Merlyn D.

MERYLYN D. BLOG & STORIES: Welcome to my first blog post. You will read one of my stories here. You will read about the sparkle that changed the globe. And more to come …

Merlyn D’s Blog Post #1: The Sparkle That Changed Our World.

The Sparkle That Changed Our World

       Okay, I’m in a hurry; don’t get me wrong, usually I talk a lot but now I’m dealing with some monsters, and yes they are real. How do I know this? One of them is trying to catch me; this is going to be written later, but now it is a tape recording. Let me introduce myself, I’m Sera and I’m sixteen I have brunette curly hair and hazel eyes and I use glasses and I am 158 cm. Let’s go back to the beginning. Me and my two friends Jake and Ella were having a wonderful evening at the beach we were playing volleyball, swimming and having new friends. We met a group of explorers and Ella really liked the group leader, she is the girl that you love and adore, shy, sweet and innocent minded and Jake is the sporty one, he is more outgoing than us and they are twins. Both of them have black hair with waves and green eyes Ella and I are at the same heigh and Jake is nine cm taller than us.

       Dean the group leader with blue eyes and blonde hair asked us if we want to go with them to explore a cave near the beach. Jake tought this wouldn’t be safe but Ella wanted to go, not because she just liked Dean because she loves learning new things. In the end we agreed that I should call my brother Max. He is three years older than me and has blue eyes and brunette hair and he uses glasses too and our mom isn’t in this country because she went for a work meeting so I should do everything under my brothers permission.

       Anyway I called Max and he said “Wait for me, I am coming too.” He studies geology so that was an expected thing him to say. Thanks to me, I had spare clothes for us I am prepared for most conditions, because I overthink most of the time. We got ready and started to wait Max. After he came we joined the group. Jake, Ella and I are chilhood best friends and we get along so well. So deciding to go with the group was for Ella because she doesn’t like everyone and that made Jake and me think that Dean was special to her. Anyway, let’s stick back to the original story. When we got into the cave, it had at least seventeen more little caves inside it. We started to walk around and watched my brother take stamples. Drops of water were falling from the top of the cave and making a soothing sound but I had a weird feeling that we were in danger. I told about my feeling, Jake tried to comfort Ella and me but I understood that he was feeling the same and he was trying to look brave for us. Ella went to find Dean to ask if the cave is safe or not.

      After two hours, we started to worry that we got lost, there wasn’t any sun light and it was getting darker. But after a coridor we found a sparkle lake. It wasn’t very big, but it was sparkling as it had stars in it. It was like a jaccuzi for five-six people and over against “The Sparkly Lake”, there was a mirror. It was strange to be a mirror in the middle of nowhere but we were just curious teens who came there to explore so we looked ourselves into the mirror. We took pictures, made silly faces and danced in front of it.

      Somehow that cave wasn’t dark at least there was a little bit of light. Top of the cave was made of sparkly stones. But Max said they weren’t just stones they were gems.  After looking and analyzing them he said they were aquamarine and reason of them sparkle was they were reflecting light from somewhere. That gave us hope because if there was a light it could lead us to an exit. When Max was talking about other gems with Jake I looked for Ella to tell her that we could find an exit but she was talking with Dean. I watched their deep conversation a little. Ella was happy around Dean and he was good to us. I have never seen him treat someone bad. I was lost in thoughts when I was watching them. At that moment a light flashed in the mirror and a curly haired man appeared. He said “You need to hurry, come on they are trying to find you!” And than dissapeared in the mirror, with the shock and the shoutings coming from the coridors, we followed him.

       At that moment I realised three things; we were in danger, some teenagers tried to catch us with knives, swords and arrows AND our hero had four legs. He was a Centour. Centours are mythological creatures with human tops with horse bodies. Ella was panicking and Max was checking that we were hurt or not. Jake was trying to learn something from the Centour but he didn’t say anything (Later we learned his name was Matthew). And I was staring stupidly at the forest that we teleported in. It was all green, calm, fresh and there were long trees but I had a feeling that it was abandoned for a long time. Matthew said we were being watched, he was -sadly- right again. An enormous lion attacked us with three ugly vulture looked creatures.

      Jake said they were Furias, which I couldn’t remember, he was more interested in mythology than me. Actually he was passioned about it he loves learning about different mythologys and loves to talk about them. Maybe I should start to listen him carefully when he talks about them. Ughh! He says continue the story, okay Mr stressed. Whatever, Ella was shocked and couldn’t move, I was going to pull her away from the monsters but Dean acted first. Max said the lion wasn’t a normal animal either. At least he was thinking it was the famous Nemea lion which Heracles killed and it would be a bigger problem if it was what Max thinks because as I remember Nemea’s fur was really weapon-proof so we wouldn’t have a chance other than run away.

       But like come on guys Heracles was a demigod while he was fighting against monsters, we don’t have connections with mythological people in our lives. Anyway, unluckily it was that famous lion and Furias so… We ran away. We had camper pocketknives but they wouldn’t even scar them a little bit. Thanks to Matthew, he had a bow and four arrows. That meant he had just one chance each. At that point we had o help him with our knowledge which wasn’t really helpful at all. But somehow we outwitted them with myth knowledge, superiorty of numbers, luck and agility. After all this, our day went normall -like a normal day that five lost teen could have- Matthew got us in a mansion found in the forest’s calm, safe, cozy and monsterless part. Matthew said mansion and seven kilometers around it was protected from monsters. We met a cyclop whose name was Tim.

       We were shaken with rush and fear and he wasn’t answering any of our questions. He said “Go, have dinner and sleep, we will talk about these when you wake up.” Then he sent us to a room. None of us slept that night like he said. Rather, we comfort each other, talked about what would we do in the morning and Jake gave a little lesson about most famous and known myths in case we should know like today. We decided to sleep alternately. Dean and Max took the first turn, Max insisted he should test Dean’s loyality which made Ella mad, but he was right because his friends tried to attack us and we didn’t know him very well to trust completely. After talking with Ella and Jake we decided that we should be aware of what we do around Dean.

      That night passed like it was two hours; all of us were tired and angry. So we knocked on Tim’s door at a very early time. Matthew tried to calm us down, but he couldn’t deal with five angry teenagers. Also, as we tought, Tim made Matthew our supervisor and he wasn’t happy about that. I got him, I wouldn’t be too if I were him. If I was dealing with five little creatures that aren’t even from my world, I would be carzy probably. I appreciate his patience. After a fifteen minute disturbing, Tim came out from his room with a bathrope, maybe making him mad wasn’t the best idea, but we were just thinking about how to turn to our world as quick as posible. We were okay with just getting information. Despite us, Tim patiently had breakfast with us he said “The one’s that attacked you were shapeshifter monsters which teleported your world and there isn’t anything that Dean could have done because monsters use Mist to make people believe them.”  and told that we changed our world with a portal which saped like a mirror -like we didn’t get it till now- If you wonder where we are right now, we’re in a mythology based world named Folklore. Which means literally mythology. Jake asked which mythology but Tim laughed and said “All of them that you can think little guy. Here we see all the mythological figures from evey mythology, this world is the reason of you humans think why magic is real. Sometimes some creatures or myth figures come to your world with portals and meet with people. Some help humans like Prometheus and some tries to rule your world like Set.” Jake wasn’t happy after “little guy” comment because he is a surfer and he cares about his looking, but he was interested in the “all mythologies” part.

       When they were talking I tried to guess his age by how he talks, we talked about this in our little group but we couldn’t found how old he was. I asked “Tim how old are you?” everyone looked at me like the thing I asked wasn’t everyone tought, but Tim just laughed and said “I get so many questions when a new human comes here; mostly they ask why they are here, are they dead, but you are the first one who asks me how old am I. Even Matthew didn’t ask, I liked how you think.” I waited him to answer my question but he never answered. Insead of my question he talked about how portals work for one hour. Then Matthew came alive in the conversation and said

       “You should train if you want to use a portal because most of the time there is a monster which protects the portal. If you are going to get out of this world you must fight with them.  And to be able to fight you should train with weapons and monsters we choose and it would be a long process, but after that you will be ready.” Jake asked “Then how did you came to our world?” Matthew said” I fought with them like how it should have been done.” When they were talking all I could think was my mom.  Because our mom would be at home in six days and she would panic if couldn’t find us. Tim said the times are different on Earth and in this world. After that Ella shouted “When will we be ready to go, just protect us until we pass the portal!” We all agreed with her, but Matthew said “It is not how it works sweetie, you should defeat the monsters to use the portal. Only the ones who show courage against monsters can be worthy of using the portals.”

        I hate someone say things like this, like “find a solution”, and don’t say something I already know. Later that day we started to train. At first we practiced self defence without weapons. Then we tried weapons and used them on each other trying not to injure each other. After we fought against monsters and other mythological creatures. Ella was good at throwing ninja stars and little knives, Max was good at poisons and spears, Dean was going to be a professional at archery as Matthew said and Jake became an expert at using swords in two weeks like he was waiting for his whole life to use his skills and I found out that I was really good at using daggers. Today we got seperated in groups and now we are trying to find a shield before other groups find it. Right now Jake and I are running away from a Set animal.

       I’m recording our story to remember and reach someone who can help. We made five records with this. If you find any of these please send help because we have been here for five weeks with this worlds timing. By the way Jake says” Hi!”

 “What a moment to say Hi”, “Isn’t it Jake???”

 “But it’s our record I want to be included too and you haven’t stopped talking in fifty six minutes!”

 “Did you really count the time…”

 “Yeah I did because there wasn’t anything I could do while running and not talking.”

  “Okay than if we need to record another tape you can talk more.”

 “But I wanted to talk with YOU!”

 “Then you should have spoken earlier silly!”

       That’s what I got from a postman, it came to my house directly, I think they know I’m a writer as Sera said “This is going to be written later, but now it is a tape recording.” and wanted me to be their voice. If you know how to help them please contact with me. The record wasn’t fully finished, but that’s all I could save. I think the other tapes will come after this one and we will see Ella’s, Max’s, Jake’s and Dean’s point of views. But at first I will try to save the other parts of this tape. I will come back to give more information. See you!     

                                                     

~ Merlyn D.

Merlyn D’s Blog Post #2: The Internet: Exploring Internet Usage Across Generations

The Internet: Exploring Internet Usage Across Generations

In contemporary society, individuals across all age groups exhibit a profound reliance on the internet technologies. This phenomenon manifests diversely: while some leverage the internet for professional endeavors, others engage with it in an educational context, and a considerable portion utilizes it for consuming news, recreational gaming, and social networking. Regrettably, even among minors aged below 10, a demographic traditionally regarded as unsuited for internet engagement, there exists a notable propensity to gravitate towards online platforms for leisure activities such as viewing animated content and engaging in mobile gaming. Parental authorization for such usage, though granted intermittently, is predominantly contingent upon its entertainment value.

Moreover, it is observable that a subset of adults turns to the internet as a means of escapism from the vicissitudes of real-life concerns, with a particular emphasis on occupational burdens. However, it is pertinent to acknowledge that motivations for internet usage among this demographic may vary considerably. Conversely, adolescents exhibit a multifaceted engagement with online platforms, utilizing them for purposes ranging from academic endeavors, such as homework completion, to recreational activities, which may mirror the escapism observed among adults. Within the cohort of middle-aged individuals, the internet serves primarily as a tool for professional duties, leisurely pursuits, and entertainment, including gaming activities.

From a personal standpoint, my utilization of the internet is predominantly oriented towards staying abreast of literary releases, acquiring practical life advice, seeking inspiration, and fostering relaxation. Notably, the internet serves as a haven wherein I can disentangle my thoughts amidst the demands of daily life. However, it is imperative to acknowledge that the generalizations posited herein are speculative in nature and lack empirical validation through legal research delineating the nexus between age demographics and the internet utilization. Consequently, my comprehension of the internet usage remains circumscribed by the nuances inherent in this multifaceted phenomenon.

~ Merlyn D.

Best regards.

Merlyn

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