to a hotel in downtown Tampa. They didn’t want to tell me which one.”

“Sounds like the setup to a slasher flick,” she laughed. “So, count me in.”

Jamie signed and dated the non disclosure. She’d done some work in the entertainment and hospitality industries and the form was standard. Who would she tell, anyway? She walked back to her desk resumed her work. After setting several cases to finish in the specialized ovens, she glanced at the clock and started cleaning up her desk. She took her tablet home to review the pictures of the mysterious Bobby.

Jamie lived alone, save for her two cats, in a second story walk-up apartment. It was a typical evening. She fed her eager cats a can of wet food, played word games with Alexa and made a quick dinner. After the dishes were done and put away, she sat heavily on her loveseat. Her little apartment displayed what she loved. It was quiet, with lots of books and movies, especially her favorite Marvel films from the past ten years. She enjoyed the bright colors, the sweeping overtones, the battle for good, evil, and redemption. She’d always been partial to bad guys. Her childhood heros were Shere-Kahn, Ursula, and Captain Hook. As an adult, Marvel villains kept her interest. Her wall art favored them, as well as other inspirational prints and pictures.

“Alexa, play some Hank Williams.”

She put her feet up on the battered coffee table and found the file on the tablet. The patient had really great teeth, but one incisor was recently and slightly broken. She typed up a quick treatment plan and preliminary shade selections. It would probably be a straightforward fix and a happy patient. She was honestly excited to get out of the lab and find out what the fuss was about.

The next day, Jamie got to work early to make up for the time she’d be gone. A few cases needed to go out that evening, so she settled in but her mind was never far from the impending afternoon excursion. Around 2:30, she had a granola bar and made sure her custom shading kit was packed. A few minutes to three, she poked her head in Charley’s office to tell him she was leaving.

“If I wake up in a bathtub full of ice, missing vital organs, you know I’m blaming you.”

Charlie chuckled and wished her luck.

Pulling out her sunglasses, Jamie walked out the front door of her office and saw the black Lincoln Navigator waiting for her. An imposing gentleman in a black suit was standing in front of it.

“Miss Birch,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

Jamie extended her hand in greeting. She didn’t intimidate easily and she wasn’t sure there was anything to be intimidated by. Yet.

"I’m Bruce,” he said, returning her handshake. “I’ll be driving you today. Are you ready to go?” He towered over her but returned her smile once he shook her hand.

“Absolutely!”

He opened the rear passenger side door and offered her a hand to hold to get in. She had her purse and kit, which was really a dark green diaper bag. Most of the lab employees wear scrubs as part of their uniform, but Fridays are casual. Jamie had decided to wear her scrubs anyway since she was going to be out on official business. The royal blue complimented her light skin. She usually didn’t wear makeup to work, but she’d taken the time today, carefully enhancing her golden brown eyes with metallic shadow and blushing the roundness of her cheeks. A coworker had softly braided her ombre-dipped blonde and brown hair down her back. Working in the smile business, appearances matter.

Bruce closed her door and walked around to the driver’s seat.

“We’re going to downtown Tampa. You can adjust the air conditioning from the center console. Is there anything you need right now?”  

“I’m good, thank you,” she replied.

She pulled out her phone, beaming as always at the green and gold displayed on her lock screen. She still had no idea who the mysterious Bobby was! As they drove, she made polite conversation with Bruce. He looked to be nearing fifty, with fair skin, broad shoulders and close cropped salt and pepper hair. At first, he was all business until he mentioned his daughters and then she saw the crinkles soften his eyes behind his sunglasses. The drive across Tampa Bay was beautiful. She stared out the window and saw a few dolphin fins crest in the waves. She’d worked and lived in other parts of the country, but she always came back home. Before she knew it, they were pulling up to the portico of the hotel. Bruce hopped out to open her door before she had a chance.

"You’ll be met in the lobby by a staff member. Don’t forget your bags.”

“Thanks for the ride, Bruce. Will you be taking me back to my office later?”

He smiled at her. “Probably.”

“Well, wish me luck!”

Jamie took a slow, deep breath and nodded to the doorman as he opened the hotel door. As her eyes adjusted to the light in the lobby, a man about her age strode towards her. She stopped dead.

“Luke.” Her mouth formed the word but she honestly wasn’t sure if it had come out.

The dark haired man smiled inquisitively through his tortoiseshell glasses at her.

“Miss Birch? I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

“I. Uh. No. Of course not. I’m Jamie Birch. I’m here to assist with some dental work on–”

The man cut her off.

“Yes, of course. If you’ll come with me.”

He firmly led her by the elbow to the banks of elevators. Discreetly, he passed a keycard over the digital display and the door opened immediately. As they closed, he turned to her.

“I’m sorry for interrupting you out there. No one can know that we’re here. You recognized me. Which, honestly is kind of weird because I’m not famous. It’s my job not to be famous. But, I think you know who you’re here to see. I’m going to need you to stop looking like you might die though, okay? This will be fine.” His classically British accent conveyed authority and kindness.

Jamie hadn’t said a word. Her brain was desperately trying to catch up. She stared at Luke. Gently, he pushed upward on her chin, closing her mouth she didn’t know was open.

“Don’t want flies to get in!”

Her mind replayed the known facts. She pictured the smile. The bright perfection of it. The urgency and secrecy of the visit. Bobby. And now, Luke Windsor, press agent to some of the biggest British stars in the world. Of course, she didn’t actually know him. But, here he was. Which could only mean one thing.

“Is it okay if I call you Jamie?” Luke asked. The elevator had stopped and he pushed a button on the display. He stood directly in front of her and smiled again. An easy, reassuring, and practiced smile.

“Jamie. I need you to take a deep breath.” He took her hand. “You’re here to do a job. You look great. We’re going to get off the elevator and get to work. I promise, this will be fine. Just relax. He’s as brilliant as you think he is.”

Jamie continued to stare at Luke. With a slightly resigned sigh, he pressed a button and the elevator doors opened directly into the suite.

“Hey! We’re back,” he called, stepping out. “I’ve got the miss from the dental lab.”

From around the corner came the very familiar voiced reply.

“Excellent. Bring her in here, will you?”

Jamie didn’t move. She was still in the elevator. Luke stepped back in and put his hand on the small of her back, gently pushing her forward. She took one, stilting step and slowly walked towards the direction from which the voice came as Luke guided her.

Together, they turned the corner and she stopped again. Luke kept his hand in firmly in place on her back as if he was propping up a puppet.

Tom Hiddleston glanced up from the book he was reading. He was casually seated on a plush chair, his impossibly long legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle. His eyes flicked up to her and then back down to the book as he analyzed the lovely woman in front of him. He was used to the look on her face, but usually it was in a cafe or an airport, not his hotel room. He slid a bookmark in place and stood, covering the distance to her in two long steps.

“Tom, this is Jamie Birch, from the dental lab. She recognized me in the lobby. Apparently, she’s quite the fan of my work.” Luke pushed gently on her lower back again and reflexively, she took Tom’s proffered hand. As she did, she felt a nudge on her knee. She looked down at the chocolate cocker spaniel, whose ears flopped back as he looked up at her.

“Bobby,” she said. She was pretty sure she said it out loud.

Tom laughed. It was like music.

“Ehehehe yes, that’s Bobby I’m afraid. Luckily for you, he’s not the one in need of a dentist. So sorry about the cloak and dagger stuff. We have established that you know my publicist and my dog. I’m Tom.” He still had her hand lightly in his.

Jamie didn’t say anything. She couldn’t even be sure she was breathing. Here she was, clearly exposing herself as some sort of crazed super fanatic, giving away that she’d poured over publicity photos of him. How else would she know Luke and Bobby? That’s what crazy stalkers do. They probably thought she wasn’t even from the dental lab. Any second, Bruce and another security guard would come in here and pick her up and carry her down in a service elevator. Tom had probably already pressed some hidden panic button when she walked in the room.

“I–” she stammered.

“Where are my manners?” Tom said, releasing her hand. “Let me get you some water. Or, tea?”

“I–” was all that came out.

“Both, then. We’ll sit down and have a chat and you can get to work.”

Work?, she thought. Work! Her case was still in her hand and her bag on her shoulder. Luke felt the tension ease in her body a bit as Tom walked to the open kitchen. He gently took her bags and placed them on an ottoman and offered her a seat, then walked out of the room, Bobby trailing after him.

“I’ll just put the kettle on. Why do American kitchens never have electric kettles?” Tom asked her.

“I–” she stammered. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Well, we won the Revolutionary War.”

Tom’s smile and laugh were instantaneous. “That, you did. Yet, here we are, all friends again. I’m glad to hear your voice and your wit, Jamie. Do you mind if I call you that?”

He sat down opposite her. His face was clean shaven and his reddish hair was slightly unruly. He wore black jeans, a dark t shirt with a thin navy sweater over it, and dark sneakers. The sunlight lit up his bright blue eyes as he looked at her. Jamie opened her mouth to speak, but didn’t seem to know any words so she closed it, her lips forming what she hoped was a smile. He continued to gaze at her, seemingly enjoying her unease. They sat in heavy silence and Jamie tried desperately to think of something, anything to say. He was her favorite person in the world and she was speechless. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his long fingertips across his lips as he watched her.

Soft, he thought. The way strands of her hair peeked out from behind her ears. The faint wrinkles on her forehead where her eyebrows had raised in surprise. The curve of her hips as she sat, properly, one ankle tucked behind the other. The hint of a Southern accent in her voice. Everything about her was comfortable, comforting, warm and soft.

The kettle whistled, breaking the spell.

“Cream and sugar?” he asked, popping up and walking back to the kitchenette across the room.

“Yes, please, if you have them,” she replied. Politeness forced her speech to return.

He brought over a small tea set on a tray and set it on a table between them. It was pink and curved, with scalloped edges. Not the kind of set a five star hotel would furnish its kitchen with. Jamie eyed it with suspicious familiarity as Tom poured her tea.

“Don’t tell me you recognize this, as well?” he asked with some surprise.

“It is the official tea set of the Untitled Avengers Film Character Revival Waiting Area,” she replied, with what she hoped was a casual shrug. The picture of Tom and castmate Sebastian Stan was one of the best from the previous weekend’s comic book convention. A fan had set up the picture with Tom and Seb sipping tea while she held up a sign noting it was a waiting area. Both of their characters had died in the most recent film and fans were eager for their resurrection. The picture had become popular and apparently, Tom had kept the tea set.

“Were you in Seattle?” Tom asked with some excitement at the edge of his voice.

“No, I couldn’t take the time off work. I just saw some pictures and video. You–I mean, it, looked great.”

“They’re fun. Getting to meet people who are passionate about my work is fantastic and humbling and usually overwhelming.”

"Then security isn’t going to shoot me with a blow dart and roll me out of here in an industrial laundry cart?” Jamie asked, the tea returning some of her nerve.

“Eheh. No. Luke has a pretty good sense about people. He keeps the trains running. He wouldn’t have let you up if he thought you were going to boil my bunny or something.” His voice was so soft and smooth. One of her favorite things was listening to him narrate books. She closed her eyes as she sipped her tea, listening to him. “I really appreciate your coming down here. It’s probably a good thing that you know who I am and already what I look like so you can help. So, you are a fan, right?”

Jamie smiled at him, her first honestly relaxed smile since she’d met him. He loved how it lit up her face.

“Uh yeah, of the whole Marvel Universe. It’s fun. I’m excited for Ant Man and The Wasp next month. And Captain Marvel next year. I’m thrilled to get more female superheroes.” She purposefully kept her voice level and didn’t mention the films he starred in.

“Did you like Infinity War?” he asked.

“No.” she replied, more softly than intended. “I saw it twice, but no, I didn’t like it.”

He’d started to ask her why, when her phone began to ring in her scrubs pocket.

“I’m so sorry, I thought it was off,” she said, pulling it out. As she fumbled with it, the locked screen faced him briefly. He reached out and took her wrist firmly, turning the screen to him. He didn’t mean to, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d seen his own green and gold armor. Loki. He released her as soon as he realized what he’d done. She didn’t meet his gaze as she put the phone to her ear.

“Just making sure you got there okay and that you still have all of your body parts!” Charlie said, cheerily.

“Yes, we’re fine here. I was just discussing long term treatment goals with the patient. I’ll shoot you a text if we have any questions.” She hung up. Fuck, she thought. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I am so fucking screwed.

Slowly, she raised her eyes back to his face. He was grinning.

“May I see that, please?” He held out his hand.

Really having no choice, she locked the screen again and gave it to him. It was a close up shot of Loki’s chest, wearing his unmistakable armor. The text read I am Loki and I am alone. She smiled sadly at Tom.

“I can just relate to some of his pain, I guess. Neither of us really fit in. And I like bad guys.” Maybe this wasn’t so terrible. It’s just Loki. He’s a wildly popular character! He has an army! Being a fan of Loki was hardly unusual and sort of explained why she knew Luke and Bobby. Maybe she’d get out of this with some dignity.

Tom nodded understandingly, reaching out to give her phone back.

“He’s a guy with a lot of pain. It’s always good to hear some sympathy for him.” His thumb slid across the screen as he passed it to her. Loki disappeared and the home screen appeared. Dressed in a white button up, dark sunglasses and a very tight blue suit, appeared Tom Hiddleston. The real Tom turned the screen back towards him. With a slow smile, he placed it back in her hands.

“Not just bad guys, then.” He made the statement as fact, his voice unmistakably pleased.

[docholligay]

The Siren and The Centaur,part One: The Reflection of the Moon on the Water

Another Patreon release!!This is the commission from Elaina/Rhio! I hope all of you enjoy it, and if you do, tell her! Maybe she'll commission the continuance of the story, though I think this is plenty readable as one standalone, too. 2.840 words.

She loved the world she lived in. She loved the way the sun and the wind made the wheat into a sea when it grew tall enough, the way it rolled and danced like an ocean made of sunshine. She loved to run the entire length of the island, to the edge where the water splashed up against the rocks and roared. She loved the crisp smell of the forest in winter, when the snow laid upon the branches and the birds were still.

She loved the stories the old folks told, about the things that lived on the island, the different peoples who lived mostly on in each other’s imaginations. The pixies that lived at the far garden fields to the south, and the bright and colorful world there, with parties you could see at night, if you looked, tiny dancing balls of colored light over the deep grass. The serpents of the high rocks, whose claws could crush a centaur without effort, who could breathe ice and fire and who sometimes soared over the island. And the mermaids, the mermaids were her favorite, dwelling in the deep unknown of the sea--she had been to the rocks, and she often went to the garden fields, but centaurs, as a rule, did not go to the sea, and it contained all the tales that thrilled and frightened the colts.

She even loved her little town, and her little job in it, working as an apprentice blacksmith, spending her nights going to the little bar where her friend Mina worked slinging ales and ciders, where her friend Mako would bring leftovers from her little bakery. All was small and all was perfect, and very rarely did Haruka ever feel that something was missing from her life. Even when she did, she could not have conjured what the answer to the riddle might have been, and would have simply taken another ale, and another honeycake, and thought no more on the matter.

But even the sun enters the sea, sometimes, they say, and Haruka did occasionally fall into melancholy as dramatically as a rock falls into the ocean, and just as difficult to reclaim.

It was on an occasion such as this that Mina found herself rapidly losing patience with her gangly golden friend.

“Haruka,” she put a chipped ceramic mug of ale on the long wooden bar, “I promise you, by the time Harvest Festival rolls around you’ll have forgotten all about...whatever it is you’re upset about.”

Haruka’s head shot up from its place on the bar. “You don’t even know??”

“Who can keep track? Hey Jesper.” She held her hand up in a brief greeting as the man entered the bar. “The usual?”

He nodded gruffly and laid a coin on the bar as Haruka continued, Mina half-interestedly pouring a mug of cider.

“Oh, it’s NOTHING, I GUESS,” she threw her arms out dramatically in front of her, “just that...I’m obviously meant to go through this world,” She stubbornly jutted out her chin, “I guess I’m meant for something else. Something more. And if I have to be alone, and I have to help this world myself...I--”

“Oh, this is about Illinka being out last night with Pallavi.” Mina rolled her eyes. “Maybe your big dramatic quest is to actually ask a girl out instead of just waiting around and being dramatic in front of her.”

“I am not dramatic!” Haruka thumped her fists against the bar, knocking over her ale onto her shirt. “God...dammit.”

“Kay.” Mina tossed a bar rag at her.

“Don’t say okay that way, Mina.” She frowned heavily, wiping at her shirt.

“Listen,” Mina continued, “I’m going up to Percheron at the end of the moon. Tons of girls there. Haflinger’s just...small. There’s someone out there for you, my moody blonde friend.”

“Met my husband at a sale up in Percheron.” Jesper added, in his helpfully grumpy way..

“See?” Mina gestured. “Percheron. Great place. Come with me, we’ll hook up. Kind of the only place I can meet guys. Social deviant and all.”

Jesper shook his head disapprovingly.

Haruka nodded. “Percheron it is, then.” She shrugged. “I guess.”

Mina leaned over the wood of the bar, leaning her elbow on it. “We’ll have a hell of a time, Ruka. Percheron parties to rival a pixie. And who knows? Happiness might be where you least expect it.”

And that, Haruka would concede for the whole of her life, was very true.

___

But there were weeks before the end of the moon, and while Haruka had resolved herself to go to Percheron with Mina, she had not quite been able to shake the simple melancholy that had settled over her.

Haruka was a contradiction in herself, people often said. She was powerful and strong, and one of the fastest centaurs in town. She was delicate in other ways, her Da and Pere had often said, the kind of girl who would uncomplainingly break her arm, and whose heart broke at an the smallest rejection. She had tried very hard, over the course of her life, to become the tough, brash, calloused thing her body and her mouth clearly wanted her to be, but her heart had trouble cooperating, and maybe it wasn’t so hard to see why Illinka hadn’t chosen to return her affections.

The swampy forest at the end of the island was the stuff of nightmares for many a colt. And Haruka, in her adult life, knew there were good reasons to frighten them off--the roots jutted unevenly out of the marshy ground, the dapple of the sun through the heavy foliage could be disorienting, and if you fell and broke your leg, no one might find you. Centaurs had lost their lives in this bog.

And Haruka had, quite without realizing it, wandered there.

Normally, at this point, she simply would have turned around, headed back to Haflinger, and maybe stopped in at Mako’s bakery for a cookie and a bit of comfort, and then maybe she would head off to Mina’s house of a chat, and her life would seem about as pleasant as it generally was, and she would hold the promise of Percheron in her heart.

But there was a small light that caught her eye, in the dark there, that might have been a will-o-the-wisp, and might have been a spot of sunlight streaming through the branches, and which the answer was didn’t really seem to matter, as Haruka’s hooves seemed to move on their own.

The shadows played against the deep green of the swampy floor, where mosses seemed to pass for grass, cushioning strangely the step of Haruka’s hoof, giving way as if she were stepping on a mattress, springing back as her hoof left it. The little points of light came like confetti, dancing across Haruka’s back and shoulders.

This was a foolish idea, Haruka knew. She’d told no one where she was going, or how lo9ng she might expect to be there. She had a habit of that, that had long annoyed her Da and Pere, who sometimes, when she was a child, had spent too many dinnertimes calling out into the tall grass, wondering where their impulsive and wayward daughter had gone.

And still she drew deeper, as if called, as if sang to in the tender lullaby of this dark land.

A beam of light appeared, in the distance, and Haruka cocked her head as she looked at it.

She could hear the fall of water, and though she knew she could not be far from the ocean, not now, it seemed somehow different. Like the waterfall at the edge of the serpent’s rocks, almost although Haruka knew that could not possibly be true. This place was too deep to have such a think, the soil too wet and soft to have the jutting rock with the silver water spilling down over them like a veil. She had been fascinated by it, as a child. Mina’s Ma once had to pull her back, when she had gone too close during a picnic.

Centaurs drown easy, she had said

___

Michiru was bored, much of the time, but much of it she considered her own fault. It was not that there were not a dozen entertainments in her kingdom, all easily had and ripe for the taking. The sea was a land of plenty, and there were always lavish banquets and dances, concerts to hear and art to be made. They cavorted with the dolphins and drowned the humans and took their treasure, and all should have been well in any siren’s world.

And she could admit all these things, that her world was lovely and bright, and filled with endless treasures, and her people were jovial and elegant, and that she had no reason to feel even the smallest bit of malaise at her station in life. From the time she was young, she had found no fascination with the brightly colored trinkets and magical songs, always looking for something else, something more, and nothing had ever found that magical place in her where excitement was kindled, true and real, like the land’s fire, that she had seen from afar, never burning under the sea.

On this day, she let out a deep and low sigh, reclining against the rock in her bedroom.

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about, your father is the emperor.” Rei picked at her metallic red fin, and looked back up at Michiru, annoyed. “It must be so hard here, in your giant room in your giant palace.” She picked up a stuffed piece of sea cucumber, rich with sea cream, and considered it.

“God ahead and take them, they were from a suitor who thinks I will somehow care for her if she brings pointless little treats.” Michiru remained reclined on her rock, teal tail sheening with navy as the light played over it. “The scarf, as well. “

Rei picked up the scarf, a silken length in purple and red, danced with golden trim. “This is a rarity, you know, and plenty of sirens--”

“Rei, you tire me.”

She still clutched the scarf in one hand, fist balled. “Oh, you’re tired! I’m the one who has to put up with your bourgeois apathy, every single day, when you have everything, everything! You could possibly--”  

Michiru turned up onto her hand and looked over at Rei. “So I shall take that as a rejection of these gifts as well? No matter, I’m sure Mohini will happi--”

“I didn’t say that,” She tied the scarf in her hair, “I mean, someone should be using it, I think, and it goes really nice with my fin.” She picked up the cucumbers. “I’ll give these to Usagi.”

Michiru laughed. “Of course.”

Rei tilted her head, and made the rare choice toward compassion at Michiru’s melancholy boredom.

She swam over to her, eyebrows knitted in thought. “Do you want to go down to the shipwreck, on the other side of the island?”

“It’s not strictly necessary to attempt to cheer me, Rei.” She twirled the shell necklace against her collarbone.

Rei threw up her hands, annoyed, finally, though not defeated, she would never say defeated, just playing hardball. “Well fine,” She snatched up the box of sea cucumbers, “I’ll just take Usagi. You can sit here and pout in your palace.”

“Yes,” Michiru laid back down on her bed, “I believe I shall.”

It was a lie, of course--the palace was too full of bothers and interruptions for her to think properly, with servants and her parents and an endless parade of very boring and useless suitors. It was, very likely, not incorrect, the things Rei said about her--that she was spoiled and decadent and had no idea of the kind of advantages she had--but also, she cared little. Her life was a string of moments, each more stunningly boring than the last. The music and art adn poetry and dance of the palace meant nothing to her.

But, at the very least, she had her lagoon, which she favored so well, and in which she found a certain amount of peace and reflection, and it was there that she planned on going, never to tell a soul that it existed at all, buried as it was through tiny caves where eels slipped in and, only to surface in the turquoise jewel of the light-flecked lagoon.

She tucked her hair into a gold band, and swam off into the sweet deep of the sea.

___

Haruka entered the clearing, the trees tightly knit around the edge of a deep and crystalline pool, the waterfall bubbling lace into the deep blue. It was an oasis in the deep of this swampy forest, and Haruka was pleased to have found it, even if there was not much here for her. It seemed to drop off right at the edge. It must be connected to the sea, somehow, although the water looked fresh. She had heard of this, little pools filtered by the sandy loam that lived at the edge of the island, but she had never seen one before.

She knelt by the edge of it, letting her fingers drag through the water. It was cool and sweet, and the light danced across it in little jumps and hops, springing to her eyes like fireworks.

It was a nice place to be alone with her own thoughts, to think forward on the trip to Percheron, on what she would wear and what she would say to the mares there, wordly and impossibly beautiful. They couldn’t want much with a country bumpkin from Haflinger, but she was determined to try. At the very least, she had promised Mina she would try.

She opened the bag slung around her and took out a thick sandwich she’d prepared that morning. She’d told herself she didn’t plan to be out long today, that she was going to stay home a bit and help with the garden out back, but the bag she packed had said differently, her thick sandwich and the small bottle of drink with its thick cork in the top, loosed with a satisfying pop.

She brushed a few crumbs off her shirt, licking a bit of mustard off her finger. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, her shirked responsibilities, which she would surely catch hell for, aside.

There was something else, though, some sense in the air of being watched. She looked around, but nothing seemed to be lurking in the deep of the trees, and there was certainly nothing that could be seen by the pool.

She shrugged. It was nothing, she was sure. Mina was always accusing her of being jumpy.

She brought her sandwich to her lips again, when something burst out of the water in front of her, breaking the surface in a smooth silver motion, not two feet from where Haruka sat at the edge of the lagoon.

She sprung to her hooves and reared, accidentally stomping her sandwich as she came back down.

“Oh!” Michiru cried out, “I had no intention of frightening you so. I apologize.”

The softness of her voice and her extended hand made Haruka feel a little silly, as her hooves still stomped impatiently on the ground. “I wasn’t scared.”

“No, of course not,” Michiru looked up at her, her teal hair making ribbons in the clear blue water, “just surprised, I imagine.”

“A mermaid.” Haruka stared at her in amazement. “I’ve never….I’ve never seen one before.”

“Mermaid.” the word fell off her tongue with raw fascination. Yes, of course, that must be what they called sirens. It was ugly and didn’t go with her, in any way that  she could conceive, and yet, she could not remove it from her mind.

It was not so unlike the horsegirl who stood before her now, looking at her with wide grey eyes. She had never seen one before, not up close, only running on the coastlines of the island she lived so near. She had been told they looked the most like sirens, out of any of the tribes of creatures in her world, but that seemed a lie, so close. Her body was broader and more muscular than a siren’s, even the great strong ones who guarded the castle. It made sense, she supposed, matching the body they shared with horses.

Did she know about horses? It was on the far side of the sea where they lived, where men rode them as beasts of burden, where they did not have the cleverness and wit of a real creature. It was very likely that she did not, horsemen did not sail, not that she had ever seen or had ever been written in a textbook.

The horsegirl was still staring at her wordlessly.

“Michiru,” she said, “My name is Michiru.”

“Haruka,” she put her hand to her chest, almost surprising herself by the introduction, “That’s what they call me.”

[blaze-art]

The Search For Kukui (Mermaid AU): Chapter 1

A bottlenose dolphin splash and swam through the big sea surrounding the Alola region. It jumped and leaped out of the water at any opportunity it could, thinking it would be faster if it did so continuously. 

The dolphin, despite it’s frantic movements, was enjoying the energy of swimming so fast and leaping so high. It was so lost in the thrill that it didn’t notice the floating fishing net that was floating aimlessly in the sea. Swimming right into it, the dolphin struggled to break free, squirming and shaking in a desperate attempt to get out, alas it’s attempts were useless. 

Fortunately for the dolphin, a medium size boat was drifting on the water near it. Noticing the dolphin’s plight, two people in black and blue uniforms quickly got into their diving suits and jumped it to rescue it. 

“Cut the net! The quicker, the better!” one of them commanded the other, doing just so. Despite now being free from it’s restraints, the dolphin was still injured and terrified. It lied motionless as the two workers brought the dolphin to the Nether Agency (a organization who’s goal it is to reduce pollution and protect animals and pokemon affected by it) facility.

Leia was reading The Little Mermaid while her mother was looking out of the window of their residential quarters, which showed the populated beach full of people enjoying the Alolan sun.

“If you want to go outside and play, that’s okay by me. You should take a break, dear. ” Leia’s mother suggested to her, Leia closed the book, stood up and looked at her mother with nervousness. 

“I would...but...I don’t really know any of those people...” Leia anxiously replied, thinking her mother wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. “It’s always that way when you move, sweetie. You’ll make friends in no time.” Her mother comforted her. “Maybe later...” she responded. 

Her mother walked towards the box with the oil-covered Wingull. “Since you’re staying indoors, why not do a little favor for me?” she proposed. Leia walked over to the box, “Sure. What do you need?” she asked. “Found this little darling this morning, these oil spills never fail to make me shed a tear.” Her mother explained directing her eyesight towards the Wingull, “I think he deserves a good bath, get a rag ready, dear” Her mother added, Leia grabbing the rag and detergent off the table as soon as her mother said so, handing them to her. 

Her mother picked up the shivering Wingull and proceeded to wipe away the oil of it’s feathers. “Make sure to apply the soap with the grain of the feathers. It’ll get the most oil off without breaking them. “Yuck...will he be okay?” Leia asked sympathetically if not a little disgusted. “I’m afraid it’s not certain, we’re going to do all we can for it to thrive once again” Her mother answered grimly. “Perhaps you can finish up” she told her.   Passing the bird into her daughters arms, she watched as Leia scrubbed the oil off gently and efficiently. “Should we set him free?” She asked, looking up at her mom. “Best not to, the soap removes the oils that allow him to fly, he will be Sharpedo food if we release him now” her mother answered warily.

“I hope there is something more we can do...” Leia muttered somberly, “I’m sure there is...not only must we clean up after the fact, we should do what we can to prevent it in the first place.” her mother consoled her. “Even this solution I created needs to have constant conditions like temperature and current in order to work...” she commented disappointingly, she handed her daughter a bottle of a different mix. “I think this will work better, if you find any oily coral, you should use some on it.” her mother suggested. 

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, Leia’s mother quickly rushing towards it to see who it was. She opened the door revealing a Nether employee with a package in his hands. “Package for Mrs. Fernstein” he addressed, “Oh thank you so much, sir”  her mother gratefully thanked while grabbing the package out of the employees hands, waving the employee goodbye as he walked away and closing the door. 

“Is that for me?” Leia asked in curiosity, “It is, It’s from your father” her mother answered in obvious delight, handing her daughter the package. “Remember to read the tag, sweetie” Her mother advised. Looking at the tag it read;

                                  To my very special ocean princess                                                    From: Dad 

Leia was excited to see what was in it, unwrapping the bow of the box diligently as possible, as to not seem disrespectful. Inside the box were four necklaces, each with a scallop shell, strung together with miniature pearls, each of them had a different colored shell, one blue, one yellow, one cyan, and one red. Right next to them there was a note. 

“I found these on my expedition and felt that you might like these, maybe give some to your best friends. Take care out there, be kind, and be good.” - Love, Dad. 

Leia’s smile was wider than it had ever been for a long time, that was one of the perks of having an explorer for a parent, you always get cool stuff. Her mother was the same way, no words needed to be said. 

“Oh dear, I’m almost late for the meeting scheduled today!” Her mother spoke in panic as she looked down at her watch. She grabbed her coat was about to leave when “Mother” Leia piped up at the last moment “Yes sweetheart?” her mother responded, only her torso could be seen peaking out of the door, “May I go play with the dolphin?” Leia asked rather nervously. Her mother smiled “Go ahead dear, just follow the instructions on the blackboard. He could use a little company now that he’s almost made a full recovery. Goodbye now, sweetie, I’ll see you at 10″ She answered and left.

Leia changed into her Mareanie inspired two-piece swimsuit, tossed the box into the recycling bin next to the desk, and grabbed her trash bag for when she goes to the beach later, as well as her black messenger bag for her personal items. 

Stepping into the pool area, she saw the dolphin swimming in slow circles, presumably because of “Capture Stress Syndrome”. Placing her bags onto the counter with the yellow frisbee, she eyed the instructions on the chalkboard for about a minute and turned back to the dolphin. 

"Uh...Hey there, I see your doing better than yesterday, sooner or later you'll be released back into the wild in no time. We're not here to keep you or anything" Leia spoke to the dolphin, a little self concious of the fact she was speaking to a animal and not a human being. The dolphin stopped, showing that her voice got to him, he eyed the bucket filled with mackerels by the door, from the looks of it, he was pretty hungry. 

Leia grabbed three mackerels, a bit digusted at the wet feeling and smell of the dead fish, but tried her best not to show it. She threw them into the pool, the dolphin dived in to grab and eat them. 

She held onto the little ladder and slowly lowered herself into the pool, she could imagine the dolphin delighted to have some company with him, which he was. The dolphin dove under, leaving only his dorsal fin visible, circling around the young girl while making a clicking sound to "memorize" her through sound waves.

Leia smiled as the dolphin swam a little further from her, she hadn't had much fun with another living being for a while, and boy was it a relief that she did now. The dolphin leaped over the little girl, her eyes agaped in amazement, the dolphin dived back in rather close to her and continued to jump some more, circluing around her. 

The dolphin swam up towards her, offering his dorsal fin to grab on to. Leia hesitantly did so, the dolphin swimming laps around the pool, although she felt like she was about to fall off, the girl was having a time of her life.

After the little joyride, she got out of the pool and eyed the frisbee, without much thought, she grabbed it and threw it towards the pool, the dolphin jumped up to grab it, Leia's smile growing a bit wider with each catch. She decided to try throwing it at the further end of the pool, steadying herself, she threw it once again, the dolphin positioned itself for the catch, when suddenly, as he jumped-

"I got it!" said a voice that wasn't her's, it was very peculiar as no one else was in the room...

Leia stood there in shock, mouth wide open, as the dolphin caught the frisbee, diving back into the ocean. For a minute, there was no sign of him resurfacing, but a bright flash of blue accompanied by a bunch of bubbles on the water surface. 

Finally the dolphin popped up from the water, only...the bottom half of it (lower waist to legs) was still a dolphin. The top half was that of a young boy, about the same age as her, his skin was dark, his dark green hair was tied in a ponytail supported by two yellow seashell clips and his eyes were a deep gray. 

The boy threw the frisbee back at her, she jumped off the sides to grab it, falling straight into the pool. When she resurfaced she was staring right back at the boy. 

"You...you talked?!...and you're a...merman?!" Leia questioned in shock and disbelief, she looked down into the water for a split second to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. "I did?" The boy asked, looking down at his hands, realizing he revealed his true form to a human. "Oh! I guess I did! Uh, I guess the hermit's out of the Krabby, so to speak. Perhaps I should introduce myself, Leia" The boy said, playing off this rather surprising situation. 

"And you know my name?!" Leia asked in complete awe, "Nothing wrong with my hearing, above water, underwater, heck, even through doors!" The boy answered nonchalantly. 

"I'm Hau" the boy introduced himself. "Hau...Is it said like "how are you doing?" Leia questioned, confused at the rather unsual name, unsual for her at least. "Pretty much" Hau confirmed. "A bit of a...unique name" Leia commented. 

"Kukui gave it to me, he said that I reminded him of the hibiscus flowers that we decorate the kingdom with during festivals." Hau explained. Leia's eyes widened at the mention of a kingdom "Amazing! Your kingdom?" Leia asked curiously, wanting to know more about it. "Right, My kingdom, it's..." Hau was about to tell her, but he stopped before he could continue, his expression turned from his usual cheerful look to one of panic, which was a rare feeling for one like him to show.

"Oh no! My kingdom! Kukui! What was I thinking?! How long have I've been here?!" Hau frantically exclaimed as he swam in very small circles, realizing he'd been distracted by the whole "getting-caught-in-a-net thing". "About 5 days..." Leia told him, remembering that today was Thursday, it was Sunday when the Nether Agency found him. 

"5 days?! What a disaster! I gotta get out of here!" Hau responded. "Calm down, hold on! What's going on? What's the problem?" Leia asked in confusion, grabbing onto Hau's shoulders to keep him in place.

Hau took a deep breath, his expression slightly going back to the usual jovialness. "When I swam into that net, I was searching for Kukui and my grandpa, Hala. They went missing, and I was worried they're in trouble or hurt, or worse. I have to find them before it's too late!" He explained. "Leia, please help me get out of here!" he pleaded. 

Leia swam closer to Hau and hugged him from the front. "Of course I'll help you, Hau!" she declared. It took almost no time to climb out of the pool and open the hatch using the lever by the pool's boarder gate. 

"There you go, Mom said you were almost fully healed anyway, so she wouldn't mind." Leia told the merboy with a comforting smile. "I guess this is goodbye. I'd like to thank your mother, but she'd think you were going cuckoo." Hau replied gratefully "Believe me, my mother can be full of suprises...are you sure you have to go?" Leia replied rather saddened at seeing her new friend go. "Kukui is my king, Leia, and Hala is my grandfather. If they need my help, I can't fail them. But I'll never forget you" Hau responded with a smile, he too was disheartened of having to leave her. 

"I won't forget you either, Hau. Good luck...and take care..." Leia bid him farewell, sadly watching him swim out to sea, changing back into his regular dolphin form. 

Little did she know that surprise encounter was only the beginning, the beginning of a quest that will change her life forever...

                   [End of Chapter 1, To be continued in Chapter 2] 

[3one3]

The Sequel - 848

10 Kisses

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

“Can you stop stuffing the melon in for a second and make a nice face?”

“I guess.”

“Say cheeeeeese.”

“Omnomnomnomcheese.”

“Child.”

“Lemme see the picture.”

“Eh?”

“Boat life suits you, Prinzessin. You look amazing. No joking. Look at your eyes!”

I actually thought he looks better than me, Christina mused about her selfie. She was sitting between André’s legs on a lounger, having a post-dive snack, and she wanted a picture because she thought her hair probably looked pretty great. It was half-dry and fully salty, which made for some amazing texture. She felt like she’d achieved by accident that which stylists and girls the world over spend hours of frustration trying to create with tools, techniques, and product combinations. Her partner stopped eating his fruit long enough to “nom” at her neck for the camera instead of just smiling, which was the expression she was asking for. The resulting shot was much sweeter than one with matching smiles would have been. His hair was fully dry and also fully salty, and fully crazy. He trimmed his beard a little that morning, as promised. He’d been in the sun enough to glow. His non-existent lips looked really sexy on her skin, and also somehow endearing. She didn’t even really look at her own image until he pointed out her eyes, which did look pretty special despite the sun. The rest of her upper body looked pretty amazing in a black halter-top bikini too, the player thought as he continued viewing the photo over her shoulder. It was definitely his favorite bathing suit top of all the many he’d seen her wear in recent days.

“You look very in love with me, yeah?” she smirked.

“Yeah, very.” André smooched her cheek and went back to his fruit salad. “Do you know that Mausi is feeding grapes to the dogs right now?”

“They can have grapes,” the rider shrugged. She looked up from her phone to check on their son, who was sitting on a towel not far from the lounger with his bucket of Animal Planet plastic sea creatures. There was an Orca, Hammerhead and Great White sharks, a dolphin, Baleen, Humpback, and Blue whales, plus pink coral and some rocks. Christina filled the clear plastic container with water for him so he could put the toys in there and make them “swim”. As long as Spencer and Lucky were eating grapes, not whales, then everything was fine.

“Should we bring them ashore with us so they can piss on dry land for a change?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure we can bring them into shops and stuff but what would we do with them when we go to the spa?”

“Send them for a walk with Mausi and Espen.”

The rider shrugged and went back to editing her picture for Instagram. Espen was sound asleep on the next chaise lounge, so there was no asking her how she felt about that idea. The whole family was heading to St. Tropez for some afternoon exploring, and then Mom and Dad had a spa appointment for differing treatments and some manicure and pedicure action ahead of dinner for two at a very old, very French estate a bit away from the water. They’d had nearly all their meals with an ocean view for days- even longer for Christina- so André wanted a different atmosphere to go with his Provencal cuisine. And it had to be cuisine. He wanted to take his girl somewhere truly special, and to make it an occasion. There was no particular reason for that desire, other than habit. When they lived in London, an “occasion” happened about every week. The restaurant he picked was once a favorite of Brigitte Bardot. He didn’t know the significance of the name when he read it on the website, but it rang some bells when he Googled it. His dining companion had definitely talked of her before, he was sure.

“Mommy!”

“What?” she asked absently while selecting the proper heart emoji for her post. Lukas shouted her name exactly half the time he said it, so there was no reason to think anything was wrong with him.

“Up.” He wanted to sit on the lounger. It was just tall enough to put him off. He probably could have managed to climb up there, but sometimes he showed a remarkable sense of self-preservation and avoided iffy endeavors. Christina wished he would embrace that impulse more often when his questionable idea involved becoming filthy. Those chances, he always took. She posted the picture and leaned over to give him a lift. He had a shark to give her. “Here, Mommy. For you.”

“Thank you, Munchkin. What is this?”

“It’s a shark,” André stage-whispered behind her.

“Shark!” his son smiled. It was unclear whether he knew the answer or needed the reminder.

“How do sharks swim?” André asked. Lukas held his hands together like a fin on top of his head. His mom congratulated him on getting it right, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Spencer hopped up onto the lounger next to him to see if he was missing anything. The little boy gave him a kiss just like the one he’d just received. Spencer licked his face in return. “I should stop eating this. We’re having lunch in town.”

“First we have to get to town. We should tell Captain Theo we’re ready to get going, no?” the bronzed woman in the bikini suggested. “They need to put these chairs away and stuff. It takes a little while to get this stupid boat moving.”

“Aren’t we close enough to the port that we can just use the motor to get there?”

“I dunno. I’ll go ask. Who wants to go steer the boat?” she asked in her Lukas-only voice, which delighted her tiny blonde. He held his hands up, wanting to be carried to the bridge. He’s so smart to know he can’t walk there on his own, she thought. He’s used to going to the fly bridge to steer. He can’t do the stairs yet. I actually meant the inside-bridge, down the hall. He could manage that. It would take 10 minutes, but, still. Anyway. “Up you get.” Lukas got a hug before he was installed on her hip for the short walk inside. Her phone rang while she was gone. It was Natasha. André decided to answer it for her.

“Hello, Chris’ phone.”

“André?”

“Speaking.”

“Heyyyy!”

“Hey,” he smiled. “How are you? Is Eden being a lazy bitch?”

“I’m great! And yes, he is. He’s got the whole family waiting on him. How are you all? How is the boat?” Natasha was genuinely excited to talk to him, and he was kind of happy to talk to her too. He missed the Hazards.

“We’re pretty well. The boat is a blessing. Don’t tell Chris, but I thank her dad every day,” the BVB man sniggered. “This is the best wedding present in the history of wedding presents. We’re having so much fun, and Lukas can do more things now and enjoy it more now that he’s a little older than the first time.”

“She sent me a blog post the other night about how she was staying on the boat during the horse show. Whoever wrote it thought it was the most fab and glam thing to ever happen to horse showing,” Natasha laughed back. “It was almost like a gossip piece, but with admiration. Naturally Chris hated it. She sent it to me with a comment like, “Ugh can I live?” There was a great picture of her sitting on a sun lounger in breeches and boots and a bikini top, and a sun hat over her face. I think it’s from an ad.”

“The promoter for the official after party in Monte Carlo set it up for their Instagram, as like the invite to the party. She didn’t really want to do it but I think Juan talked her into it. We get to go to the party for free now or something. You guys should come!” For real, Chris would love it, André thought after the light bulb went on. “What are you doing next week? Bring the kids to Monte Carlo! We have plenty of room, and the kids would love the jumping. We can get an extra chair for Eden’s foot.”

“That sounds like fun but we have plans. Chris made the same pitch. I tried to figure out how to at least stop there for a night, but we’ll be in Ibiza with Thorgan and Marie. I was actually just calling to tell her that we’ll be there long enough to make it so we can’t come to the show and short enough that I won’t still be there for the concert she wants to go to.” The Belgian woman sounded disappointed and sympathetic, and the guy on the other end of the line felt disappointed to, and sympathetic in a different kind of way. She never gets to have real fun with her friends, he thought, meaning Christina. Other girls go away with their girlfriends all the time. Now Chris doesn’t even get to see her best girlfriend. Forget taking holidays together. This is probably half the reason she’s still so close to Juan. He knew that last thought was probably deliberately naive. Living in paradise made it easy to ignore reality though. “Is she around, or is she teaching Lukas how to snorkel or something?”

“Yeah, she’s right here. Hang on.” André handed the iPhone in the Givenchy star case off to a confused looking rider when she returned from her trip to see the captain. “Nat,” he supplied.

The rider put her tiny-swim-trunk-wearing little passenger down to resume playing with his toys, and then hurried excitedly toward the front of the boat to chat with her friend. It was the first non-work call taken in days, and she was clearly delighted about it. Georgina appeared a half-minute later to collect the dishes and forks from snack time and let everyone know that they’d be getting underway soon, on motor power, as the player suspected. Lilly XO couldn’t travel anywhere fast on her engines, by design, but they didn’t have far to go. Using engine power meant nothing needed to be packed up and secured, including the loungers, or any nannies sleeping on them.

“Daddy, take this one,” Lukas ordered as soon as he got back to his plastic cylinder of floating sea creatures. He plucked the dolphin out and held it out for his father- an invitation to come play with him. The big Schü moved down to the small Schü’s towel and sat Indian-style so he could reach into the container with his dolphin and chase Lukas’ killer whale.

“How many kisses have you given Mommy today?” he asked, harkening back to a conversation that had on Monday on the way to the harbor in Cannes. André instructed his son to kiss Christina 10 times per day, because 10 was the highest he could count. Usually he couldn’t even remember past 7, so it was still a bit of a stretch. I want to see if he remembers that we talked about this. Firstly, Prinzessin needs Mausi kisses the way I need Prinzessin kisses. I’m pretty sure she lights up a little every single time he gives her an unprompted kiss. Secondly, Mama said to give him long term projects or goals just to see if he’s able to remember it day to day, or like, have it in the back of his mind. He looks like he’s thinking it over, the player laughed inside while he studied the little boy, who was squinting into the water with concentration and no longer moving his whale around.

“Four.” Lukas held up three fingers with a great sense of surety. His dad helped him unfold another finger to get the correct amount.

“So you need to give her 6 more. How many fingers is 6?”

“One?” He opened his palm all the way and appeared less certain about that quantity than the first.

“What comes after four? One, two, three, four...”

“Five!”

“So how many fingers is 6?”

“This?” Lukas added the pointer from his right hand to the 5 digits from the left, and André congratulated him and gave him a high-five.

“What do you have to do 6 more times?” I should just verify he still knows what we’re talking about here.

“Kiss Mommy. You kiss Mommy too. How many?”

“I’m trying to kiss Mommy more than 10 times. I’m trying to kiss her a number you don’t even know yet.”

“What kind?”

“A big number!”

“Mommy!” Lukas let go of his black and white whale as soon as Christina reappeared, and ran to her with his arms up so that she might pick him up.

“Whatsammatter?” she questioned, glancing from child to husband with furrowed brows.

“Kiss.” Her son stuck his face out to smooch her cheek as he arrived at the necessary height. She got two kisses in close succession, and then he stopped to hold out his fingers and check with Daddy, who counted and held up the rest of the fingers to get to 6. Christina got all of the affection she was owed.

“What is this about?” she laughed.

“None of your business,” André replied, shaking his head.

“Mkay. Are we moving?” The second furrowing of her brows was accompanied by a glance to her right, toward the water. She heard the terribly inorganic sound of the twin motors.

“No but the engines are running. We’re leaving momentarily.”

“I invited Nat to Monaco and Ibiza but she can’t come.” Her questioning expression turned into a turned-over-lip pout, and though comical, it pulled on her partner’s heartstrings. Her inability to prevent her Marc Jacobs sandals from rubbing holes between her toes no matter what tape and Band-Aid solutions she trialed didn’t garner much sympathy. Things relating to her friendships did. He felt responsible for pulling the girls apart.

“Isn’t she going to be available when the season starts and Eden still can’t play but the rest of his brothers are playing and thus not available for vacations? Maybe you two could do something then,” he suggested.

“I’ll be in Tokyo, hopefully.”

André nodded and then asked Lukas to come back and play with him. He didn’t want to discuss the Olympics unless Christina expressly invited a conversation, and even then, he would follow her lead in terms of parameters. The prospect of saying the wrong thing, or asking the wrong question, and kicking off World War III was real, and terrifying. Things didn’t feel so fragile between them anymore that he needed to worry about every word, but if anything was worthy of caution it was the Olympic games. Even just his nod inspired second-guessing. He worried she would think he forgot about the Olympics because it wasn’t important to him and he didn’t care that it was important to her, or that he assumed she wouldn’t make the team. The star rider didn’t seem bothered. She lay on the lounger and reapplied sunscreen on her face.

I’ve been a professional athlete for more years of my life than not, and I still think it’s kind of weird that that girl- that one over there trying to get sun cream out of her eye- could not only be an Olympian but also a medal winner, he thought. The Olympics are different. It’s not like winning a World Cup. There are actually people who don’t care about football. Almost everyone loves the Olympics, and watches, or follows the story lines. People get overly nationalistic about it, even. There are way more people in the world who get to be Olympians than get to play in a World Cup, and most of them are completely unknown outside of their sports. Everyone hears about the top people in the popular sports though. They become characters in a two-week soap opera. I can’t put Chris in that context. I just don’t see it. I don’t think I could know someone like that. It’s weird. It’s weird to think it’s going to be my wife. Maybe it’s because I don’t really see in her the qualities I think I see in other top people. She doesn’t have an enormous personality like them. I think they only wear athletic clothes and look so out of place and awkward in regular clothes. She’s just...a regular person. Of course she has the qualities of a successful athlete- she is tough, determined, dedicated, does everything to get better, needs to win...but there is just something...I don’t know. It’s going to be so weird to watch this unfold. And I’m so nervous for her, but I can’t say that.

“Babe, can you find a napkin or something to dip in my water? I got sunscreen in my eye and it stings.”

“Yes, Prinzessin.” I rest my case.

Several hours later, after shopping, sightseeing, massaging, leg treatments, nail polish, and a lovely dinner, Christina brought up the only other topic André didn’t want to talk about. They went for a stroll along the 500m long jetty separating the two sections of the port from the gulf. It was a beautiful walk, he thought, until she changed the subject. There was a nice breeze that picked up the little pieces of hair that had come loose from her fishtail braid. There was enough light to see that her eyes had turned a particularly tropical blue, set off by the canary yellow little two-tiered silk shift she had on. Her colorful Hermès bangles made a pleasing jangle sound when their hands, linked together casually, swayed between them. Her cork wedges were tall enough that he could smell the perfume on her neck. Not a single other human marred the view or privacy.

“I just...I want to let you know that...I did have a really great week with him, and everything did seem to come together the right way with riding and stuff, and yeah, I did wonder a little bit if it was because of him, but now I’m sure it’s not,” she explained after she asked if it was okay to talk about the Spaniard for a minute.

“Oh?” Andre’s response was flat and borderline disinterested, but she knew it was just irritation.

“Yeah,” she nodded, squeezing his hand a little. “I still feel...normal,” the rider added with extra emphasis. “I don’t revert to doom and gloom every time I have nothing specific to think about like I used to. I don’t have this constant feeling like something is off, or missing. I think, like...my conscience is relaxed...or something. It’s hard to explain.” Her eyes stayed mostly on her Tiffany blue toe nails as they walked along the concrete with calm water and boats of all shapes and sizes on one side and slightly more active-looking seas on the other. There was a storm approaching, a few hours away yet, and the water foretold it as much as the clouds moving quickly by the moon. That was the primary reason Lilly XO was docked in port instead of moored offshore. Before that conversation, she’d been thinking about how it only took 6 years to “train” André to shorten his walk alongside her, and slow it when she wore heels.

“Okay.” He was still somewhat noncommittal about her testimony, mostly because he was trying to figure out how to take it. Is she telling me this because it’s true, or because she feels guilty and wants me to think Juan and I are equals or something? Why would you bring this up now, after such a wonderful evening?

“I’m trying to tell you you make me happy, idiot,” Christina tutted. “You could at least smile.”

“Is that really what you’re trying to say though?” he asked quickly in response to her lighthearted ribbing. “A few days on the boat together and all of a sudden the Happy Place thing is in effect again? Is that even real? Everything is easy on vacation.”

“No it isn’t! We’ve had vacation together and it has not been easy. And yes, that is really what I’m trying to say, and yes it’s real. Babe,” the expat snorted through her nose, frustration building. “I’m telling you I’m happy. Can’t you...react better?”

“I’m happy you’re happy, Prinzessin.” André let go of her hand to put his arm around her shoulders instead, which felt impersonal to her. He didn’t really do shoulders. He did arm-around-the-neck-to-pull-you-close. “I just don’t understand what’s different except that you were alone in horse show paradise with Juan long enough to get over the things that have troubled you, and we’ve avoided all difficult conversations long enough to maybe get over the things that have troubled us. It doesn’t make me feel good that you needed someone else. I accept that, but it isn’t satisfying.”

“Well I can’t do anything about that, and I don’t see it that way anyway.”

“I know.” A top-of-the-head kiss did little to change how either of them felt. Christina thought she was telling her husband something that would please him, and reassure him. All André heard was that his ex-teammate fixed everything- that he had the magic healing power to repair his girl’s soul or something similar and set everything right for her so that she could be happy in the various avenues of her life.

They got back to the beginning of the quay, where the empty street joined the packed street. The one that snaked around the edge of the old basin was lined with quaint, charming little cafes with patrons spilling outside in front of the pastel building fronts. There was a kind of Old World feeling about the area that the footballer really enjoyed. He was going to suggest they pick a random establishment to check out and grab one less glass of wine, or a cocktail, but by the time he got to the end of the walk he wasn’t sure if that was what he wanted anymore. Lilly XO was back the other way. They’d already walked past her. She was tied up adjacent to the quay because it was the only place she fit. Unlike the other ports they visited, St. Tropez was hosting more sailboats than superyachts. Most of them were much smaller than Christina’s. He stopped them both to avoid a rogue and likely intoxicated scooter driver, and then lingered in indecision about which way to go- onward, toward a nightcap, or back from whence he came, to wind down onboard.

“Do you want to keep walking?” his wife asked when his standing still became weird and awkward.

“I dunno. Do you want a drink or something, or should we head back?”

“I would like a drink, but only if you’re gonna be charming and flirty, and not quiet and pensive.” Christina winked up at him and stepped out from under his arm to right the dainty chain on which her purse hung from her shoulder. Much to her disappointment, she didn’t receive a return wink, or even a smile. Her face fell. “Please, boyfriend. I want to have fun with you. I have been having fun with you. Don’t think too hard. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“You’re so funny.”

“You’re so handsome.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“That is patently untrue.”

“Give it your best shot.”

[bewareofchris]

for @dreamingcellardoor, because it’s all her fault.  oh my god.

Sass Verse, Edward’s new daughter Emily. 1st->8th grade.

Emily moved to New York just before she started first grade.  The whole family: Father, Mother (Anne) and Mama (Mary), lived in the attic suite of Uncle Desmond’s house because, as Father liked to put it:

‘Your stupid brother needs to be supervised.’

but Mother said,

‘Haytham’s going to have a baby.  Do me a favor and try not to have any babies when you’re nineteen.’

and Mama said,

‘I don’t think we’ll be here for very long; they’re just doing some paperwork.’

Emily was six in first grade, on the cusp of understanding how time worked (how quickly it went in the summer, and how slowly it went the last fifteen minutes before the bell rang).  She knew that breakfast was a haphazard affair because Mother never liked to get up on time, Mama never liked to sleep in when there was work she could be attending to.  Father was caught between the two, sleeping in and disappearing before dawn in alternating shifts.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, that she’d end up in the kitchen with Aunt Lucy and Peyton, all dressed for school with not a single parent of her own to be seen.  Uncle Desmond was tired in the morning when he worked the night before, but he made bacon because he liked bacon, and he always saved some for Emily.  

“Your Dad still sleeping?” Aunt Lucy always asked.

“Don’t know,” Emily said a month-and-a-half past ‘not very long’ had already expired.  She knew where they kept the plates, and spoons and cups and how to load the dishwasher when she was done.  “Did Uncle Desmond work last night?”

Aunt Lucy said, “no, he got kidnapped by Altair.”

“Oh,” Emily said (exactly how she’d heard this conversation go before), “does Uncle Malik know?”

Aunt Lucy always smiled at her like she was made of precious stones.  “You know,” she said, “I don’t think he does.  I’ll probably have to go help him with the babies after I drop you off at school.  You got your project?”

“Dad said he’d have to bring it because it got ‘a little out of hand’,” and she held up her arms to demonstrate but her project on the life cycle of a butterfly that had been meant to fit into a shoebox had ended up being larger than the span of her arms.  Aunt Lucy didn’t seem surprised to hear it.  

“Same thing happened to Peyton’s in first grade,” she said.

Peyton snorted at that, “you mean, Dad and Altair got a little out of hand.”  She got up from the breakfast table and dragged her bookbag off the back of the chair.  “Parents, right?” she said to Emily.

“Right,” Emily agreed.

--

First grade was almost over before Emily ever got to see the baby that dragged her away from the sparkling waters of the Caribbean.  Without so much as asking her opinion, her entire family had uprooted her from the friendly, sunny, endless Atlantic ocean and dropped her into a snowy hellhole.

Emily liked to remind her Mother, “I don’t like it here.”

And Mother, who had agreed back when they all assumed their temporary move was actually temporary, liked to agree, “I hate scarves, and coats.”  

“And tights,” Emily said.

“And, honestly,” Mother added, “not too fond of your father right now.”

“Haytham’s stupid too.” 

It was good to laugh with Mother; better to laugh (so they told her) than to cry.  But Emily still didn’t like the snow or the cold or the land.  She daydreamed of the endless water and the peek-a-boo fins of the dolphins and sharks that followed the ship.  

Haytham showed up with his girlfriend (or so everyone had resolved to call Ziio as much) while Emily was practicing addition in the kitchen.  Dad was there, because he was always there when homework had to be done, obnoxiously peering over his book to make sure she was still working on it.  While she was thankful for the reprieve of being stared at, she was left standing in the kitchen trying to summon up something to say about the scrunch-faced baby they showed her.

“He’s adorable,” she said without commitment.  

Haytham ruffled her hair up with his hand, and said, “thanks for the enthusiasm, Emily.”  He’d spent two summers in England with Jennifer and came back home thinking he’d been naturalized as a real Brit.  While she didn’t personally care about his new accent, their Father always looked like he was one-breath away from strangling Haytham.  

“It’s not like you wanted him,” Emily snapped at him.

Ziio, who really was pretty, laughed at that.  She was holding the baby (Connor or something like that) in one arm but she raised her hand to offer Emily a high-five.  And since she earned it, for making Haytham shut his mouth for once, she stared him down as she lifted her hand to slap it against Ziio’s.  

--

Emily didn’t whine, wheedle, whimper or complain about New York and the snow and how much she missed her home (on the big, beautiful ocean) but, she did present her argument on why they should move back to the yacht with a series of well thought out visuals.

Father and Mother sat in the kitchen chairs, and Mama held the papers while Emily stood in front of them and explained it all.

“The weather is warm,” was a picture of them all in beach gear, enjoying the sun.  “There are no diapers,” which was the single most important factor as far as she was concerned.  “We will have our own kitchen,” would mean she wasn’t saddled with limited, bland and otherwise tasteless food options when her parents took advantage of the hospitality of relatives and declined to cook for themselves.  “We have a ship,” seemed obvious but she needed them to remember it.  

Father was smiling but he was trying not to.  Mother was covering her mouth with her hand (trying not to laugh), saying, “I think she wants to go home, don’t you?”

“I’m getting that same idea,” Father said.

Mama winked at her.

--

Emily spent her summer far from the suffocating flatness of land, out and free on the sea where the wind blew her hair away from her face.  She got to snorkel in the ocean (again) and ride on the jet skis and bake in the sun with her Mother.  

She ran through the ship from bow to stern, without a single concern for the amount of noise she was making.  

At night, when it was quiet, and the sun was gone down beneath the ocean, she always found her Father on the top deck, with just a single light on, stretched out on an old chair, watching the stars.

When they were fresh from escaping the mainland, he always said: “does your Mother know you’re up here?”  But, five weeks out to sea, he just pulled her up onto the chair with him.

They found all the constellations together; his voice somber and still when there was nothing but water around them, telling her all the stories he’d learned.

--

Despite her petitions to the contrary, Emily found herself back on land for second grade.  She was dropped into whatever school was closest to the shoreline, like they wanted her to suffer.  She spent half the year staring out the window, day dreaming about being anywhere but there.

That must have been why she ended up getting the box of ‘conference required’ checked on her report card.  She sat in her room listening to her parents worry over what it meant.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Emily said when they were waiting outside the door of her classroom, “Haytham had these conferences all the time.”

Edward snorted.  Mother rolled her eyes, “Haytham got expelled.  That’s not a future we’d like to see repeated.”

“You don’t have any idea why we’re here,” Mama asked again.  She knew that Emily knew, probably the same way Father (looking sideways at her) knew she’d never tell.  Emily shook her head and Mama sighed, and they all stood there and waited.

In the classroom, her teacher (a skinny, young-ish type) looked at her Father with some concern, and then glanced back and forth between her two Mothers.  Emily was seven and no expert, but she was fairly sure the teacher was working out how to ask which parent was which just before Father said, “I’m Edward, this is Anne,” and he motioned at Mother, “and Mary, we’re Emily’s parents.”  

The teacher didn’t look convinced, but Father wasn’t happy either.  Mother crossed her legs at the knee in exactly the way she did when she was all set to win an argument no matter what but Mama was biting her lip to keep from sighing.

--

“Hey,” Father said to her when she was pouting over homework.

“What?” she asked without looking up.  

“Hey,” he said again.  His fingers--thick and heavy and rough--snuck across the table to poke at her hand.  She didn’t smile because then he’d think he was funny.  “Hey,” he said again.  He poked at her knuckles one more time so she looked up at him.  There he was, leaning forward on the table with his chin over his hand, watching her write numbers.  “I miss it too.”

Emily didn’t want to cry, but she didn’t like being here and nobody else did either.  “We don’t have to stay,” she said.

Father smiled, but it was terribly sad, and he said, “we do, until the school year is over.”

“Why?” Emily demanded.

“Because you finish what you start,” Father said.  

--

Summer was long-long days on the yacht.  There was a parade of relatives, everyone from Uncle Malik and Uncle Altair and their four obnoxious children (especially the boys) that filled the ship with noise from the bottom to the top, to Jennifer who always came alone.  

Jennifer was a stranger as much as a sister, but she never treated Emily like she was an inconvenience (not the way Haytham did).  She taught her how to play checkers, and that was nice.  

“Dad said you like it on the boat,” Jennifer said.

“It’s a ship,” Emily corrected.  “I like the ocean.  I like that its big.”

Jennifer always smiled at her, always the same smile, like she was regretting something.  “You know, Mary and Anne were my teachers most of the time.  Mary’s got a degree, she could probably be your teacher if you asked her.”

“Why don’t you call them Mom?” Emily asked.

“I don’t know,” Jennifer said, “when I met them, my Mother had just died.  They raised me with Dad but--I don’t know, they never asked me to call them Mom.”

--

Emily was all set to demand to be home schooled for third grade but Dad disappeared in the last two weeks of summer and left Mother and Mama standing around looking worried and discontent.  

“He says he doesn’t know when he’ll be back,” was Mama’s quiet-quiet anger.  

Mother was leaning against the bar, looking sad and unsure, “maybe we should go out there?  Look, I don’t necessarily like it either but we’re never going to separate them and if we try, we’ll lose Edward.”  

“What about Emily?” Mama demanded. 

Mother looked at her.  It was that grown-up look, the one that always happened right before she was asked to understand something that she shouldn’t have had to understand (that’s who Mother always phrased it, I know you’re a child but--).  “Your Dad needs our support, Emily.  His cousin got sick, and you know Federico’s important to him.”

Emily was peevish before third grade, prone to selfishness, but she said, “how sick?” not because she was weighing her choices on agreeing or protesting based on whether or not Uncle Federico was going to die, but because her Father had never left in the middle of the night and simply never come back before.  

Mama was rubbing her face and Mother was saying, “he’s going to be okay but it was scary.”

“Fine,” Emily said.  “For Dad.”

--

Emily spent most of third grade cataloging Flavia and Marcello’s every annoying attribute in an attempt to figure out if they were more, less or the same level of annoying as Darim, Tazim and Sef.  On the one hand, there was one more of the triplets, but on the other hand: if Emily shoved Sef backward off a slide because he spit on her, Uncle Malik and Uncle Altair generally didn’t get too angry.

She threw one cup of grape juice on Marcello and Mother and Father spent two hours laughing hysterically about how they were going to be taken out by hitmen because Uncle Ezio was so upset he’d started shouting in another language.  Mama hadn’t found it as funny when she grounded Emily to her room for two days.  

--

Uncle Federico wasn’t terrible though.  He was always quiet when she was around.  He liked to read and his backyard was sunny (and quiet because his children were civilized) so he didn’t care if she invited herself to sit outside with him while the adults and the kids destroyed the house.

“How’s life?” he asked her when she showed up.

Emily sighed, “well I’m not dead.”

That always made him smile, and nod, like he understood exactly what she meant.

--

Summer sent her back to the glorious freedom of her ship.  But it also brought Connor--a fat bellied two year old.  Connor necessitated Haytham who had not grown out of being obnoxious and unwanted.

Everywhere Emily went she found one of them: Connor in the playroom chewing on the toys, Haytham on the top deck with Father after dark--always talking low and uncertain.  

Connor was out on the sundeck with Mother, getting tanned like it wasn’t redundant, like his skin wasn’t already dark enough.  He liked it though, sprawling out on her beach chair with his big round belly pointed skyward and his dark hair spread across a beach towel.  

Connor was with Mama after supper, reading baby books.

Emily spent a month gritting her teeth until Haytham poked her in the cheek one morning, at breakfast, and said, “stop frowning, why don’t you ever smile?”

Then she slapped him as hard as she could, right across his stupid face, and it didn’t even matter that all of the adults gasped together or that Connor (who had been happy and eating fistfuls of fruit cereal) suddenly burst into tears.  It only mattered that Haytham stared at her with a pink hand print on his face and his mouth hanging open.  

“Why don’t you ever go away?” she demanded.  And since they were going to send her anyway, Emily just went ahead and took herself to her room.  She sulked there while the adults held a meeting about her behavior (she couldn’t hear them, but its what they always did).  

She expected Mother, who often came to explain to her why she couldn’t act out, but it was Haytham himself that knocked on her door.  He was an imperfect picture of their father--with dark hair and a stranger’s smile--and he shuffled in when she looked at him.  She didn’t make space for him so he sat on the very edge of her bed and picked at his own fingernails.

“Why are you so angry at me?” he asked (but he didn’t look at her).

Emily hadn’t been marinating in any particular hatred for her brother (that she knew of) but she pulled at the strings in her blanket the way he picked at his nails, and she mumbled over saying, “because you left.  You just left and you act like nobody cares.”

Haytham was quiet.  When he finally did look at her, he said, “I didn’t leave you,” like it had taken him his entire life to figure that out.  “I’m just too old to live with my parents.”

“Whatever,” Emily said.  But also, “even Jennifer visits--and she never lived here.”

Haytham laughed at that, “Jenny did live here.  We all lived here.”  He rubbed his hands against his thighs.  “Look, I’ve done a lot of stupid things,” and that was an understatement, “but, I’m trying to do better.  I’m going to try to come around more.”

Emily picked at her blanket because encouraging Haytham would be almost like forgiving him.  “That’s fine,” seemed like he’d understand.

“I’m glad you approve,” he said.  And then, “you want me to help you make a--uh--presentation to convince them to homeschool you next year?”  

Emily glared at him.

Haytham had his hands up, “I’m just offering.  I was their kid for eighteen years, I might be able to help.”

“Well you couldn’t hurt,” Emily conceded.

--

Fourth grade started with Mama smiling at her well-thought out presentation (set to music) with Father at her side, holding Connor so he didn’t ruin the props.  Mother was holding the cue cards while Haytham manned the slide show.  Emily wasn’t too keen on giving Haytham credit for anything, but Mama didn’t even bother to hold a family meeting before she said,

“Alright, Emily.  We’ll homeschool you--but, you have to work just as hard.”

--

Life was glorious again, out on the ocean with no direction and no destination.  Fourth-and-fifth grade breezed by.  Emily did her homework in her swim suit, soaking up the sun with her Mother.  

She learned about habitat and marine biology with her Father, out in the ocean with salt water in their hair.

She read books after dark, yawning herself to sleep on the top deck.

--

Sixth grade stranded her back on land, not for an emergency.  Her parents said they ‘wanted to give her the option’.  Emily tolerated it just long enough for her teachers to call her parents in for a conference.  Father and Mother and Mama showed up prepared to work on anything from behavior problems to catching up on lagging subjects, and Emily sat at their side while the teacher told them that Emily just wasn’t being challenged.

Sixth grade became seventh overnight, and Emily was surrounded by curious girls that wanted to know about how she lived: about the ship, about her money (although she didn’t know much about money), about her relatives (nothing important to tell there).  It was nice, in its own way, to be revered.

--

But, when it was over and the summer was back, she found her Father on the top deck of the ship.  “Hey,” she said (the way he’d always said it to her), “I don’t think that’s for me.”

Father smiled, and he nodded, “it wasn’t ever for me either.”

“Are we rich?” Emily asked.

That made him laugh, “yes,” didn’t seem like the whole answer. 

“Really rich?” Emily asked.

“Yes.”

“As rich as Uncle Federico?”

Father considered that a minute, “I don’t know.  Probably--it doesn’t matter, we’re richer than we’ll ever need to be.  Why?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said.  “Some girls asked me.  Is everyone rich--I mean, in the family?”

“Yes,” and Father was amused at her expense.  He was delighted by this sudden revelation.

“Why?” Emily asked.

“Well,” he said, “our Grandfather was a prick, and he cheated on our Grandmother with every girl he could.  But our Grandmother was very, very rich.”

“Was she nice?” Emily asked.

Father’s face said no, but he shrugged.  “She was nice to some people.  She gave us this ship, she gave us the money that lets us live how we want.  That’s not so bad.”

There was more to the story; a whole history full of it, but Emily just leaned back into her chair.  “I don’t want to go back next year.  Maybe in high school.  My friend Ophelia told me that, in high school, I’d get any boyfriend I want.”

Father just groaned at that.  “Just be smarter than your brother,” he said.

“I’m already smarter than Haytham,” she said.  And then, maybe, “I’m not sure I want a boyfriend.  Girls are cuter.”

“They’re generally smarter as well,” he agreed.  “But it’s always good to keep your options open.  You don’t have to decide now, or ever.”

“Well, you never did,” Emily said.  Father didn’t say anything to that, just smile and fold his arms behind his head, and they were quiet together, enjoying the peace and the freedom of the ocean.

[juniperpublishersoceanography]

First Case of Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris) Infanticide off Reunion Island: Necropsy's Findings and Post Mortem Inter-Species Interactions- Juniper Publishers

Abstract

This paper reports the first case of delphinid infanticide off Reunion Island (Indian Ocean). This event provided a rare opportunity to record almost immediate visual and acoustic behaviour in an infanticidal context. The necropsy demonstrated that calf's death was caused by traumatical injuries, most probably inflicted through purposeful violent interactions. Teeth marks found on the calf's skin would incriminate conspecifics. However, epimeletic and in particular nurturant behaviour from a mother towards her dying calf could induce superficial tooth marks as those observed here. Post mortem acoustic and behavioural observations displayed agonistic and sexual interactions from three Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin males towards the mother-calf pair spinner dolphin. The nature of the inter-species interaction strongly suggests that Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins could have caused traumatic lethal lesions on the calf to gain sexual access to a female from a smaller species.

Keywords: Infanticide; Bottlenose dolphin; Spinner dolphin; Interaction; Tooth mark; Acoustic; behavior; Indian ocean

Abbreviations: BP: Burst Pulses; IPI: Inter-Pulse Interval; LFN: Low Frequency Narrow-band calls; PRR: Pulse Repetition Rate

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Introduction

Inter-specific interactions have been recorded worldwide between different sympatric cetacean species (see [1] for a review). Although the formation of mixed-species groups may generally provide benefits for at least one of the species involved, such as foraging and/or social advantages or protection against predators [2,3], aggressive and threatening behaviours that can lead to lethal attacks have also been reported [4-7].

These negative interactions have been explained by numerous hypothetic purposes: predation or competition for prey [7-13], defensive cooperative behaviour and protection of young or ill members of the group [14-16], object-orientated play as development of predatory skills or physical training [4,6,7,17,18] redirected aggression and fighting [7,19,20], social pathology or aberrant behaviour [7,9] and sexually related behaviour, harassment, sexual frustration, parental manipulation, or sexual selection [4,7,9-11,19-23].

Lethal attack, and in particular infanticide, i.e. the (direct or indirect) taking of infant life, constitutes the most striking example of aggressive behaviour. This phenomenon is widely documented in the animal kingdom, including in mammals [13] and can be inflicted by both males and females [9,13,23]. Intra and inter-specific infanticidal events have been observed among dolphin populations [5,6,24-28], although little is known about this phenomenon. The majority of infanticides recorded in the literature involves the bottlenose dolphin(Tursiops truncatus), which, according to [29], is one of the very few marine mammals known to direct lethal, non-predatory aggression to other marine mammal species. These records have been mostly reported from post mortem examinations [5,6,26] and more rarely from direct field observations [5,25,27].

Reunion (21° 07' S and 55° 32' E) is an oceanic island from the Mascarene archipelago, located about 690km east of Madagascar and 170km south-west of Mauritius Island. Two Delphinid species are mainly observed in coastal waters: the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) and the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) [30]. Although Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use preferentially shallower waters (generally <60m depth isobath) than spinner dolphins, the spatial distribution of the two species overlaps in some areas [31]. Mixed associations of spinner and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are regularly witnessed off the west coast [30], during which male bottlenose dolphins generally display sexual behaviour and harassment towards the spinner dolphins (Globice, unpub. data.).

This paper reports on the discovery of a freshly dead newborn spinner dolphin with its mother, harassed by three Indo-Pacifique bottlenose dolphins, off Saint Gilles, Reunion. This event provided a rare opportunistic occasion to put together behavioural and acoustic data on spinner/Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin interactions involving a dead infant, with necropsy's findings bringing evidences of infanticide.

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Methodologies

Context and in situ observation

On 20th March 2016, at 1215hrs, dolphin watching operators reported the presence of a dead newborn spinner dolphin, off Saint Gilles, La Reunion. An adult individual, most probably the mother, remained close to the dead calf and a group of spinner dolphins, was observed at close distance. The mother/calf pair was closely surrounded by three Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins during the field observation. Underwater video from a GoPro HD Hero3 was undertaken and a 6'10" duration video clip showing dolphin behaviour was recorded.

Necropsy

The body of the dead newborn spinner dolphin was picked up from the water, transported by boat to the closest port (Saint Gilles), to be autopsied by a veterinarian from the National Stranding Network (VE). The carcass was classified as code 2 (freshly dead), according to Smithsonian Condition Codes [32] and complete necropsy, with systematic examination of all organ systems, was carried out according to standard protocols.

Underwater video analysis

The underwater video was analysed using the ad libitum sampling method, which involves reporting systematically and continuously all behavioural events observed [33]. Individual behaviours were described chronologically throughout the video session and sorted by categories (agonistic, socio-sexual or submissive) according to behaviour described in the literature (Supp. mat. S1). Particular attention was given to report on which animal was the actor or initiator of the behaviour and the recipient, when the behaviour was obviously directed towards one individual. An agonistic interaction involves "predictive signaling" in which communicative signals are produced by an initiator towards a recipient, in order to test their willingness and/or ability to escalate and fight [34,35]. Hence, agonistics behaviours are mostly characterized by visual and/or acoustic threat displays ([36] and Supp. mat. S1). These signals generally result in a set of either aggressive or submissive behaviours depending on the context and individual attributes of the opponent [37]. In case of aggressive response (i.e. defensive reaction), the recipient usually shows an escalation through a series of violent displays ([38] and Supp. mat. S1).

Still frames were extracted from the video and used to identify dolphins, based on the marks and scars of their dorsal fins, and were compared to the existing catalogues of the two species. When possible, photographs of the genital area were also extracted to identify the sex of the individuals, based on the presence of mammal slits and distance between anus and the uro-genital slit.

Acoustic data analysis

The acoustic recording was extracted from the video file, and converted into a .wav format. The GoPro audio sampling rate was 48kHz. Sound types were identified by visual and aural inspection and isolated from the spectrogram display, using Raven Lite 1.0 sound analysis software. Only whistles and burst pulses were considered for analysis. Whistles-Whistles are frequency-modulated narrow-band tonal signals, usually longer than 0.1 second in duration [39,40]. Only loud and clear whistles, not overlapping with other sound, easily detected aurally and visually on the spectrogram were selected for analysis. Time, frequency and intensity were measured manually using the cursor functions in Raven Lite 1.0.

Eleven acoustic variables were recorded for each selected whistle : beginning frequency (Hz), end frequency (Hz), minimum frequency (Hz), maximum frequency (Hz), frequency range (Hz), mean frequency (Hz), start intensity (dB), end intensity (dB), number of inflexion points (i.e. the change in contour slope, from positive to negative or vice versa), duration (s) and number of harmonics. These variables were chosen to allow for comparisons with previous studies, in an attempt to identify the species producing the sound.

Burst Pulses-Burst pulse vocalizations are energetic broadband discret packets of pulsed signals produced at rates exceeding human auditory threshold allowing temporal discrimination (inter-pulse interval<5ms [41,42]). They appear as multiple continuous harmonic bands on spectrograms [42].

Three acoustic variables were used to describe burst pulsed sounds: duration (in ms), Pulse Repetition Rate (PRR, in pulses per second or pps) and Inter Pulse Interval (IPI, in ms). The PRR, which approximates the frequency spacing between the harmonics [42], was determined by dividing the frequency range by the number of harmonics. The IPI was obtained as the inverse of the pulse repetition rate. The burst pulse emission frequency (in BP/min) was calculated by dividing the total number of burst pulses by the recording length. Occurrences of categorized behaviours and burst pulses events were counted throughout the time frame of the video/audio recording, and analysed in parallel in order to assess any possible link between behavioural and acoustic events.

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Results

The spinner dolphin calf was discovered at the GPS position S 21° 3'37" and E 55° 11'53", which corresponded to a sighting located 2.5km from the west coast of Reunion, in 60m deep west coast, in an area where spinner and Indo-Pacific bottlenose waters (Figure 1). The mixed species sighting was located off the dolphin habitats overlap (Figure 1).

Necropsy findings

The newborn dolphin was 83cm in length and was thus estimated to be 1-1.5 months old [43]. The age of weaning of spinner dolphins being of 1-2 years [43,44], the calf was still dependent upon its mother. The absence of teeth and the presence of milk curd found in the forestomachs corroborated its physiological status. External examination of the skin showed evidence of superficial bite wounds, not deeper than the dermis (Figure 2). A 7cm-long straight-lined wound between the uro-genital slit and the anus and a 4cm-long straight-lined wound at the outer corner of the right eye exhibited numerous and evenly spaced punctures, consistent with teeth marks. The distances between each puncture ranged from 4.5 to 5.5mm. Gross exam of the two wounds showed slight cutaneous hemorrhage indicative that the heart was still beating when the injuries occurred. These wounds were thus made prior to the calf's death.

The necropsy displayed an healthy newborn with multiple ante mortem fatal injuries, all concentrated on the right thorax, caused by a severe blunt force trauma:

bruising and haemorrhage in the subcutaneous blubber layer and underlying musculature.

linear pattern-rib fractures, without fibrocartilagenous callus, involving 4 adjacent ribs.

periostal haemorrhage and rupture of adjacent lung leading to pneumothorax (Figure 2).

The cause of death was determined to be a combination of shock and respiratory difficulty consequent to unilateral pneumothorax due to fracture of the rib cage. These traumatic injuries resulting from high-energy blunt impact are consistent with infanticidal behaviour.

Underwater video analysis

The 6'10" video recording displayed inter-specific interactions between three Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and an adult spinner dolphin along with the body of the dead calf, floating at the surface (Figure 3). The adult spinner dolphin was identified as a female, and according to its behaviour and close proximity to the calf, was assumed to be its mother. Among the Indo-Pacific dolphins, one was about 2/3 the length of the two others and lighter in color and was thus assumed to be a juvenile [45]. The juvenile was identified as a male, according to the absence of mammary slits and the distance between uro-genital and anal slits, and its dorsal fin was unmarked. The two other Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins had been previously identified as part of an ongoing photo-identification survey (Ta#73 and Ta#305), and were known to be males, based on molecular sexing (Globice, unpublish. data).

According to the occurrence of each categorized behaviour (i.e. agonistic, socio-sexual or submissive behaviour), the video footage was divided into 5 distinct phases (Phases I to V - Table 1 & Supplement material S1). Two episodes of dynamic agonistic behaviour of the 3 male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins towards the female spinner dolphin were observed, which included both a moderate phase and a climax phase (Phases I and II and Phases IV and V, respectively). Theses episodeswere separated by a period of female defensive behaviour (Phase III - Table 1 & Supplement material S1).

Phase I was characterized by moderate agonistic and weak socio-sexual behaviours. Males were indeed engaged in various visual displays, such as deliberate head and rostrum pointing towards the female, chasing, S-shaped body posturing, face- to-face positioning, open mouth threatening, defecation and bubble blowing. In addition, weak socio-sexual gestures were noticed, with physical contact attempts initiated by males on the female (ventral side-up displays, belly-to-belly contact and body rubbing attempts against the genital region of the female).

During Phase II, a threat escalation and an increase of sexual behaviours directed to the female were observed. Indeed, in addition to agonistic and socio-sexual visual displays outlined during Phase I, hiting attempts, genital inspection, "goosing" (i.e. rubbing the rostrum against the uro-genital slot) and erection were noted. Agonistic and socio-sexual behaviours appeared to be more dynamic, frequent and intrusive than those observed in Phase I. Simultaneoulsy, more frequent submissive behaviours from the female were observed during this phase compared to Phase I.

Although the female was the agonistic target of males and mostly showed submissive reactions, she also displayed agonistic behaviours to defend herself against her « aggressors » throughout Phases II and III (Table 1 & Supp. mat. S2). Indeed, during these phases she became more active and showed a provocative response to male harassment, with behaviours such as jaws opening or chasing against the males group. During Phase III, the female displayed solely agonistic behaviours leading to the temporary escape of the males group. Phase IV was characterized by moderate agonistic behaviours. Nevertheless, unlike Phase I, Phase IV displayed moderate socio- sexual gestures involving body contact such as rostrum and body rubbing against the genital region of the female, belly-to-belly contact). Phase V showed, like Phase II, strong visual agonistic displays, with rostrum and head pointing towards the female, facing, charging and pursuing, pushing the flank of the female with rostrum, jaw opening and biting attempt. By contrast with Phase II, only weak socio-sexually related behaviours directed to the mother spinner dolphin were noted, such as head rubbing of males against the female's genital region or flank rubbing. No penis display was noticed during this phase. In parallel to males agonistic behaviours escalation, more frequent and intense submissive reactions from the female were noticed during this phase.

Throughout the video, the female spinner dolphin seemed to interact with her dead neonate, turning around him, pushing him with her rostrum to the surface, carrying him to the surface on her head or rubbing her back against him. Even when she tried to escape the males' pursuit, she came back rapidly towards her motionless calf. Moreover, Indo-Pacific dolphins seemed to coercively keep the mother separated from her calf, launching themselves between the mother and her calf and forcing them apart. Additionally, when the female tried to escape or returned to her offspring, the males prevented it, trapping her or encircling her obstructively. Males only interacted with the motionless body calf during Phase II. Behaviours such as ventral side rubbing or helding the calf’s body underwater with the rostrum, displayed by Ta#73 and the juvenile, were observed. pointing their rostrum towards the female and (f): males pushing the dead newborn underwater. Photo credit: Réunion Plongée

Acoustic analysis

Whistles-A total of 26 whistles were aurally and visually detectable on the spectrogram including 23 whistles of high enough quality for analysis. Three types of contourwere identified (Table 2). Type I and III whistles both had sine shape; however, the type III whistle had shorter duration and displayed smaller frequency range and maximum frequency than type I. Burst Pulses-On the 66 burst pulses present on the recording, 51 were of high enough quality to be analysed. The mean duration of the burst pulses was 86.5±23.8ms (n=51) and the mean pulse repetition rate was 693±68pps (n=49). The burst pulses emission frequency differed according to the behavioural phases identified in the video footage (Table 1 and Figure 4, Supplement material S1): from 0 (no burst pulse) during Phase I (moderate agonistic and weak socio-sexual behaviours phase) to 28.2BP/min. during Phase V (strong agonistic and weak socio- sexual behaviours phase). The phases characterized by strong agonistic behaviours displayed highest burst pulse rate (Phase II and Phase V, with 14.0 and 28.2BP/min., respectively - see Table 2s and Figure 4). More specifically, a great proportion of burst pulse peak events coincided with males pointing their rostrum towards the female.

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Discussion

Necropsy�s findings: evidence of infanticide

The lesions described here revealed remarkable similarities with reported evidences of infanticide: presence of external bite-wound injuries, lung lacerations, adjacent rib fractures, periostal hemorrhage and bruising [6,7,66]. However, traumatic lesions found on the newborn spinner dolphin body seem to be less extensive and severe than described in the literature. Indeed, extensive bilateral ante mortem damages were reported from bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves stranded along south eastern Virginia coasts, USA [6], within the Moray Firth and adjacent coasts, Scotland [7] and on common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) calf stranded near Porthleven, Cornwall [25]. The injuries described were concentrated on the head and upper chest with multiple bone fractures or luxations (rib, vertebrae, scapula, mandibular, maxillary, skull, tympanic bulla...) and discrete soft tissue contusion or laceration (lung, liver, diaphragm.). [5] suggested that the lesional pattern found on carcasses (i.e. bilateral, multiple fractures and discrete soft tissues injuries) may be imputable to repeated trauma inflicted from multiple directions. In Reunion, lethal injuries were mainly concentrated on the right part of the thorax and it is likely that less violent attacks and/or lower number of hits were sufficient to contribute to the death of the newborn spinner dolphin, as the calf belonged to a smaller species and appeared to be younger and thus more vulnerable. Furthermore, previous studies reported lesions most likely caused by the robust bottlenose dolphin [6,7,25]. The lesser extent damages found on the carcass here could be imputable to a smaller and less robust delphinid species, such as the spinner dolphin or the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin.

Dental print of bite wounds

The bite wounds found on the newborn skin showed punctures spaced by a 4.5 to 5.5mm interval. This spacing is consistent with inter-tooth interval of Stenella sp. [8,27,67], suggesting that the bites were inflicted by spinner dolphin conspecifics. Tursiops sp. shows greater inter-tooth interval, of around 9.5mm on average for T. aduncus (according to skull measurements and number of teeth data from [68]) and between 10.9 and 12.3mm forT. truncatus [8].

The presence of bite wounds caused by spinner dolphins bears witness to intra-specific interactions of spinner dolphins towards the newborn calf, but does not mean that this interaction is responsible for the death, especially as wounds were superficial. In general, the presence of rake marks on cetaceans is interpreted as the result of aggressive interaction [69,70]. However, some researchers have concluded that epimeletic behaviour can lead to rake marks [71-74]. Epimeletic or care- giving behaviour is defined as the help given from an individual to another. In particular, when attention is directed by a healthy adult, generally the mother, towards her sick, injured or dead calf, it corresponds to "nurturant" behaviour [16,75]. The behaviour displayed by the female spinner dolphin towards her dead neonate, i.e. carrying him on her head and pushing him to the surface with the rostrum, resembled that described in other papers [71-80]. Moreover, the superficial nature of the wounds suggests that they would result from manipulation of the body rather than from a bite, which would undoubtedly lead to more damages. It seems thus likely that the mother displayed an epimeletic behaviour towards her dying offspring and that she was responsible for tooth marks on his body. Because wounds found on calf's body were made ante mortem, the female might have inflicted them to the calf before death, in an attempt to help him or keep him away from the aggressors.

Inter-specific interactions: agonistic and socio/sexual behaviour of indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins

The video footage displayed agonistic, socio-sexual interactions from the three Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin males towards the mother spinner dolphin, around the floating calf's corpse. Aggressive behaviour, such as bite or ramming, likely to cause harm, was not observed during the 6 min recording and the moderate violence level of this recorded interaction is consistent with an agonistic display between the two species.

Nonetheless, the available video footage represented only part of the inter-specific interaction and it cannot be excluded that more aggressive behaviours occurred. Dolphin-watching operators reported that the 3 male bottlenose dolphins were observed among the group of spinner earlier in the morning, harassing a mother with calf, suggesting that the inter-specific interaction lasted for several hours.

Inter-specific negative interactions involving Tursiops genus have been widely observed [7-9,22,23,66,81-85]. In Reunion, mixed association between spinner and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are regularly witnessed (about 10% of spinner dolphins' sightings) [30]. In particular, most of these sightings involves male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (generally including Ta#305) engaged in sexual harassment of female spinner dolphins (Globice, unpub. data). Throughout the video recording, and especially during Phase II (escalation phase: strong agonistic and socio-sexual behaviours phase), the three bottlenose dolphins showed sexually related displays including gentle physical contacts (rubbing, ...), genital inspection, ventral side-up swimming and erection. This behaviour was consistent with the social structure of T. aduncus, in which males form alliances to herd females for sexual or reproduction purposes [58,86-89]. This cooperative behaviour allows males to enforce and maintain consortships with females [87] and mate through sexual coercion [86,88].

Acoustic behaviour

The presence of burst pulses in the recording session corroborates the agonistic and/or socio-sexual nature of the interaction observed. Several studies documented broadband burst pulsed sounds to be associated with social context such as aggressive/agonistic interactions among captive dolphins [38,48,49,90]. Similarly, in free-ranging dolphins, burst pulsed vocalizations have been attributed to aggressive behaviour and courtship [21,38,54,91-95]. The mean burst pulse emission frequency was 10.7 burst pulses/min, which is comparable to what we can find in the literature (8.0 burst pulses/min - [95]). Pulse repetition rate (PRR) and inter-pulse interval (IPI) did not allowed to discrimate between the two species, as values were consistent with both spinner dolphins [93,96] and bottlenose dolphins [97]. However, intensive burst pulsed sounds and increased burst pulse emission frequency were observed simultaneously with high intensity agonistic behaviour during Phases II and V, suggesting that emission frequency increased according to the excitation level [48]. More specifically, the emission of pulsed sounds coincided with males pointing their rostrum towards the female. This posture may be deliberately adopted by aggressors to ensure that maximum energy sound reaches the targeted individual [48,50]. Therefore, it is believed that burst pulse sounds were produced by male bottlenose dolphins towards the female spinner dolphin.

Similarly, comparison of acoustic parameters of each whistle contour with those found in the literature for Indo-Pacific bottlenose [50,97-101] and spinner dolphins [50,93-105] did not allow to determine which species was producing the sounds. However, the most frequent whistle recorded was type I (sine shape), which showed a distinct and repetitive contour and was produced in bouts of 1-2 whistles. The predominance, stereotypic nature and complex sine shape of this whistle type is consistent with a signature whistle [106,107]. Signature whistles are believed to convey the identity of both the caller and the group it belongs to [108-112] and are produced predominantly in circumstances of social separation, isolation or stressful situation [107,109,113-115]. As the mother spinner dolphin was kept coercively from her dead calf by the three males and probably apart from the spinner dolphins group observed nearby, it is likely that the signature whistle recorded belong to the female spinner dolphin in distress.

Possible causes of Infanticidal behaviour and species involved

Necropsy made on the freshly dead calf attributed the cause of death to blunt-force trauma, providing strong evidence for infanticide. Although the lethal interaction was not directly observed, post mortem acoustic and behavioural observations tend to be in favor of an inter-species infanticide of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin on spinner dolphin. Most infanticide events reported worldwide involve bottlenose dolphins (T truncatus) either on conspecifics [6,7,95] or towards another species [25.29] , so this behaviour appear to be part of the natural habits of Tursiops sp., although never reported fromT aduncus. To our knowledge, infanticides among spinner dolphins and more generally the genus Stenella have not been reported previously The nature of the inter-species interaction between bottlenose and spinner dolphin observed right after, and probably before the calf death (as reported by operators, but not captured in video) made the interpretation of inter-specific infanticide most likely. Furthermore, the necropsy indicated that the newborn was physically healthy (no pathology, malformation or other sign of weakness reported), which tend to rule out the hypothesis that the calf was killed by conspecific because of its low probability of survival.

Given the agonistic and socio/sexual behaviour of the 3 male Indo-Pacifique bottlenose dolphins towards the mother spinner dolphin, several hypothesis could be put forward, among those that have been previously proposed to explain infanticides [5.24.25.29] Males may commit infanticide to gain sexual access to the female, both for recreational and procreative sex [6,7,24,116], especially when access to females is limited.

Infanticide may represent a male reproductive strategy whereby males kill the offspring of competing males in order to increase their own reproductive success [24,117-119]. Furthermore, when a female loses her dependent offspring prematurely, she soon becomes sexually receptive to males within a few days [24,120]. Infanticide could thus appear as a strategy to enhance reproductive success of males by inducing estrous in females that would otherwise be reproductively unavailable [121], hence allowing males to increase their breeding opportunities and ensure the transmission of their own genetic pool. Inter-specific mating has been described among cetaceans and often involvesTursiopsgenus in the wild [5,22,23,61,122,123]. To our knowledge, bottlenose X spinner dolphin hybrid has not yet been described neither in captive nor within free-ranging dolphins, althoughTursiops genus exhibits great mating behavioural plasticity relative to other species (reviewed in [124]) and has succeeded in breeding with genetically more distant species such as the Risso's dolphin, the short-finned pilot whale and the false killer whale [125-129].

Alternatively, infanticide and socio/sexual behaviour on a smaller species may have resulted from sexual frustration of male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. In Reunion, although the sex ratio is unknown, the small size of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin population Dulau et al. [30] in prep.) might lead to a relatively low availability of receptive females and males might turn to other sympatric species, such as spinner dolphins, to exercice sexual behaviour. Sexual frustration and aggressive behaviour might also be triggered by increase levels of testosterone during the breeding season [121,130,131]. Although no clear peak of reproductive activity have been identified in Reunion, the infanticide occurred in austral summer (March), thus during the breeding season reported for the species [132].

Furthermore, the presence of a juvenile among the male bottlenose dolphin could suggest that adult males were providing sexual behaviour learning to the young, thereby providing him visual displays for mimetism and mating practice, while reinforcing collaboration within male alliance [23,133,134]. In fact, an isolated female belonging to a smaller species would represent a good opportunity for young males to develop their own sexual experience and practice herding of females.

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Conclusion

This is the first report of infanticide from Reunion Island and to date, it is not possible to determinate if this represents a single isolated event or if it occurs on more regular basis, yet being unobserved. In future projects, further attention should be given to aggressive interactions involving Indo- Pacific bottlenose dolphins, particularly if a calf is engaged, in order to investigate whether infanticide behaviour could have conservation implications. Indeed, infanticide events may result from stochastic variation in population sex ratio or disruption of social bonds due to anthropic disturbance and habitat alterations and even climate change [20,122,135]. In turn, this behaviour could have serious impacts on population demography and viability [135], especially on small resident cetacean population [7].

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Heat at First Sight by Barbara Keaton (Love Like It’s Hot Boxset)

Prince Ahbeh Mensah Ahmed Kwasi is going to be king of Libertad Island whether he likes it or not. To add to it, he must marry on his county’s Independence Day. An infamous playboy, the soon to be king realizes that he has no real prospects and doesn’t want the ones his mother has selected for him. He changes his mind once he sees the stunningly beautiful Trinity Nehemiah, someone he knows is his match in every way. The thing is, how to get her to marry him within 30 days.

Dr. Trinity Nehemiah is searching for a bacterium that is impacting the beautiful aquatic life of Libertad Island. Finding its source and coming up with a cure is her only charge, not the island’s handsome playboy who is set on getting under her skin and in her bed. Little does Trinity know, the soon to be king is more than interested in her bedroom skills.

        Excerpt: Heat at First Sight by Barbara Keaton

CHAPTER 1

Thirty days. Mensah ended his prayer with the last words he’d heard from his father. He had thirty days to marry. Never mind that he didn’t have one female in mind, while he knew his mother had at least two. Mensah blanched at the thought – he wasn’t into marriage, couldn’t see what his brothers did – one woman, love, and eventually children running afoot. He then thought of his oldest brother, Helem, the next in succession, or that was until he’d dropped the bombshell a week ago – he and his wife were planning on moving from Libertad Isle to London. Helem didn’t want to be king. Their father had announced a year ago that he would retire the next Independence Day and Helem would rightfully take his place. That was how it had always been, since Libertad and its surrounding islands had been founded nearly three centuries ago. Then a month ago, Helem broke the news to his parents and officially abdicated leaving him to be the next in line – next be sworn in as king of Libertad Isle, but in order for him to assume the crown, he had to have a wife.

Mensah wasn’t like his two brothers – Helem had settled down at the tender age of 21, marrying the only woman he’d ever dated – a woman from the island who had been born and raised to marry royalty. That was nearly fourteen years ago. Then there was his baby brother, Olabisi, who was about to marry his childhood sweetheart. While she hadn’t been raised for royalty, she was beloved by their parents, who were already talking about the children they would have.

“What do I do?” he looked up into the sky. He was a playboy, loved women, the very shape, color, smell and sway of their hips. He wasn’t ready to settle down and he knew that there was no one who would ever capture his heart – he’d seen too many women vie for his attention, not because they liked him, or were willing to get to know him, but because they knew that 29-year-old Prince Ahbeh Mensah Ahmed Kwasi was not only rich, but in line for a throne and a country he never thought he’d reign over.

As he turned from the balcony, he stopped. Movement captured his attention. He trained his obsidian-colored eyes across the varying hues and types of plush tropical foliage and flowers that rested several feet from the crystal blue terrain of the Caribbean Sea. Mensah spotted a lone figure as it swam toward the shore. He watched intently as the figure reached the shore line, then rose slowly from the pristine water. He blinked, turned his head slightly to the right then narrowed his dark eyes, his full lips pursed. The figure had on a black wet suit that allowed him to make out the outline of hips and ample bosom. Reaching for his cell phone, he paused. His thick eye brows rose as the female pulled the wet suit down to reveal a white one-piece that stood in amazingly stark contrast to her mahogany skin. Absently, Mensah licked his lips. He loved mahogany.

He depressed a single digit then finally placed the cell to his ear. “Imam? Who is swimming on the east side of the island?”

Mensah absently nodded, his dark eyes fixed on the well-built female, as he listened to the head of security describe the stranger who had just slid out of the azure blue ocean and began crossing the isolated beach of white sand. “I see. Thank you, Imam. No. No, there are no problems. I will see father later. Shalom.”

The loud clang of the phone hitting the top of the railing before coming to rest on the marble flooring of the terrace momentarily stole his attention from the vexing view. He returned to his fixation, watching intently as she pulled the band from her hair, loosening twisted tresses to rest on her shoulders as she walked further from the ocean. Mensah even smiled when he noticed a large dog rush to her side. He watched as she knelt down, taking something from the animal’s mouth, looked it over, shook her head and then pitched the item over her shoulder. She rose, signaled with her hands toward the dog and then headed into the lush green foliage.

He had things to do. Heads of state to meet with concerning some additional business expansion for the island, lunch with a potential client, a tour of a newly opened resort and a dinner date with a woman he had met in the states who was coming to visit.

“Mensah?” from behind he heard his name called and recognized the voice as that belonging to his older brother, Helem. No matter the recent news, he smiled at hearing his brother’s voice.

Older by five years, Helem was always considered the most level headed of the three of them as evidenced by the types of business ventures he secured that would bring greater wealth to the already rich island. Mensah’s youngest brother, Olabisi, had been a child prodigy, playing over ten various instruments by the time he was five. Olabisi was a genius and a scientist, and was truly their mother’s favorite – only because mother had never had to scold him like she had Helem and Mensah. Especially Mensah.

Mensah smiled at that thought – he and his brothers were adventurous in just about everything – from sports to business; but one thing they didn’t share with Mensah was his adventurous spirit when it came to chasing women. Hands down, Mensah was a master.

“I’m on the terrace, brother,” Mensah responded, reluctantly turning his head from the mahogany beauty as she disappeared into the brush.

“Shalom,” Helem greeted his brother, wrapping him in his arms, kissing him on both cheeks. Mensah returned the loving gesture. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

“No. Have you?”

Helem shook his head. “Let’s go across the island and grab something. There’s much we have to discuss to get you ready and then I want to show you something on one of the other islands.”

Mensah absently grabbed his sun glasses and picked his cell phone up from the terrace floor. His curiosity, momentarily interrupted, had returned with a vengeance. He immediately wanted to know who the mahogany beauty was and he wasn’t willing to wait to ask his father.

“Go ahead. I’ll catch up with you in an hour.”

Mensah watched his brother as he narrowed his eyes.

“Ummm, uh. Okay. But do not stand me up, Mensah.”

“I won’t. I just got something to look at … I’m mean, look into.”

The sound of Helem’s laughter trailed behind him as he headed out of his brother’s living suite.

“Come on, Cousteau,” Trinity called out to her dog, a Cane Corso Mastiff, which she had gotten from her father as a puppy. “You can’t eat everything on this island. What are you trying to do, get us deported?” She tugged at her dog’s large jowls and smiled when Cousteau responded with a loud whine. “Oh, no, there will be no begging today.” She motioned with her hands, using sign language, to indicate she meant “no.”

Trinity shook her head, picked up Cousteau’s leash and the remaining samples she had retrieved from the sea. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what was killing off the jelly fish in large quantities and decided to ship several carcasses to a colleague in San Diego. As a result of the jelly fish dying, larger marine habitat was being affected as well. Just today, she had encountered what she thought was a rather lethargic bottlenose dolphin. To Trinity, the behavior of the mammal was more than odd – this species exhibited a natural curiosity of their surroundings. She had come across this female dolphin several times during her exploration, recognizing it from others she’d encountered by the deep marks on her dorsal fin. She had named the dolphin Dolly and found her to be quite curious, swimming and diving alongside and jumping up and out of the water over Trinity. On this day the playfulness and curiosity were missing – instead Dolly just swam alongside her.

She slipped her wet suit from her body down to the white one-piece bathing suit she wore underneath. Pulling her hair from its band, she paused. Cousteau stood by her side. She looked up just as the lone figure left the expansive terrace which overlooked the ocean. She had never seen anyone standing there, even though she had seen lights on when she would come out at night.

She loved the island and had jumped at the chance to work there when her friend from college, Olabisi, called her and asked her to come to investigate the odd findings among the island’s aquatic life.

Dr. Trinity Marie Nehemiah had arrived on the large island, established in 1785 by escaped slaves with the help of a rogue Moor pirate by the name of Enrique El LeSans who deposited some 200 captives on the island along with a share of booty – food, tools, jewels and gold – that had been seized from a slave frigate, the Brigantine Dembia, heading to America. Trinity loved listening to Olabisi proudly reveal the rich history of the island named Libertad Isle – Libertad meaning Liberty in Spanish. Olabisi went on to mention that the island closest to Libertad was named after the pirate, with inhabitants adding the word “saint” in front – thus the nearby island was known as St. LeSans.

Olabisi was third in succession for the crown. His father, who had hired Trinity, was the king of the grouping of five islands, with Libertad its largest with nearly 50,000 inhabitants. Economically sound, the island boasted a healthy, robust tourist trade, rare mineral deposits found in the multitude of caves that dotted the islands and the vast deposits of crude oil beneath the sea floor. Olabisi’s father, King Busarah, had assumed the throne when his mother, the queen, died at the ripe age of 100 some twenty years prior.

Trinity first met King Busarah when he had personally flown to San Diego to meet with Trinity and her father, Nigel. The king had assured Trinity’s father that she, Nigel’s only daughter and the baby of his clan of four boys, would be safe on Libertad Isle. He’d personally see to it.

She had frowned on the meeting – at 28 she had seen more of the world than most women, and men for that matter, her age had, but that still didn’t preclude her older brothers and father from being a little too over protective. So, when King Busarah met her father, he not only gave his word to protect her, but saw to it that Trinity would have whatever she needed, including a private villa, security, servants and transportation – a moped, a high-speed jet boat and a helicopter whenever she needed to travel the farther islands. Travel on each island was limited to small vehicles, bicycles and mopeds. A boat was needed to access the nearby surrounding islands – islands King Busarah’s ancestors helped to establish and added to the wealth of Libertad Isle.

Trinity agreed to the villa and two modes of transportation, a moped and motor boat, which is what she needed for her work, but she shunned a security detail and servants. She had Cousteau for protection, was pretty handy with a weapon and more than adept at cooking and cleaning.

Her thoughts back to the present, Trinity began singing a medley of Aretha Franklin tunes as she and Cousteau walked the trail leading to the three-story villa a short distance from the beach. At night, she loved to sit out on the roof-top veranda in one of the oversized pieces of patio furniture. The veranda boasted an unobstructed view of the ocean and provided her with one of her favorite past times – watching a full, high moon, its reflection rippling atop the ocean, surrounded by bright, winking stars overhead. Adding to the pleasing aesthetics were the sounds of the tide rolling in and out. Many a night, as she lay in her queen-sized bed covered by an ivory canopy of netting the sounds from the ocean had lulled her to sleep with Cousteau lazily lying at the foot of the bed. No matter what Trinity did, she couldn’t break Cousteau of the habit of sleeping at the foot of the bed – a habit her dog had taken up once they moved to the island.

Trinity stopped singing when Cousteau moved from her side to stand in front of her, a low growl emitting from her massive jowls.

“I have never been a pet’s meal,” Trinity heard the deep voice tinged with a noticeable island lilt. She watched as a tall, muscular man, his smooth skin a warm sepia, his eyes shaded by sunglasses, stepped out onto the path. “How vicious is that large animal?” He pointed then held up his hands in surrender. Trinity raised her right eyebrow when she noticed that Cousteau stopped growling as she sat on her hinds.

“Well, she’s not what I would call vicious,” Trinity replied, patting Cousteau on top of her large head. “But she is quite fond and protective of her master – she takes her time to warm up to strangers.”

“Good to hear,” he replied.

Trinity waited, watched the smooth-skinned brother watch her. She couldn’t see his eyes, but knew from the way he stood nearly motionless that he was studying her intently. She decided to break the spell. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I was just wondering who was swimming in the waters.” He angled his head toward the crystal blue sea.

“Who wants to know?”

For Mensah, he wanted to keep her talking, wanted to hear the clear, warm, perfect cadence of her slightly raspy, but alluring voice. Closing his eyes briefly, he was glad his eyes were shielded behind sunglasses, for he couldn’t help but stare at the mahogany beauty standing in front of him. The sunglasses allowed him to feast unabashed, eyeing her from the tops of her crown of burnish bronze, sun-kissed mini-locs, to the cleavage of her ample breasts peeking from the top the white one-piece swim suit, down to her narrow waist, shapely hips and long, muscular legs. Legs made for wrapping around a man’s waist.

Mensah shook his head slightly and forced his eyes to train on her face, noting the shape of her lips – smooth with a slight pout. If he had no home training, he would have grabbed her and sampled the bewitching mouth, sure the feel of his lips would be just the beginning …

He thought she had asked him something, he knew he heard the sound of her of husky voice, wanted to hear her call his name, more than once. Crazy. He’d never …

“Again, who wants to know?” he heard her ask. Her question pulled him from assessing her mouth to staring into her eyes, which he noted was an arresting color – a light auburn with flecks of gold. He shook his foot, thinking one of the small island salamanders had scurried across it, but when he glanced down, he saw nothing.

He stepped closer and could see the sun playing off the varying colors of brown, bronze and gold mingling in the micro locs resting on her shoulders.

“How rude of me,” he said, removing his sunglasses. He placed his hand out toward her. He noted her pet watching the interaction, thought better, then placed his glasses in his breast pocket before placing his hands in the trouser pockets. “I am Prince Ahbeh Mensah Ahmed Kwasi, son of King Busarah Ahmed Kwasi and heir of Libertad Isle. My friends and family call me Mensah. And you can, too.” He affected a sensuous smile.

Trinity tapped down the urge to respond with a less than feminine retort – something that rhymed with truck. She didn’t release the items in her hands to return the gesture and held back the chuckle that wanted to bubble forth following his introduction – she wondered why on earth he had to tell her his whole name, who his daddy was and his stately position on the island. To say she was so unimpressed would be outright rude. Instead, she smirked when in fact she really wanted to gawk – she had seen some good-looking men in her day, her brothers and father were quite handsome, but the man standing in front of her was shockingly gorgeous. Yes, he was truly fine – his full lips were perfect, and luscious, and looked as if they were made for kissing – and his handsome broad nose, with nostrils that flared slightly, and his chiseled, clean shaven head and square jaw made her think of Tyrese. He was too good looking – just scrumptious – with eyes so dark they looked like stones of onyx. And his deep voice – OMG – could melt the panties off a woman. She caught the glint of a diamond stud. Nothing overly ostentatious, but enough to let you know it was there.

She shook her head, thinking, so, this is the playboy prince of Libertad. Trinity had heard a lot about him. But she’d be doggone if she would get caught up in the web of this infamous playboy’s antics. His reputation had truly preceded him. Just the other day she had overheard several of the women in the square talk about his sexual exploits going so far as to say he had bedded five women in one night and that he was quite healthy in the nether region. Trinity didn’t stick around to hear the rest – she had brothers and knew that their father frowned on loose ways, be it from men or women.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Trinity. And sorry I have to run, but I have some specimens I need place in the refrigerator soon.” She waited a beat and watched as his eyes took on odd emotions – one she recognized as unsurety. She didn’t wait for his response, nor did she bother introducing herself using all of her credentials. She bid him good bye before speaking to her dog. “Come, Cousteau.” She stepped around Mensah and continued to the villa. One thing she would not do is become involved with the King’s sons – especially this one.

Trinity kept her head high, refusing to look back over her shoulder to get one last glance at that sepia god standing at least six foot something, his arms straining the light Gosselin fabric of his button-down shirt, and the way the linen pants made a wicked puzzle of his massive thighs. Yeah, she had checked him out, but she didn’t want any parts of a man who made sport out of bedding women. No, she wanted nothing to do with Prince Ahbeh Mensah Ahmed Kwasi, son of King Busarah she silently mimicked.

Cousteau walked a few paces in front of Trinity as they neared the gate to the villa. Unable to resist, Trinity turned as she opened the gate and saw Mensah still standing in the same spot where she’d just left him. She wanted to laugh as he stood stone still, his hands now on his hips and his chin jutting upward. Guess he’s never been dismissed she mused and then chuckled under her breath, Well, there’s always a first time for everything.

( Continued… )

Heat at First Sight By Barbara Keaton. © Copyright 2019 Barbara D. Stubblefield, 2019, All Rights Reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR A Chicago native, Barbara Keaton loves the city and says she cannot imagine living anywhere else. Educated in Catholic schools up until 12th grade, Barbara credits the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest order of black nuns, and her late maternal grandfather, Thomas Hill, for her love and respect of the written word.

Barbara’s first romance novel, All I Ask, was published in 2000. Since then she’s gone on to write thirteen total romance novels which celebrate black love. In addition to her books, she’s also written several articles and editorials that have appeared in various publications: Today’s Black Woman Magazine; The Chicago Crusader; The Chicago Defender; The Chicago Reader; Bronze Thrills; True Confessions; and, Affaire de Coeur.

Barbara holds a MS in Journalism from Roosevelt University and belongs to several civic and professional organizations, namely Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In her spare time, she’s an avid reader and writer. Married to a minister, Barbara has no children of her own, but she considers her niece and nephew, Stephanie and Matthew, and her step-daughter, Candice, as her “babies”. In addition, she’s a grandma and a great-aunt. Barbara lives by a personal credo: I ANSWER TO TWO—MY GOD AND MYSELF! You can check Barbara out at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Keaton-582585395172168/

      Intimate Conversation with Barbara Keaton (Love Like It’s Hot Boxset)

A Chicago native, Barbara Keaton loves the city and says she cannot imagine living anywhere else. Educated in Catholic schools up until 12th grade, Barbara credits the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest order of black nuns, and her late maternal grandfather, Thomas Hill, for her love and respect of the written word.

Barbara’s first romance novel, All I Ask, was published in 2000. Since then she’s gone on to write thirteen total romance novels which celebrate black love. In addition to her books, she’s also written several articles and editorials that have appeared in various publications: Today’s Black Woman Magazine; The Chicago Crusader; The Chicago Defender; The Chicago Reader; Bronze Thrills; True Confessions; and, Affaire de Coeur.

Barbara holds a MS in Journalism from Roosevelt University and belongs to several civic and professional organizations, namely Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In her spare time, she’s an avid reader and writer. Married to a minister, Barbara has no children of her own, but she considers her niece and nephew, Stephanie and Matthew, and her step-daughter, Candice, as her “babies”. In addition, she’s a grandma and a great-aunt. Barbara lives by a personal credo: I ANSWER TO TWO—MY GOD AND MYSELF! You can check Barbara out at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Keaton-582585395172168/

BPM: What inspired you to become a romance writer? How long have you been writing? I’ve been writing since I was like 11. My first diary is dated Jan. 1975; and I really don’t recall not writing. In regards to romance, I wrote All I Ask when my first marriage began to crumble – it was all that I had wished my first husband had been. After my divorced in 1998, I sent the manuscript to Genesis Press – got a letter some months later saying welcome to Genesis Press. In 2000 All I Ask hit the shelves and with a small break in novel writing, I’ve been writing ever since. Also, I love a GOOD love story, even more so Black love!

BPM: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively? Wow, this is a good question. Once I wrote a heavy romantic story – light on drama, heavy on romance. And even I loved it. The hero and heroine were totally into each other from first glance. When I saw the reviews I realized that I had achieved what I set out to do. Then I wrote a romantic suspense, that didn’t start out that way – again, the views came back and I was like: that was what I was aiming for. So, over the years, I’ve tried to draw characters who are realistic, yet very loving, low drama, instant chemistry, going the distance to prove their love, while drawing more complex characters.

BPM: Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice? Not sure about that. I do realize that there are changes in the business and I need to be aware of and abreast of those chances and how it may impact my work.

BPM: How has writing romance novels impacted your life? It has been my outlet – my way to tell a story that hopefully plants in readers minds that we as people of color love – we love true, we love hard, we love to eternity. I truly enjoy creating the types of characters who are strong, independent, loving, protective – engaging in non-traditional professional roles. I’ve written about lawyers, archaeologists, and now a prince.

BPM: What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your body of work? I love my characters – they are sorta like me or are who I once dreamed I could be. Also, I’ve learned that if I stay true to myself that all would work out. I had a publisher that wanted me to roll over into interracial – I wanted then, and I still want to now, showcase black love.

BPM: How do you find or make time to write? Are you a plotter or a pantster? Deadline is a serious motivator and when its on I write every evening after I get home from work. I don’t write at work – its a lot going on anyway. Before I re-married in 2012, I used to write on the weekends as well. With a hubby, I must save some time for him! 🙂

I’m a pantster – I don’t find plotting out the story too appealing – I like letting the characters run away with very little restraint from me. As a matter of fact I’m a serial pantster – all of my work has been created this way. I consistently build on what I’ve started until I get this feeling inside that says: oh, yeah, Barbara – that’s it!

BPM: Have you considered writing in another genre? Actually I have, in women’s contemporary. But for now, I’m still hooked on romance!

BPM: What is your story Heat at First Sight from the Love Like It’s Hot Book Set about? A notorious playboy has to assume the throne of his island country because his father is retiring and his oldest brother is abdicating. In order for him to be king, he must be married. Well, he has no prospects and he doesn’t like the two women his mother chose for him. Then he meets the marine biologist hired to research what’s impacting the marine life. When the playboy prince sees her – its game on! Yet, he falls hard for her and sets out to marry her within 30 days – on the day of the island’s Independence Day. Will he succeed in getting her to agree?

BPM: Give us some insight into your main characters. What makes each one so special? Mensah is a super smart, extremely intelligent business man who works to ensure the financial longevity of the island his family has ruled over for centuries – since the middle passage. An unapologetic playboy, he has a side of him he won’t show women. His having to assume the role of King as well as having to marry to do so has him flustered until he meets Trinity.

Trinity Nehemiah is a doctor of marine biology. She’s independent, smart and loves her work researching eco impacts on large bodies of water. The youngest of four boys, she loves adventure. When she meets Prince Mensah, she’s attracted on sight, but his show of arrogance turned her off. After a dinner with him and his family, she sees something there and allows him to insinuate himself into her life and her research – realizing no man had ever truly been interested her, in what drives her, nor her what her passion is.

BPM: Share one specific point in your book that resonated with your present situation or journey. Change is inevitable and change can be good.

BPM: Is there a specific place/space/state that you find inspiration in? I’m a chatty person who loves a good book, a good movie and hanging with people. I talk to just about everybody I come into contact with. I’m also a news junkie and I get out of sorts if I haven’t heard any in a couple of days. And I do ease drop on conversations heard in the store, at the beauty salon. LOL! As for where I write, I have a home office – so that’s where I write.

BPM: Do you want each book to stand on its own or do you prefer to write series? Both, even though I’ve written two books that were connected – All I Ask and By Design.

BPM: Does writing energize you? Yes, it does. I’ve got tons of characters running around in my head, trying to love and make it on paper!

BPM: Do you believe in writer’s block? Yes, I do – there are times when I’ve written lines that just don’t flow – that just doesn’t make me smile or engage me. I’ve learned, though, to set it aside and allow myself to become distracted by something else. If it still isn’t quite right I start over or save it and store it – it may be useful in something else.

BPM: Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? S&M/bondage- I’m way too sensitive for it, too sappy and don’t want to be spanked. Besides, to me, there is nothing loving or romantic in being beaten or chained.

BPM: Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others? Anger – I’m rarely angry; oh, I get miffed, a bit upset, but anger is a hard emotion for me – it means being knocked off my square, so to speak, and anger tends to cause individuals to use hurtful words. I know that once words are out there they can take on a life of their own and angry words can and does irreparable harm. I know – I still remember things said to me out of anger or things I’ve said.

BPM: What projects are you working on at the present? I have a series I’ve started…its about Football. I’m hoping to interest someone one of these days. I’m also working on a story about a single father.

BPM: Tell us about your most recent work beyond this collection. Available on Nook and Kindle? I re-edited and re-released a short story: Show Me. Its an older woman, younger man romance. It’s available at Amazon.com and B&N.com

BPM: What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you? Email: barbkwrites@gmail.com, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Keaton-582585395172168/, Twitter: @barbarakeaton26

Love Like It’s Hot Featured Authors * Summer Sizzle by Donna Hill * Love for Liberty by Ann Clay * Heat at First Sight by Barbara Keaton * Best Laid Plans by Deatri King-Bey * Sweet Heat Rising by Nicki Night * The Fourth by Xyla Turner

  Heat at First Sight by Barbara Keaton (Love Like It’s Hot Boxset) Heat at First Sight by Barbara Keaton (Love Like It's Hot Boxset) Prince Ahbeh Mensah Ahmed Kwasi is going to be king of Libertad Island whether he likes it or not.

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On our travels around New Zealand and those of us lucky enough to travel overseas we all come across a spot that for various reasons becomes your favourite spot. So it is for Puriri Bay in Northland for Sarah and I. There are all sorts of reasons that this could be one of those magic spots and quite a few of them presented themselves on this visit.

After our trip around Taranaki on the EBOP Safari we both felt like going somewhere to do some fishing and general relaxing we even went as far as taking the bikes out of the back of the van knowing that there aren’t any decent places for a bike ride there. This gives more space in the back for the inflatable boat, our trusty Zodiac.

This year there are again new camp managers looking after the site Nicci , Kit and their children who rather than being motorhomers actually live locally and are building a couple of transportable sheds onsite as accommodation for themselves. Over the 18 years we have been coming here we have met a variety of camp managers some lasting just a year others becoming almost part of the furniture with 5 year stints so it will be interesting to see how this couple adapt to the challenges.

Already new innovations are afoot with compost bins appearing around the campsite. Sadly within 24 hours of them appearing general rubbish was also appearing inside the bins so some decent signage is probably required to sort out what goes in and what stays out.

One innovation from last year that was being built when we visited and is now finished is this rather strange shelter. Supposedly designed to provide shelter for backpackers and campers to use during inclement weather it looks to me nothing much more than a blot on the landscape that serves no real practical purpose.  There is no signage on the building to state what it’s meant to be and it has no running water or kitchen sinks the benches are miles from the table and mounted to the wall so really why have it!

Almost everyone who camps here at this time of the year takes the Southern end of the campground as the sites are flatter but recently we have developed a liking for the North end of the camp choosing it again this time. With the sun out it was time to brave the awning. Since loosing an awning backwards over the old motorhome here many years ago we have always been conscious of the need to have the awning properly secured. With the awning on our Dethleffs 6.5 metres long and 3 metres wide it presents a huge sail that we have always been worried will take off if not secured properly.

When we visited the Hamilton Motorhome Show Graham and Irene parked next to us in their Detleffs  and we noticed the straps they had holding down their awning. Turns out these are specialist Thule straps specially designed to fit the awning legs. Rather than adopt the one per leg that Graham had we decided to get two per leg for additional stability at around $50 per set we have decided that there are a great investment especially when the wind picked up not long after erecting the awning.

When we have arrived at this time of the year in the past there is always an area of the campground next to the stream that’s fenced off and that’s to protect the Oystercatchers from being bothered whilst nesting. On our arrival this year Nicci informed us that although the area was roped off she thought the eggs might be sterile as it had been a few weeks and no sign of life. Later that day whilst wandering the beach we spotted the chicks, I think they hatched especially for us.

Of course signs of new life are everywhere at this time of the year with this duck protecting 12 new born ducklings. I am sad to say that by the time we left the camp a few days later this had been whittled down to 5 ducklings remaining with the local Pukeko’s very active in their search and destroy missions. Eventually this mother duck took to the sea with her ducklings swimming off to find a safer place, I guess.

One the major reasons that this is our favourite place is when you can catch fish like this from our Zodiac without having to head miles out to sea in fact this 46cm Snapper was boated maybe 500 metres from shore. A very tasty meal of marinated fish that night. Sadly the fishing for the week was hard with almost every other Snapper under the legal limit. We did catch a very nice Trevally and a 50cm Kowahi but it was hard work and rather disappointing.

One of the interesting things whilst we sat on the boat fishing was the number of bees flying past us with a couple taking time to have a breather settling on either the boat or Sarah for a short period of time before flying off again. The camp managers told us that they have more than doubled the hives in Admirals Bay the next bay over from the camp so that probably explains all the bees. Although you cannot really see it in these photos the flax bushes were absolutely humming with bees as well.

There are always those who seem to catch more fish than the rest of us and so it was for Ken who along with his wife Sandra and friends Ester and Malcolm (named left to right) who have been coming here for almost as long as we have. Every morning at dawn you could hear Ken’s boat heading out followed not long afterwards by Malcolm. Fishing is such a fickle thing with Ken having more consistent success than Malcolm.

Ken and Sandra have recently changed their motorhome of 17 years for a Jayco caravan (shown behind) and are a little challenged by the technology thats in the caravan, with everything going digital compared to the old push button motorhome. They will I am sure get used to it. It certainly looked nice and spacious inside. The only thing I wonder about these is that with the lounge in the front how are you meant to tow it into place to get sea views. Maybe thats where the motorised movers come into play, or as Ken has done make an adaption on the back of the caravan so it can be pushed into place.

There was lots to see on the water while we waited for the fish to bite. This trip there are more blue penguins in the water than we have ever seen before. We went to try and rescue one that appeared in some distress when a fin appeared in the water behind it causing a miraculous recovery from the penguin. Whilst we couldn’t be 100% certain that was a shark there was no doubt later in the day when a small Mako swam past the boat probably not much more than 3 or 4 feet long still enough to ensure our feet stayed inside the boat after that.

Fishing for us was also rather inconsistent, probably because we weren’t up at the crack of dawn being rather more casual about the whole exercise.  Strangely enough Sarah and I enjoy the fishing part far more than the eating part but when things like this storm front decide to sweep through it’s time to head back to the motorhome for safety.

There are so many terrific sunsets here at Puriri Bay with the sun setting behind the hills on the other side of the harbour providing a spectacular backdrop and multiple photo opportunities. On this night the added bonus was the full moon rising over the hills behind the motorhome at the same time as the setting sun bathed the motorhome in it’s golden rays. Just another special moment in my favourite place.

Sadly the fishing got a little harder with Sarah managing to catch this rather interesting bit of seaweed, Well I had to take a photo of something. But all of that was forgotten when I looked over my shoulder and spotted a pod of Orca cruising the shoreline hunting some of the multiple stingrays that live in this harbour. It’s always hard to get a decent video when using your mobile phone but I managed to capture these two videos.

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You can see from the videos that we were really close to the action and actually had a couple of them swim underneath the Zodiac. I have seen Dolphins in the harbour multiple times but these Orca were something special and something that will live in my memory forever. There were maybe 15 Orca in total led by two large bull males that would have been 5 or 6 metres long quite a sight to see.

While we where out on the water taking these videos we heard the sound of a drone above us, when we returned to our motorhome after this incredible experience we discovered that the drone belonged to Florian and Fan who hail from France and have been travelling New Zealand since May in their Nissan Caravan.

Florian gave me two videos that they shot on their drone and the one above features two calves with their mothers some really terrific footage and well worth viewing. Florian has his own Facebook page dedicated to his photography and you can view some of his photos here. This footage along with the other video Florian took were sent to the Orca research team here in NZ.

It’s hard to think of anything worthy of writing about after the experience with the Orca but the night before we departed we were treated to another of those spectacular sunsets that this bay is so famous for. So over the last thousand or so words you have read some of the reasons why Puriri Bay is my favourite place and I encourage you to visit.

To view the places we have visited click here to see them on Google maps. You can click the links to read the blog about that area. [cardoza_facebook_like_box] To view the ratings for other places and camps we have stayed click here  [jetpack_subscription_form]

Another 7 Days At Puriri Bay On our travels around New Zealand and those of us lucky enough to travel overseas we all come across a spot that for various reasons becomes your favourite spot.