Aspasia has her momma radar coming out to realize the crush. I'm not surprised that Nia's dad didn't notice - he seems like a bit of an oblivious oaf, haha, but in the nicest way. I think that they're a nice pair, and they clearly love each other which is really nice. I think that sometimes people just keep saying that two people love each other and then don't really show it with their actions, but Aspasia and Jath are like teenagers in the honeymoon phase lmao. I love it. They're cute.

Marcel is in quite the predicament too, isn't he? If he thinks it was a mere coincidence that he was sent to such a poor and struggling community? He needs this a lot. There's a good person hidden somewhere deep within him, I know there is. I hope that being in a nonprofit will help open his eyes to his privilege. He's not a bad guy, just is having a bad time. Traveling a bad path, per say. I'm excited to see how journey and his growth.

And we've got our three clan girls coming up next! How exciting! Can't wait to meet them! Nice little chapter.

hihi hello I'm just really really excited to see where, well, everything goes! I sense some Baggage and I'm excited to see what happened there, honestly I'm just excited in general aaaaaaaaaa! Larra's here already and wow I wasn't expecting NIA to get to pick the girls from the clans :O all in all: super good, really really excited for what comes next, and this is honestly the first Selection fic I've read in like... ever? so I don't really have a benchmark for Selection fics, that aside I suspect any other ones I read after this are going to pale in comparison to this one :D keep up the good work!

HI! Finally I sat down to consume this story, I know I’m super late and I’m sorry, may wasn’t my month.

And let me tell you: I only started reading Aspasia’s part and I’m already taken by your writing. I love the nostalgia of it, how Aspasia reminiscing the past and how her kids acted. It’s just so cute and beautiful, I couldn’t stop smiling reading the whole part. Makes me want to see some flashbacks of the kids, get to know them as kids because they sound charming!

And then you show us Dezmond (btw I love the names you chose for the characters!), a complete change of atmosphere. I really like the way you constructed the first two lines, it’s really simple but perfectly shows how Dez felt, much better than long descriptions would. And I feel for him, boy deserves some sleep, wish I could just hug him and maybe take some of his anxiety away.

“Queen and King of Ichreave” love that little play with Schreave name. ;)

His powers are super cool, by the way. I want them (yes, I am scared of darkness).

Oh shoot, Rodana just did that. She stole my heart. I love her.

(Also, that’s super interesting thing to mention: aren’t merkind able to procreate while in their mermaid/merman forms? Does it mean the merkind was always strictly tied to land and dependant on whether or not someone of the merkind discovered they can live on the land, not only in water? Sorry, I just find the whole thing super interesting.)

Okay, I changed my mind, I want Ro’s powers! Water? So cool! I speak as an ex synchronized swimmer, it would make things so much easier!

(And I like Ro even more: “It’s not a gender thing, it’s mine” yass, girl!)

Ooof, Niamh’s attitude is something. (Shoot, I feel like I had a character named Niamh once and she was fabulous, and I can already tell your Niamh is also fabulous, can’t wait to see her with the girls!) I’m definitely on her side on this, there’s nothing mandatory about that, although some of these stories might be interesting! But I reckon Niamh already heard all of them.

I wonder how Nixie and Niamh’s relationship will develop, it already sounds like a very interesting relationship. But at the same time: I feel a little bad for Niamh, her maid is, after all, strictly under the Queen’s orders, so no matter how close they are, Nixie might take Queen’s side more often than not, she’s obligated to do so. So yeah, I wonder how will it go, especially during the Selection.

Oh, dressing fancy for breakfast, I wish! The only person to see me during my breakfast is myself, and sometimes I still dress up, haha. But I understand Niamh point of view, it must be tiring dressing up for something that pretends to be normal and daily activity. Better get ready to do it every single day, young lady.

Ooooh, the giving up torpe! Can’t wait to see and learn more about it, I remember our little conversation about it and it’s still as interesting and exciting for me! Also, love how you introduced it, as a side comment, not getting into details of what Niamh meant.

Ro is definitely someone I will look forward to seeing n every single chapter, she’s just so funny in her bluntness and “I don’t give a damn” attitude. Adds lots of spice to this whole story. :D

Oooh, Niamh and ice, seems fitting for now (I have to admit, she’s a little cold :)). Another cool power (the pun intended), how will I get over all those amazing talents? I’ll die from jealousy and I’ll blame you, KJ!

(And the “mom!” and Queen’s amazing reply “You provoke her honey”. The Queen’s amazing, Long Live Aspasia!)

Ooooh, the last time they eat breakfast together? Now I’m getting emotional!

Ooof, once again I agree with Niamh, finding love should be private, without the pressure of the whole world watching. Poor girl, she doesn’t know what awaits her.

Oh no, does it mean we won’t see more of Ro? Big sad.

Tensions between Ro and Aspasia? *eyes* Wonder what that’s about, being sensitive to magic isn’t explaining it enough for me, I’m curious!

Yes, Niamh definitely is jealous because she doesn’t have freckles. Freckles are awesome!

Oh god, I didn’t want to mention it earlier, but does Niamh have a little crush on Nixie? Sounds like it and I’m all for it!

Now I feel so bad for her, and for Nixie too (am I the only one who thought she sounded disappointed when Niamh mentioned Ro, almost as if she was waiting for Niamh to say she had feelings for her? big sad). But the drama! It’ll be delicious, I can’t wait. (Yes, I’m cruel like that).

“Kiss my ass” yeah, she wishes. :D

Imran is such a nice boy, helping Niamh like that, I like him very much! Also *eyes* teleportation? The one power half of the world wishes to possess? The boy’s lucky, that’s for sure.

Alright, I like all the siblings and it’s impossible for me to choose my favourite, they all have their strong sides and weaknesses and I love it. Great job creating five totally different siblings and making them work and have amazing, interesting dynamics, it’s great to read, KJ!

Oh, Tasyia was shady, skipping Niamh like that and I wonder what her reasons were? Also blurting out to the whole country that she’s gay was… unexpected. I kinda thought her family knew, but now there’s even more drama to be had and I’m excited!

Overall, I absolutely love the first chapter and worldbuilding you presented us, very good job. I really like your writing and wording, you managed to capture all the characters in different, unique ways and you definitely know what you do. Ah, I’m super excited for this story!

I’m mad at myself for missing it when you posted, since I wanted to submit (and if you still need someone, let me know, I can express-fill the form with whoever you need ;D). Once again, sorry you waited so long for me to review. Now onto the next chapter!

hi hello I fucking love this, time to make a character :D

I feel like every time a read a new sibling's POV, I change my mind about which one of them is my favorite. Rodana is always fun, with some sort of quip or witty retort readied on her tongue, but it also feels like every other word that comes out of her mouth is some variation of fuck. Lol, honestly, same girl, same. She's got a really chaotic energy about her, but her insight is fun. She's the kind of character that I don't mind reading, but she is best suited as a side character because it could easily become grating after awhile. If I knew her in real life, I would hate her with every ounce of my being, but reading her is fun. I feel like she's probably one of the closest siblings to Niamh, but it might just be that girl power keeping them close. I'm surprised none of the siblings started to realize Niamh's secret - you'd think if she never dated or showed interest in the men around her that somebody would start to at least start leaning in that direction. Maybe it's just me reading too much into the interactions she had with her fairy crush, bc the gay vibes were hella strong.

I also think that Imran is such a sweetheart, he's the one I find myself relating to the most out of the five. He reminds me of a puppy. His innocence is hard to even put into words, but I enjoy every moment of seeing him. Very telling that he's the youngest of the five, because he fits the stereotype of the baby of the family to a T - not that it's a bad thing that he fits in there, a lot of stereotypes are there because they're often true. He's the most honest soul of all of them, I think, and I'm gonna miss his softness.

I feel like we're not supposed to really like Marcel that much, but I find myself sympathizing with him regardless. He seems to genuinely want to be a good king, he's just a little misguided on how to do that. He easily comes off as the most mature of the group, which isn't saying much because I think the only other sibling I would dare use the word mature for would have to be Dezmond, and even that feels like a little bit of stretch. I hope that they can mend the bond with Marcel, bc I would be heartbroken for him if he lost his familial bond over being stubborn.

Niamh really is on her own, too, huh? I was under the assumption that she would have an upper hand with her parents being in the same place as her, but it looks like they're taking a back seat. It must be so hard for these siblings that have always been together to suddenly be gone. I feel like saying goodbye to your children wouldn't have negatively affected their independence that much, but I suppose it's their decision as parents to make. It's also an interesting choice for Nia to have so much power in her Selection - it's almost like she's the crown princess as well as the selection coordinator. I wonder if she will try to abuse that power later into the story. I'm intrigued.

Anyway, I feel like I've rambled on enough. Great chapter! Got my lady in the works, so hopefully she can be finished relatively soon and sent in! I'm excited to see what you've got cooking so far, because the pieces are all set to have quite a story on our hands.

I know you know that I’d be here XD

I loved the chapter and the Queen is probably the one I liked to read the most, even with her very quick POV. Des is very interesting too, but his sister felt way more fun to me (and gay).

I am preparing my child for you.

Okay hoe! I'm finally here to do this form and enter this world! All this world building you shared with me so *eyes* I'm excited! Definitely gonna make a clan girl. Let me hop on over to the profile.

Anyways, I love the sibling relations, they're so funny, fighting and Rodana is a queen. But oh? Unstable magic tolerance? I wonder what trouble that could lead to. It's certainly going to be fun to watch all these beans unfold. AND I LOVE THAT MARCEL IS HIGH AND MIGHTY AND GETS CIVILIAN hahaha serves him right indeed.

Aspasia is such a sweetheart, and I love the relationship between her and her husband. They're so calm and home-y. Couple goals for real right here. Speaking of relationships, Rodana and a secret boyfriend? Interesting. And Niamh with Nixie, ohhh they're cute, but not sure if I ship them, or just want them to be BFFs, guess we'll see as this Selection plays out!

yooooo I LOVE THIS! don't have the braincells to come up with an OC rn but you better believe I'm gonna! KJ THIS IS AWESOME! it's a selection but there's FAIRIES and there's LESBIANS HELL YEAH!

Don't mind me and my novella format reviews, but I am here and opinions I have! I typically review kind of sporadically, simply scrolling down when I have some sort of coherent thought lmao. To start from our first POV, we might not have learned a lot about the Queen but I 100% was sucked into this world. It's always fun to see a sort of AU version of the world in a SYOC kind of story, so I'm already on my tippy toes interested in seeing what you plan on doing with the world. Plus, the symbolic genius of starting your story with a sunrise is not lost on me. It's so simple, yet perfect. Especially since our queen and Dezmond both started their stories with that sunrise. Nice touch, I liked it a lot.

His merman form? Oh, lordy, was I taken aback here. I was definitely not expecting something like that. Like, I was enjoying our sibling banter before, but that added a whole new level. Is there a superpower/mythical creature thing going on here because I am so into it. Dezmond himself also seems fairly likeable - from this tiny glimpse we've gotten of him so far. I'm a little sentimental about the name, but that's totally a personal thing for me that just gives him bonus points.

I see Niamh is our resident royal that hates being royal princess. Do I hate that? Absolutely not. Tropes are a thing, sure, but they can always be used in different ways to allieviate that cliche feeling. I have no idea how her name is supposed to be pronounced. Other than that, I find myself kind of liking little Niamh. I was a little thrown off by the pixie girl - i think mostly because in my head when i think of a pixie I imagine them as very small. It makes much more sense that she's just fairly short, rather than like five inches in height lol. This also peaks my interest because I was sort of under the impression from the beginning that maybe only certain people had these other forms? I thought maybe the 'commonfolk' would just be human and maybe that being some sort of mythical beast would be an elite or royal thing. Does everyone have some sort of mystical background like in Onward? Or is it like an Avatar Last Airbender kind of universe where some people have these sort of abilities and some don't? Ahem, I must read further to pinpoint my thoughts.

The scene with all of the siblings together was absolute chaos. Truly. It was smart of you to put this later into the chapter, because having met three of the five before this interaction definitely helped my keep them all apart in my head. I think that, so far, Dezmond might be my favorite of the five? Also, this whole 'trial' thing is super mesmerizing. I appreciate that we're learning about it slowly, because this easily could've been a massive info dump of lore and clans and magic and trials, but instead we're learning it bit by bit. I also am starting to form an idea of how these powers work, considering that the queen clearly has some sort of fishy magic, and all of the children that have displayed powers have something in a similar vein - ice, water manipulation, merman. This makes me assume that there's some sort of hereditary nature to the powers - although, I didn't quite gather that the king had anything to do with that? Perhaps it's more subtle for him, or perhaps the powers can be passed on from either side of the family. But then we have Marcel saying he's a shapeshifter and the argument about healing powers or light powers, which makes me think maybe that your lineage doesn't have anything to do with the powers you get. I don't know. Either way, I'm incredibly invested into the idea and the world.

Okay, I am back after reading a little bit farther only to be a little more fanatic. So they get to choose their powers, in some sense. That is very exciting. Although I personally like the idea of being stuck with what you get, it adds a whole new layer and dynamic to the concept of having powers in the first place. I don't think I've read a story with powers where they have any sort of a choice. Bonus points for originality.

The relationship we have between Nixie and Niamh is so precious. I'm surprised they didn't have awkward adolescent years to find their feelings for each other. I always like the drama of the girl having a Selection having feelings for someone else in the palace - means that her Selected have to work that much harder, you know? I feel bad that these two don't have much hope for a relationship, because they get along so well. Honestly, if Nixie doesn't know, she's really egging on the gay vibes having a tickle fight. I wonder if those feelings will be spilled eventually.

Is it weird that i almost feel like this entire thing is more of a novella in itself than a fanfiction? Haha. The only thing vaguely similar to the Selection is the singular trial. I'm living for it though. It definitely makes this story stand out a lot from your typical Selection. Also, ending the chapter here with the princess coming out of the closet on national television. Iconic. I love her. I also appreciate even more how much sibling banter we got in this chapter, considering we might not be seeing much of them before they leave for their trials. I look forward to seeing more about what the other trials consist of. Like, obviously the Selection is a trial for love, but what are the other ones? I'd assume that they're all some sort of thing to build character and provide personal growth for the royal children.

I feel like I've rambled enough. Tl;dr : love the concept, love the characters, can't wait to see what you've got in store for this story. Living for it and hopeful that I'll be able to submit to such a groundbreaking story in this fandom.

Hey hey! You know how I love a magical Selection... And this one was amazing! I'm just kind of in awe of all the worldbuilding and plot and characters... And you have a beautiful style! Unfortunately, I don't think I'll submit a character, but I'll still read! And whomst? Is that a word? Lol I was dying, I think a feisty character with water powers is wonderful. Nixie is so fun, and these trials are very interesting... Just one more way Illea has found to put a label on people... But I think the whole concept is just really cool, you're so talented!

KJ? KJ OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO WORTH THE WAIT? THE BREAKFAST SCENE HAD ME CACKLING, I WOULD KINDA DIE FOR DEZMOND AND IMRAN, NIAMH YOU POOR USELESS LESBIAN. 10000/10 WOULD RECOMMEND. I can tell how much thought you put into this I've seen the worldbulding doc it is AMAZING like holy SHIT. I caNNoT wait for the next chapter, im thoroughly invested in all of their stories