Madness string 2412

Random mermaid
The arrangement has its terms, but they involve no epic and bloody battle of the wits with the dire sir Reginald, no crossing the vast expanses of the plains of Dorani littered with the shimmering shards of broken things, no open war with the dragon Zaori amidst the fire rain as Shintaiden falls from the sky, no wrestling with a mongoose, and no long drunken bouts of workaround-oriented programming after a deadline pushed back month after month for lack of an Ironholds. It doesn't make for a particularly good story.

If you ever want to make yourself feel bad, just think back on something that had turned out to have been staring you in the face all along, and everything you did wrong while you'd failed to see it. Not really a productive use of your time, but we can't spend all our time being productive, now can we?