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“What didn’t he do? He jacked the price up on Swim with the Mermaids Day, so only the really rich could afford it. He claimed he was making it a higher quality event, but all he did was cut out the less fortunate kids. And then, when some of us started hosting activities on our own time using our own gear and renting a pool with our own money, he tried to change employee policy to prohibit us from doing any mermaid-related work with any other organization, including for ourselves. Fortunately, the guild threatened to sue, and he backed down.”
“By the guild, you mean the Society of Amusement Park Personnel?” he asked.
“Yes. I strongly recommend joining the SAPP if you aren’t already a member.”
“Thanks, I’ll check into it,” he said, and made a mental note to find out as much as he could about the guild. “I’m glad they stepped in. I can’t believe anyone would try to implement such a terrible policy.”
Providing service was important, and he admired Jayna for what she and the others were trying to do. The fact that Carter had tried to shut them down made him angry.
“You think that’s bad? That’s nothing compared to Swim with the Mermaids Days he decided to set up for adults. It was a magnet for every creep with a mermaid fetish. We call them ‘merverts.’ Fortunately, that got permanently canceled after I drowned the president of ExoFab.”
Sid stopped in his tracks. “You what!?”
“Don’t worry, I resuscitated him.”
Sid shook his head in disbelief. “Okay, I need to hear this story.”
Jayna shrugged and gave him a wry smile. “I was wearing a top with fishnet accents, and he got his fingers caught while trying to remove it. I simply followed my natural mermaid instincts and swam to the bottom of the pool. It’s not my fault he couldn’t hold his breath for more than a minute.”
Sid shook his head, unable to believe what he had just heard. “You’re kidding, right?”
Jayna’s face turned solemn. “I wish I were. Fortunately, the park’s lawyers were wise enough to veto any more adults-only activities.”
“Man, that’s just…wrong.”
She rolled her eyes. “No kidding. But I think the worst thing he did was increase the park’s cut of employees’ dropper.”
“I know what drips are—dynamic royalty payments, right?”
Jayna nodded.
“But what are ‘droppers’?”
“Drips are paid out based on the dropper—the dynamic royalty payment rate. The more popular someone is online, the higher their dropper score, which means bigger drips. But since Realms owns the intellectual property for the characters, the park receives a portion of the drips.”
They’d reached the edge of the reception, and Sid was grateful for this information. “Ah, got it. So, when Carter increased the park’s share of the drips, the performers took a pay cut.”
“Exactly. They increased our base wage, but nowhere near enough to make up for the missing drips. It’s so bad that most junior performers qualify for supplemental basic income.”
The more Sid learned about the way the park had been managed, the more outraged he became. “That’s terrible. Nobody working at a business this profitable should be on supplemental basic. We need to fix that.”
Jayna snorted a laugh. “Yeah, good luck.” But then she stopped walking and gave him a suspicious look.
Sid realized he had slipped up, but before he could come clean and let Jayna know who he was, Emmaline approached them. “There’s our missing mermaid,” she said, her eyes fixed on Jayna. “I’m Emmaline Douglas, Obsidian Hayes’s assistant.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Jayna said.
Emmaline gestured to Sid. “I see you and Obsidian have already met.”
Chapter 6
The realization struck Jayna like a tsunami: “Sid” was Obsidian Hayes.
The cute guy she had crushed on, who she had assumed was a new stagehand, whom she had bossed around and had help her with her merbreather, the one to whom she had opened up and confided her frustrations with the Realms of Neptune management, was in fact the park’s new owner and general manager.
The billionaire investor whose team she had drenched with her Bionic Cannonball.
“Son of a shark,” Jayna muttered. She wished she could once again follow her natural mermaid instincts and dive to the bottom of a pool and hide, but that wasn’t going to happen in the middle of the reception grotto.
