Cherry

Lucia preferred the tranquility of the underwater world to the hectic, more populated surface. She'd worked with the Ocean Reef Group, helping to maintain Nemo's Garden, an agricultural experiment off the coast of the Italian Riviera that grew samples of land-based crops in underwater greenhouses called biospheres. But after storms & the pandemic cut off access to the project for months, the team was pared back to a skeleton crew, & she was cut loose. Not long into her hunt for a new job, she was contacted by a company called Reprion & recruited to work on their research submarine, the Thalassa. Eager to get back underwater, she didn't ask as many questions as she probably should have…

The few seconds between bungling her over-practiced landing and actually slipping the black ring onto her finger were the most precarious of Hodja's entire life…

Dani often dreamt she was jumping around an inflatable bounce house, but she'd never before woken up in one…

Most guests at an art opening, particularly one located in a sizable outdoor sculpture garden, showed up with maximum intent to schmooze. Kenise, on the other hand, became schmoozed out especially swiftly, and thus preferred to sneak away and absorb herself in sketching…

Jillian, either at a night club with a very specific theme, or at the base of Devil's Tower about to be taken on a hyperspace joyride…

Starla used to have a black thumb. Then she found the black ring…

Not quite alone in the woods, Sybil had an exceptionally clear vision of a very murky immediate future.

Tawai, arriving at a dinner party only to discover that not all of the guests appear to be strictly human…

Pasithea, suffering from insomnia…

Tiziana knew by now that she was not really in a magical forest, but she still couldn't help frequently forgetting that fact, because the forest was very good at pretending to be a forest, and even better at pretending to be magical…