@legomonkiekidfan514 thank you for asking about this au because it made me think about grandma for more than five minutes and it proceeded to drive myself to tears. Hence: comic.
This au is definitely still in the vague-vibes-that-haunts-your-every-waking-moment stage so I hadn't thought about who is taking care of Wind and Aryll. I did, however, start thinking about Grandma I recently started playing wind waker and the way Link refused to tell his grandma what happened to Aryll in order to not worry her to death but also she clearly saw something was wrong anyways and was fretting at him I THINK I CRIED so for the people interested here ya go:
She had a lot of siblings growing up that all drifted away as they got older, pursuing ambition in the mainland and leaving her behind
She always loved the sea and all the life associated with it. This interest united her with her husband and this love was passed down to her son who became a sailor when he became of age.
Despite the sea taking her son from her, she never stopped loving it.
Her husband stayed as long as he could with her, but succumbed to illness a few years after her son's death.
She gave her son the telescope, which her son in turn gave to Aryll when he met the siblings on one of his voyages
Aryll tried to return the telescope to Grandma when they met, but Grandma refused. Telling her it would be much happier being with someone who could actually use it.
I have three ideas regarding the relationship between Grandma's son and Wind and Aryll:
First: Grandma's son met a mermaid on his travels and fell in love with her. This mermaid was Aryll's and Wind's mother, so that made him their step dad. They didn't haven much time together, as soon after the both of them perished during a storm (the mom tried to save him but got crushed instead). Wind remembers their mom vaguely, Aryll doesn't.
Second: the mom is completely out of the picture and Grandma's son was just a Random GuyTM that Aryll and Wind kept bumping into. At one point the both of them got attached enough to seek him out but they only had his telescope to find him with. This is how they met Grandma, from whom they learned that the Swell Guy They Sometimes Hanged With died at sea.
Third: I'm mixing mermaid lore here, but you know the idea that mermaids are people who died at sea? So my brain gave me the following terrible thought: what if Aryll and Wind actually were Grandma's biological grandkids but they were the only ones that survived the storm by some kind of stupid divine miracle and turned into mers? Altering them permanently, but also granting them the ability to return to their grieving grandmother even if they might not remember her?
This third idea made me incredibly sad, so I am sticking the the first and second ideas for now.
As for who is taking care of them when they aren't with Grandma? For now I've put down that the mers are into raising their children communally, but also letting them have much more freedom than land dwelling children have. So everyone takes care of them. Also Linebeck is there too I guess. Wind likes pestering him.
(In case you are reading this, anon that asked me about the twilight wild and time mer forms, they are coming soon I am just very slow at drawing and incredibly indecisive about their designs ;-;)
I always tell myself "oh I'm going to rearrange my books suuuuuper quick" and then 648292 hours later I'm on the floor surrounded by every book I own like are you stupid. Are you fucfimhng stupid???
Saying "Ah I'll play a little Ace Attorney" is dangerous because, as it turns out, each case takes a couple hours. And what are you gonna do? Stop in the middle of a case? Forget you own the game for several weeks? Come back and forget all the evidence? No you gotta do the whole thing. Your evening plans are canceled.
