Mermaid QUINTESSENCE, “Quinn”

California

Quintessence’ name was given to her by her second mother, Mother Ocean, because she represents the quintessential species of the Earths waters, the merfolk. Sometimes, Oceanic names can be a bit tricky for young human kin to pronounce, so children like to call her Quinn! Quinn was born in the Mekong river in Thailand, but migrated to the southern California Malibu Coast when she was just a little merling. Raised alongside the other salt water merfolk of the Pacific, she quickly adapted to the salinity of her new ocean home. 

What to hear a secret? Quintessence is not a mermaid! Though humans always refer to her as one, Quintessence is actually what’s known as an Ondine. As an ondine, the only way for her to ever trade in her tail for toes is to fall in love with a human. This is only one of the many reasons her parents disapprove of her frequent visits to the land. The older generation still likes to play the “Humans can’t know that we really exist” game, but she and her sisters LOVE to hang out with, and learn more about the lives and behaviors of their human counter parts. She, and her sisters live in a coral city, deep in the Pacific. The name of the coral city is a highly coveted Ondine secret. The caves of this secret city provide air pockets, so that the mammals of the ocean have plenty of oxygen to breath. Ondine do not have gills, and their flukes are horizontal like whales, dolphins and other mammals, and not vertical like fish or sharks. The coloring and patterns of their tails depend greatly on their living environment, and can change depending on where in the ocean they live or spend their time. Quintessence has a beautiful blue tail, because she spends a great deal of time near the surface, interacting with the land guppies. The blue helps her to camouflage from passing ships and hide from pirates. The shape of her fluke is reminiscent of the betta fish that lived in the river she was born in.

Quinn doesn’t have any pets of her own, but loves to make friends with many of the Malibu sea life, especially the Zalophus californianus, or California sea lion, which are her favorite playful critters. Her favorite food is Alaria kelp, but ONLY when it’s cooked the way her mother makes it. In fact, she loves that kelp so much that she and her creative sea sister Orielle dried, preserved, and made a top from it, decorating it with pearls they collected from a clams nest near their home. Orielle and Quinn have the most epic adventures! She still remembers the day they first rode a hippocampus! He was so big, and scary looking, but Quinn learned that day never to judge a clam by it’s shell! Just because he looked really different from all the other creatures she’d seen, doesn’t mean she needed to fear him! Quinn, and many of her sea sisters applied that lesson to humans as well, and today they can be seen coming from alllll across the world to visit land guppies for their birthdays or other special events!

Now, Quinn gets to see hippocampi every time King Triton rides them into the coral city for his quarterly royal summit with Queen Catalina. Quinn is still too young to attend the summit on her own, so she has never personally met King Triton or his Daughter Ariel, who live far away in the Atlantic off the Brazilian coast. One day, when she’s older, she’ll be invited by Queen Catalina to attend the summit along with all of her sea sisters. Quinn is still only 132 years old, which is practically a baby compared to the rest of her family. She ages about at about 1/6 the rate of her human counter parts, and yet they still are always able to find PLENTY in common! One of her favorite things to do is sing for the humans! But don’t worry, children are immune to the effects of The Ondine’s siren song. Besides, She’d much rather sing the songs she’s learned from the land girls and boys, during her various escapades, because she LOVES when the children sing along with her!

Certifications:

• American Red Cross Lifeguard

• American Red Cross Adult First Aid, CPR, and AED

• American Red Cross Child and Infant First Aid, CPR, and AED

• PADI Open Water SCUBA Diver

• PADI Level 1 Freediver

Costume Notes:

It is not possible to request a specific tail costume color on this mermaid as she rotates her looks (accessories, braid colors, and tail) seasonally.