Nice. I especially liked the hidden mythical creatures.

I did very poorly when tried to solve this, but pretty much every solution made me go "oh, of course!" in hindsight.

I wasn't aware that "aline" was a word, but apparently it's an alternative form of "align". Learned something new there.

"Stephen" made me chuckle (I usually don't like that kind of solution, but this one just struck me as funny, for some reason).

Overall, it was fun. Thanks!

I think it's A- line as in type of skirt? :)

Poor. Didn't find things like Stephen and Steptoe amusing or clever

Ah, of course. Yes, "A-line" does make more sense. :)

It was, indeed, A=line, as in the skirt. Should I have included the hyphen?

I’m still rather new at this so I’m interested in the comments.

I appreciate that Stephen was a bit cute but I enjoy playing and making these puzzles because they force me to make slightly tenuous connections. That said, I suppose it might have been fairer to have had all names for the Steps.

Thanks for all your comments

I don't think you needed to include the hyphen; it may in fact have detracted from the puzzle.

Maybe it's a matter of taste, but I personally prefer when grids explain their solutions in a bit more detail. In this case it would have been nice to see a list of the four terms, as opposed to simply "All combine with line" -- like you did with the list of hidden mythical humanoids.

Jeez! My eyes are getting worse I can’t tell the - from the = without a good squint. Will add more explanation when it seems it would help. Thanks for the input.

wordy tricks like the step group are a plus in my opinion! Do what you do, if people don't like your style, there are myriad grids and setters. Your grid wasn't technically faulty, just not to some people's taste. I found it witty.