So I finished the unhinged Mermaid AU fic

This is for those of you following my increasingly feral updates about this thing.

I've never been that into mermaids. Like I didn't have a mermaid phase when I was a kid; I enjoyed The Little Mermaid but not as a fanatic, just as a casual infant movie-viewer. I'm too afraid of basking sharks to want to be a mermaid. And yes, I KNOW basking sharks are harmless. I don't care, they're scary. Like what if I'm swimming and one just overtakes me? I know it'd spit me out. I know it'd probably feel bad. I still fear them, day in and out.

Anyway, I sat here for a few minutes trying to remember why I even started writing a mermaid fic when I'm not even that into them. I remember now: it's Bluesky's fault. I joined Bluesky with the intent of shitposting about my book, and it almost immediately just became the place where I follow NSFW artists. I don't have an excuse for that.

So I stumbled upon (ooh remember that?) an absolutely disgusting piece of fanart featuring a merman and a human on Bluesky. Wait, did I say disgusting? Anyway, it triggered something terrible within me that whispered in my ear like the devil on my shoulder, "Psst. Write a mermaid fic."

"What?" I said back, incredulous. "I'm not even into mermaids."

The devil nibbled my earlobe, as he does, and said, "Make Kai the merman and River the human. Make it weird."

That's usually all it takes for me. Hail the Rising Tides was supposed to be a sapphic love story, and then I realised River had a crush on Kai and there went all my plans. They're my OTP now. Sorry, Ione and Lina.

A week later and now the mermaid AU fic is finished, and just like that I feel the hyperfixation demon being excised from my brain. The fic is 20k words and I don't even know what to do with it. Like that seems insane to release as an extra for subscribers. AND I'm kinda unsure if I'll be releasing NSFW stuff to subscribers. Like I MIGHT. Vote now on your phones, in fact. And yes of COURSE the fic is NSFW. What do you take me for?

Long story short, it needs to pass through my beta readers and then I'll decide. If anyone sees it, it'll be subscribers to my unhinged newsletter. Which will be like this but with freebies.

Uh.

Love and hyperfixations,

Kat