#mer!noct

[milofantasychronicles]

Sooooo... I've been absolutely enamored by @aithilin 's beautiful fic Salt and Stone for ages, and her rewrite got me all inspired to participate in Mer-May myself! I just had to draw the Mer from her fic!

There's a lot I'm proud of with these, like Noct's colors, Prompto's booty, and Gladio's tattoo. Still a lot of improvements to be made (@!$*?%ing hands!) too but I'm pretty happy with the result over all!

[konaharts]

Smol Mer!Noct in a bowl. c:

[graychocobo]

I got inspired by Izuumii’s art to create my own mer!au for ffxv. Noctis is a sleeper shark while Prompto is a narwhal. I still haven’t figured out what Gladio and Ignis are yet, but I’ll draw them once I figure it out.

[powerofkings]

“fish tale”

Send “fish tale” for an AU where my muse is a merperson.

The lake in the woods held a secret that Noctis rather enjoyed. 

It didn’t have a bottom. Instead if you went far enough down and to the side, eventually it became full of salt, and if you followed that even further, eventually it went into the sea.

It was nice, getting a view of inland, and few others dared the caves, so it was often some place he could explore on his own. This time, as he came up, he saw a human leaning over, and decided to have some fun.

He swam powerfully straight up, stopping only as his face popped up above the surface, just below the human’s. And then he whistled.

“Hi!” 

[konaharts]

I forgot my usual reference for him and drew this after work one day ;;;; Have a Mer!Noct!

[tauricxiv]

[tauricxiv]

Shore

Merfolk do not kiss. Noctis had never pressed his mouth to the mouth of another mer, nor had he ever desired to. But humans did engage in the strange behavior. He’d seen them up on the docks at Galdin Quay, or upon the sandy beach. They’d squish their bodies close to one another, and lock their mouths together. Then, they’d pull apart, faces flushed as if they’d spent hours basking in the sun. Noctis couldn’t help but wonder why they did it. 

“Why do humans kiss?” he asked one day when Ignis came for one of his regular visits. His human friend was sitting in a chair with his long legs crossed, drinking a can of that foul-tasting liquid he liked, when suddenly his body jerked and he was coughing.

Ignis turned away, coughing into his shoulder with startling ferocity. Noctis held himself up on his hands and watched with concern. He wanted to go to him, but dragging his tail across the shore was neither easy nor pleasant. He was relieved when Ignis waved a hand in the air, letting Noctis know whatever was wrong was not serious. 

“Apologies,” Ignis wheezed. “I seem to have inhaled some Ebony.” Ignis was still letting out smaller, less painful sounding coughs, but he settled back in his chair. “What was it you said, Noct?”

“I wanted to know why humans kiss,” he said. Ignis made a face but didn’t choke on his drink this time.

“That’s… a bit complicated. I take it merfolk do not?”

“No,” he said and rolled onto his back, arms tucked under his head. “Why would we push our mouths together? That’s weird.”

“Hmm. I suppose it is a strange custom when one is not familiar with it. I guess the simplest answer is: to express affection for one another.”

Noctis was doubtful and Ignis must have read as much from his expression. “What ways do your kind show their affections?”

“Practical ways. Gifts and stuff.”

“Gifts? Such as?”

Noctis shrugged. “Like fish. If you feel affection you show it by catching a really big delicious fish for them.”

Ignis adjusted his glasses. “I see. Much like that trevally you presented me with two days ago?”

Now it was Noctis’ turn to have his breath sputter, somehow he’d let air in through his gills. “N-no! That was– I just– I wanted you to have something good to eat.” 

Ignis chuckled. “It was delicious. Thank you again, Noct.”

Noctis pushed up on one arm and studied his human friend. Ignis would make for a very handsome mer, he thought, and not for the first time. He still couldn’t decide what color his scales would be. Maybe sea-green? Or a sandy-gold like his hair? Maybe his tail would be speckled like a rock barramundi? 

Still, as nice as it was to think of Ignis as merfolk, Noctis couldn’t deny he liked his friend on two legs.

“So, kissing…” Noctis said, bringing the conversation back around. “It’s weird. But,” he chose his words carefully and studied Ignis for his reaction, “maybe I would understand it better if I tried it?”

Ignis swallowed. He set his can of Ebony down. “You would need someone for whom you feel affection," he said at length.

“And that someone would have to be human, right?”

“Naturally.” Ignis’ tongue darted out to wet his lips. 

“Well,” Noctis said, his eyes following the movement. “Seeing as I only have one human I feel affection for, I guess I’ll have to ask him.”

“Noct–”

“Will you kiss me, Specs?”

Merfolk do not kiss. And Noctis couldn't help but find that tragic as Ignis dropped down onto the sand and bowed over him. His arms wrapped around Noctis’ body, pulling him up and into him. Ignis’ lips were soft against his own, but they were demanding. Noctis tried to keep up with them. Ignis invaded his senses. All he could smell, feel, taste, was Ignis. 

When his body demanded air he felt the loss of those lips against his. Ignis pulled away, his face red like he’d spent hours basking in the sun. It was a good look.

“Noct, I…” His glasses had fallen askew. He reached up to fix them. 

“I think I get it now,” said Noctis. 

“Do you?” said Ignis, cautiously. 

Noctis grinned. “Maybe. Might need to try again, just to be sure.”

Ignis was more than happy to oblige.

[tauricxiv]

Rescued

It took some time for Ignis to adjust to the cold ocean water splashing against his ankles. He had abandoned his shoes back on the beach and rolled his pant legs up as high as they could go before taking a seat on the rocks. His kit was balanced next to him, just above the gentle breaking waves. The rocky shoreline was not the most ideal place for this kind of thing, but given his patient couldn’t exactly walk to dryer land, he had to make do. 

“Stop fiddling with it,” Ignis admonished as he picked out the right tools for the job—a small pair of scissors he used for sewing buttons. “You’ll only exacerbate the problem.”

“But it hurts,” Noctis whined but did as he was told, lying back on the rock and closing his eyes. His long tail draped down into the water and every so often, out of reflex, or to distract himself, he would flick his tail fin, sending the slightest mist into the air that cooled his skin. 

Ignis shook his head. Draped across the rock as he was, the mer was the embodiment of all the poetic waxings of beautiful sirens luring unsuspecting sailors to their doom. His black downy hair clung to damp sun-kissed skin, framing his elegant features. 

Ignis blinked. He was letting himself become distracted. He needed to focus on the task at hand.

Noctis enjoyed sunning on the rocks more than any mer Ignis knew, but today the mer prince wasn’t merely lazing about. His fish-tailed friend had had an unfortunate run-in with an angler’s line, and a rather nasty looking hook had pierced one of his fins and snagged his side. Thankfully, Noctis had thought better of trying to untangle himself and come to Ignis. 

Ignis adjusted his glasses. He had to work carefully to untangle the thin fishing wire from the pelvic fin before he could do anything about the hook. If he was too hasty he could end up tearing the delicate membrane. A couple snips with the scissors had the line cut free. Now only the hook remained.  

Ignis bent low to get a closer look. “Hmm, it seems to have pulled up a few of your scales,” he said, noting how several of the blue-black scales stood out at odd angles. 

“Yeah, no kidding. Can you get it out already?”

Ignis hummed. His glasses slid down his nose, but Ignis was too focused to push them back up. He reached out to his kit without looking and felt around until he found the pliers. Ignis worked carefully, doing his best not to cause his friend any further damage. It was tricky. The barbed end had caught the flesh under his scales. He had to gingerly maneuver the hook to get the barb back out but within seconds it came free.

“There, all done,” Ignis smiled and looked up to show the hook to Noctis. He didn’t expect to find Noctis staring at him. The mer’s ocean-blue eyes were locked on him with such intensity Ignis nearly dropped the tool. Noctis must have noticed Ignis’ surprise because he gave a small chuckle. The mer propped himself up on one hand, and Ignis moved back out of his space. 

Noctis inspected his injured fin. “Doesn’t look so bad,” he said, giving it an experimental flick. “Still stings though. And I’m gonna lose those scales.”

“They’ll grow back, no?” he asked, with a frown. Noctis wasn’t without scars—he still bore the marks from the seadevil attack—but Ignis had hoped to minimize the damage.

“Yeah, but I’m gonna get an earful from Gladio once he finds out why.”

“Perhaps next time you’ll keep your distance from fishing boats?” 

“Hmm? Why should I when I know I’ll have you to rescue me?” 

“That fisherman must be so disappointed, to have snagged a fish as large as you only to break his line.” Ignis paused before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He smirked. “I imagine you’ve inspired quite the tail.”

Noctis groaned and flicked his tail, drenching Ignis with cold water.