I tried to collect every question you all shot at me, but if you feel like there's something missing, tell me and I'll add. Also you can make more questions, I'll update the FAQ whenever I see something that spikes my loredumping interest or something that more than one person gets confused with.
🐚art by @oh-my-sanity
1. Does Sukuna (and any other merfolk) get sexual arousal like a human male (I know he suggested breeding to reader because he wanted readers pain to go away, but was part of it also arousal?). I can only assume there's a regular mating season/seasons for merfolk as well
Yes! They have a mating seasons, although it’s hard to pinpoint which seasons are those in the specific case of Great Whites, but it’s probably between summer and fall, and I’ll say it happens because of the temperature of the water rises to a degree that gets them all giddy and ready to engage in their complex courtship. Which, well, is unfortunate for Reader. Great Whites show courtship by biting their females for leverage, so… there’s that… 😫 We ought to pray Sukuna won’t go in heat and end up hurting her. In the facility the climate and the whole environment was controlled, so no variation of temperatures happened — which, oof, old ass scientists didn’t really think that shit through. What kind of dumbass wants to study a species and doesn’t bother to mimic their real habitat?
2. Does Sukuna secretly wish reader could carry his offspring? (can humans even get pregnant by merfolk, it seems like they can't unless reader got lucky) It doesn't seem like he wants any, but still.
Humans (unfortunately) normally can’t get pregnant by merfolk’s seeds.
HOWEVER, depending on the species and how they reproduce, things aren’t as simple and a human can end up carrying his pups. Sukuna can, AND HE DID, fill Reader up with both eggs and his seed, which would be enough to get another merfolk, Great White Shark merfolk, pregnant on the spot, but since Reader’s body was — first time, on the pill and he laid his eggs up her ass while his seed went up the right channel, oooooops, and second time, weak and needing desperately nutrients, she was lucky not to end up with any fertilized eggs latching onto her uterus’ walls.
The eggs that come out of his upper appendage are not that big, and they are really soft, having a gelatinous consistence.
Think about those big boba balls with black color and gelatinous consistence.
They are quite literally the equivalent of the eggs that are usually produced by the female’s ovaries, but in this species’ case, the male deposits them inside the female, then they go up to her uterus and wait to be fertilized by the male’s seed.
So the male offers both eggs and sperm? Yeah, odd, I know. Anyway, they get to the perfect ambient, all cozy and warm, and some of them do get fertilized and happen to latch on the uterus’ walls.
The fertilized eggs hatch inside the mother's body, and the pups are then born alive in his species. In this process, known as oophagy, the first embryos to hatch may consume other eggs or smaller siblings inside the uterus.
3. How long/big is Sukuna? How warm is he in comparison to a human (avg. human temp in fahrenheit is 97-99 degrees F)
Sukuna’s body is between 40ºc ~ 45ºc, he’s a damn furnace. He also likes to sunbathe like a lil gecko.
And no I don't speak in freedom units I'm so sorry 😔🫴
I hope this drawing helps you because I made it 4:30am and I refuse to do measuring math sobs
4. My brain didn't memorize if you mentioned it in a chapter itself: what does Sukuna (and others) smell like? Is it distinct for what reader can smell, or is it a general fishy/sea smell?
He smells like seasalt, iron, copper and something she defines as smokey/bitter, which is just the mix up of minerals from deep sea water and sulfur. But each merfolk may smell like the surroundings where they live/hunt.
5. Freaky? question: What do Sukunas eggs and semen taste/feel like.
Listen, I’m gonna say his seed tastes like caviar and I don’t want people to tell me it’s impossible okay, he cums deliciously—
And the eggs are… okay kinda like this, the link is from youtube but it’s a sex toy, so please watch CAREFULLY.
6. What is Sukuna's backstory? Is merfolk birthing, at least in the shark species, the same? (i.e. eggs are laid and pups are by themselves from the start) Or do merfolk give live birth?
The birthing depends on the species of the merfolk, or shark, for that matter. I explained his species above, but a few species just lay eggs and those eggs hatch outside of the mother.
And even those species who lay eggs have navels and nipples, because biology, anatomy and saltblood are — unarguably — very strange. And they are part human, so there's that.
7. If reader were to die, what would Sukuna do? Would he become terribly depressed and die? Or will he just go back to how he was instinctively of eat and live, just with zero emotions and seclude himself more.
He would, first of all, seek revenge. Oh who? On what? That's for him to decide. That’s the first stage of him processing his feelings. Then he would slowly go back to the ways of loneliness, the carved path he already followed daily before being captured and forced into the facility. He would be depressed, but not in a way he would name, just feel.
8. If reader changes into her seal merfolk form, would she stay with Sukuna, or leave to try to find her own new kin?
That’s been shown in the Epilogue, because I’m a merciful god, as much as I’m a ruinous one.
9. Can merfolk eat both human food (say ice cream or burgers) and sea food? Or just sea food
They can, but they… may digest and process the food wrong, they will probably have a bad time depending on the ingredients. If it’s too damn sweet, sugar is always a poison, they would feel sick as fuck after the initial sugar-rush.
10. How does turning into a merfolk work exactly in regards to the animal? I might've missed something when reading, but like in readers case of becoming a seal: can one change just based upon what they say/think they want to become?
Temperature, pressure, food and thought-process, including how would they aclimate and adapt better, what kind of life they would like to have and such. Saltblood takes nest into your body, brain, blood, everything. It's really similar to Venom, the character from Marvel? Yeah, but from inside out and without the will, the voice, the brain overtaking. You keep your individuality all the while it metamorphs your entire body.
But that happened really in the beginning of human evolution, nowadays Reader is the only (known) case of this change from human that was, well, human for most her life, to merfolk. A future question makes me dive deeper into it.
There’s someone else who went through the same, but we might see to that in the future.
Idk the fuck I’m being ominous for, it’s Suguru we all know it.
11. Do merfolk crossbreeds exist? Let's say reader transforms fully and her and Sukuna fuck again, could they have crossbreed children, and if so, are the respective traits separate or could it be a shark/seal and human looks mix?
I think the eggs would latch onto her mostly because of the Great Whites’ way of reproduction is mostly the male doing the 'job' of fertilizing the eggs. He offers the eggs and the seed, she offers the incubation and the hormones. The genes, however, would be predominantly his, so they would be little great white pups. But that hasn’t happened yet, a crossbreed experiment, so let’s see if they fuck and give us the pleasure of knowing what does a Great White Seal looks like.
12. How many types of merfolk are there in this universe? Is there a type, for example, for each tropical fish that we know of? Can someone just be like, a starfish?
Each typical fish and marine mammals as well! Starfishes, however, are invertebrates, so that wouldn’t be very cash money of them, no.
The poor merfolk would just become and feel their bones melting away, oooooof
13. How the heck did Suguru change if he is indeed a new-hybrid as Sukuna suspects, and how did he knows what to do for reader, because it seems like becoming a merfolk is forbidden knowledge in a way.
He has had access to some ancient knowledge + he was a damn nerdy scientist before he actually became what he is now. He wasn’t the first one being lured in by this ancient creature, who is a merfolk, mind you, but he was the one who made the transformation work perfectly, and the one who prevailed and kept going after more and more knowledge.
14. Did Suguru find Mimiko and Nanako in a similar situation like in JJK canon, and THEN change them? (and did he do it before or after he himself changed) Or did Suguru as a hybrid find them abandoned as merfolk and took them in? (or, and I could see him doing this, did he make them?)
Suguru as a hybrid saved them from a fishing vessel that had them and a ton of fish caught up in their net. He cut them out, they were even younger when it happened, and he took care of them until… now
He will forever attend to them, they are now his gremlin daughters. He doesn’t experiment with saltblood anymore, once he became, he started to study from within the sea. Everything outside of the ocean that there was to study about merfolk, he studied already. Nowadays he seeks knowledge with the eldest merfolk he can find.
15. How old are Sukuna, Suguru, Toji and Mimiko and Nanako? How do merfolk age and how long do they live?
Sukuna is 29, Reader is 30, Suguru ???, Toji is 30, Mimiko and Nanako are 19.
Depends on the species! Reader is the first (known, shhh) case of human to merfolk becoming after a whole adult life, so we gotta keep an eye on that.
16. How common are are merfolk and human relationships, be it friendship, love, or other?
Also depends on the species, merfolk have personality, they are their own people, and some of them are more friendly. Dolphins, for instance, are friendly but they lack the empathy part, so they are quick to kill a human once they stop vibing with them. And Toji hangs out with humans because he likes how they taste.
But it’s rare a this point, since humans are trying to constantly capture and dissect merfolk. Once this becomes less of a mass murder, case study, freakshow, they will coexist better. And there’s me in the corner with all the Hybrid!AUs that come from that!
17. And more of a random question: Does Toji have Megumi, and if he does is Megumi with him?
No… Megumi and Mamaguro are gone. Humans got them some time ago, it’s unknown if they are alive or dead.
18. ......What of Reader’s...Reproductive organs?
They are inside the seam, just like Sukuna's, but instead of two mega-shark-dicks she has a seal-cunt
19. How advanced are they? Like, is there an educational system? Taxes? Capitalism? Because if they're this smart and they've been around as long as humans then they must be advanced.
They have their own rules and hierarchy system, they don't do... capitalism? They do primal instincts first in some species (I should expand on this shit oh god rubs my face) and other species thrive on more superficial acts, for instance some merfolk will flirt with you by giving you shiny coral pieces, seashells, even dead fish as an offering.
Some species will just deck you and you will be bred you wanting it or nah.
Yes we are talking about dolphins and orcas, who are fucking cousins 🤧
20. Since there was something like a fish city and Sukuna basically lives out in the sticks (or reefs), is Atlantis Canon?
It's not really a fish city as much as a place they all gather because of the good current, the warmth and the food, but! there are places where some species of merfolk live, and I'm making clown-fish-merfolk live in a damn giant anemone, no one can stop me.
Yes Atlantis is Canon thank you for your contribution to this world.
21. There’s clearly other kinds of merfolk, now I’m assuming they don’t live in some sort of underwater city but like, do they have their own turfs or regions?
Yes, they live in specific places, some species live in darker, murkier water, others in warmer currents, some live among reefs, others prefer the deep sea. They adapt over time just like humans adapted for the modern days, but we don’t need to get too hooked up on each species and where they would live — except the clown fish merfolk, I’m still thinking about them and giant ass anemones.
22. Something that stuck with me is the sharing and the turning thanks to the saltblood, it came to my head for a moment and it reminded me of Avatar by James Cameron, when they go from transferring a soul to an avatar by a Na’vi ritual (and the soul tree) and guided by Eywa. Do they also migrate or because they are merfolk, mixed between a marine animal and a “human” (don’t let them hear me say that), do they have very different composition; so long story short they are merfolk but are they that different from their aquatic counterpart?
Saltblood is a living organism, it reminds me of a parasite of sorts.
It will take root inside of you, everywhere, and start to change. Its survival is beholden to the ocean, the water actually, rivers and lakes do just fine — it makes the human body change so it needs the water to survive. The first changes happened within the first humans to evolve, funny enough, from water to land, and from land back to water in their case (beginning of evolution) and from there on.
Infinite breeds and specimens of merfolk brew and spread, evolving and becoming what they have at that point in Megalodon’s timeline!
If two humans that became merfolk reproduce, their offspring will already be born within the species of their parents. No becoming needed. And since the first humans already became, changed, bred, etc. the current population of merfolk all around the globe don’t really think about the possibility of humans becoming like them, the story kind of got lost.
Of course there are species that preserve and pass the myth from generation to generation, but some species just really don’t care and see humans as lesser, like Orcas and Dolphins.
23. If they are similar, assuming the scientists don’t know, even though there was a dead merfolk that was there with Sukuna, why wouldn’t they just study the marine animal they are based off?
Because they did compare some specific things, for instance a little piece of Sukuna’s fin with a Great White Shark’s fin, blood test and some tissue from his skin. It’s different in ways they can’t figure out yet, the technology and science weren’t really that advanced back then, so they wanted a live, healthy specimen to open up (probably under anesthesia, surgery kind of way of invasive exploration, very cruel but there were no ethics board haha lmfao) and poke, probe, cut and eventually kill just to try and understand its anthropology, biology, organs behavior, etc.
24. Do they have any abilities, like a merfolk type thing, like how people said back then when there were tsunamis or typhoons where caused by ocean deities?
They don’t, sadly. They have specific abilities that come with the species, like sonar communication, echolocation, some have great camouflage skills, some can simply spit ink and flee when facing danger — but seal merfolks did start the Selkies’ myth once a fisherman sighted a woman that was half seal and couldn’t conceive the idea — before humans actually found out about all the merfolk and etc. that’s why the name of the Epilogue has Selkies in it, ehe.
25. So merfolk have saltblood, do other hybrids have something similar, like the land hybrids like tiger!kuna?
Megalodon is the base of my Hybrids!AU worldbuilding, so the whole Hybryds existing starts there. From humans capturing, butchering, studying merfolk. At some point they will get to the core of it and isolate saltblood to dismantle and rebuild it. Then it finally starts, humans will do what they like to do — play god, start tweaking with genes, with mammals, with bids and reptiles, they will start experimenting on fetus, animals, children and adults, and they will invent hybrids.
Ta-da, welcome to the Lucifer’s Hybrids!AU.
26. Speaking of tiger!kuna, tigers are seen as a mythical/sacred animal, sharks back then were also seen as mythical, are there some history with shark hybrids?
I don’t doubt that in some parts of the world, little villages, maybe, people once either rescued or contacted a merfolk and nursed it back to health, then started worshipping it as a deity. That’s the beauty of things, they are all around the world, so many, many civilizations could have crossed their way and allowed merfolk to mold their religions, beliefs, stories, etc.
27. Where are Sukuna's eggs?
They were expelled by our dear Reader after the sex marathon with Sharkuna, if they had latched to her womb, we would be having… something.
28. What are lamellae?
Lamellae are one of the thin plates composing the gills!
Science part!
In fish, gill lamellae are used to increase the surface area in contact with the environment to maximize gas exchange (both to attain oxygen and to expel carbon dioxide) between the water and the blood.
In fish gills, there are two types of lamellae, primary and secondary. The primary gill lamellae (also called gill filament) extends from the gill arch, and the secondary gill lamellae extends from the primary gill lamellae.
Gas exchange primarily occurs at the secondary gill lamellae, where the tissue is notably only one cell layer thick.
Furthermore, countercurrent gas exchange at the secondary gill lamellae further maximizes oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide release. These gill lamellae are larger and have smaller pores in faster-swimming fish compared to slower-swimming fish.
First chapter of my Leon S Kennedy series is posted on my AO3! It's not the usual x reader version, but I will post that one here on Tumblr! Had a lot of fun writing this.
Anamnesis Red (96,244 words) by Sayl
Fandom: Baldur's Gate, Forgotten Realms
Relationships: The Dark Urge/Gale, Gale/Tav, The Dark Urge/Enver Gortash
Chapter 7 - Gone
Word Count: 10,097
content warning: needles, choking
Gale wakes up to find Tav missing.
Tav wakes up to a living hell.
That’s it?
“That’s your plan?” she snaps, incredulous. “Revenge?” All that scheming…all that effort to drag her down here just for payback and a different jailor?
It doesn’t sound like Gortash at all. The lack of ambition, the lack of an end game, the lack of power over anyone but her. She has no doubt he wants retribution for her betrayal, but this can’t the extent of it. Tav narrows her gaze, black eyes searching his own for any clue as to what he’s hiding. “How long have you been planning this?”
The corner of his mouth twitches upward, he leans in a fraction closer. His voice is low, gravel in his throat as it drags along malice. “Since the day you stuck a dagger in my heart.”
That’s too much time. Far too much time for just a revenge scheme. There has to be more to it, she knows how his mind works. “You’re up to something.”
A ghost of a smirk flashes and fades. Gortash says nothing. He stands, approaches the machine that still puffs its rhythmic breaths. Whatever he’s up to, he’s not talking.
“Business before pleasure, of course.” His tone brightens to that performative confidence from his inauguration, reveling in what little power he has in this moment. His bare hand grabs a lever, fingers curling around the dark iron before he throws it down with more flare than necessary. Pain jolts Tav’s thighs and forearms, her breath hitches. Half a dozen needles eject from the cuffs, stabbing into her flesh to reach her veins. Tav clenches her fists, straining against her shackles to no avail. Gortash’s eyes lock with hers as his hand settles on a second lever. “This is the easy part,” he assures her with all the contempt of a man who can’t wait to get past the easy part. “Do try to hold still; the needles tend to break off when you struggle and the health care here is…archaic, at best.”
