Paul

Nickname(s): Ghoti, Bubbles

Age: 9

Hair: Incredibly short and sleek, dark brown

Eyes: Yellow with 2 sets of eyelids

Appearance: “Ghoti” is human from the waist up and fish from the waist down. His scales and fins are green-gold and his skin is brown. His fingers are webbed to the first knuckle except for the thumb and has extremely sharp teeth. Breathes air and holds his breath like a dolphin or a whale. Being fish from the waist down, Paul does not have hips and has to prop himself up if he attempts to sit while on land.

Personality: Can be aggressive and defensive at times. Paul likes to daydream and sometimes wonders what it would be like to have legs and be able to explore on land more.

Likes: Fish, human food, shiny things, frogs

Dislikes: Mermaids, winter, pollution

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Charles Anthony Mayweather III

Nickname(s): Chip

Age: 8

Hair: Short and curly, blonde

Eyes: Blue

Appearance: Chip is a chubby little boy, and a bit shorter than most of his classmates. He’s fairly pale and freckly and very prone to getting sunburned. Frequently gets dirty.

Personality: A good boy, but he’s bad about listening and getting into mischief. Friendly but awkward. Can be really obnoxious.

Likes: Exploring, playing outside, critters, his sister Marigold, chips and sweets, adventure, swimming

Dislikes: Cold rainy days, math, onions, leeches

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I may update these later.

So, the story starts now. I’m going to post it in segments and ask that anyone reading give suggestions for what should happen next if they have ideas.

 Ghoti is pronounced like fish. Look it up, it’s awesome.

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Chip was eight years old when he met his best friend.

 His family lived in the country where there weren’t many people around. Chip didn’t mind it, though, because they lived next to the woods and there was all sorts of cool stuff to explore when everyone was too busy to play. He’d brought a turtle he found home with him one time last summer, but his parents wouldn’t let him keep it.

 Chip was at the river, looking for crawdad holes when he saw some sort of weird fish lying on the shore. He ran down the riverbank to go see the gigantic dead fish (it had to be as big as him!), but… It looked kind of like a kid too as he got closer.

 He stopped once he got close and stared. It looked all fishy and scaly and green-gold from the waist down, but it looked like a really wet and muddy kid from the waist up. The fish kid wasn’t moving, so he poked it with a stick.

 “Hey! Hey, are you dead?”

 The fish kid grabbed the stick before he could poke it in the stomach again.

 “Cool, you’re not dead!”

 “Go away. ‘M taking a nap.”

 “Are you a whatchamacallit? A mermaid?”

 The fish kid glared at him with bright yellow eyes, “Do I look like a girl to you?”

 Chip gave the mermaid a weird look, “Aren’t mermaids girls?”

 “I’m not a mermaid!”

 “But you’re half fish.”

“And you’re stupid. So?”

 Chip poked the not-a-mermaid with the stick again, “You’re mean.”

 “Stop poking me or I’ll bite you!”

 “Nu-uh. You won’t.”

The fish boy grabbed the end of the stick and pulled, dragging himself closer to Chip. Chip yelped and dropped the stick, and the fish boy fell face first into the mud.

 “You weren’t really going to bite me, were you?” he moved a bit closer to the fallen boy, but was careful to stay out of arm’s reach.

 The fish boy mumbled something into the mud.

 “Uh… Are you okay?” Chip asked.

 The boy pushed himself up, mud sticking to his face and his short hair. He pointed at Chip with one hand and held himself up with the other, “Your legs are stupid, your face is stupid, you’re stupid!”

 “I’m Chip.”

 The angry merboy blinked at him and lowered his hand.

 “What’s your name?”

 “Um, Paul?”

 Chip wrinkled his nose, “That’s my uncle’s name. He’s kinda weird. I’m gonna call you Ghoti, okay?”

 “No way, you’re not calling me Fish. My name is Paul!”

 Chip ignored him, “G-H-O-T-I, fish. My sister taught me how to spell. She goes to college. Do you have any brothers and sisters? How old are you? If you’re not a mermaid, then what are you?”

 “But you can’t call me Ghoti,” Paul protested, “I eat fish!”

 Chip shrugged, “I eat chips.”

Those little bird things that dip their beaks in water.

So, Tumblr… What is it? I shall find out soon enough I suppose.

 I’m planning on writing a story with participation from other people on here, but I need to write something up first. I’ll get back to you later this week. Hopefully this experiment manages to go somewhere interesting.