Oh my god, me finally posting the notes for this after... 7 months of actually creating this AU and storyline, oops. In my defense it's been through a lot of info changes to fit the current story, so I was never satisfied enough to post it until now.
The notes do include my OC for the story – Astra aka Maris, the big scary fish lady – but the rest is basically an explanation of how the mutations work, the blood ocean ecosystem, how the station on the moon came to be, etc.
If you'd like to check out the main story and some oneshots revolving around this AU, you can check out my Iron Lung Masterlist on my writing account! :)
(All of the designs I've made so far for this AU! The top is Astra/Maris, the two below that are two variations of Simon's mutated form, the bottom left is Elli the Eel, and the bottom right is Ava ❤️🩸)
As one of the lead researchers, Astra was the first person chosen by the C.O.I. council to be sent down into the unknown depths of the blood ocean on the AT-5 moon. She was sent in the first submarine of its kind, the SM-1, which happened to be a test sub that'd help gauge how much the iron hull could withstand for future explorations.
Compared to the other submarines down the line it had less advanced equipment, such as a weaker x-ray camera and a black box that could only record ambient noise. The SM-1 didn't have an intercom to communicate with the tow ship, so it was based on a timer system when it came to pulling it back up. There was only twenty minutes for each dive before the crew would check in on her progress, along with what would need to improved upon or included in the submarine next time to gather more valuable information.
While navigating the mysterious blood ocean, Astra tried to learn about what she could of the ecosystem down there. With her limited equipment, she was expected to write down observations and record behaviors of the ocean, which could be expanded upon once the test run was completed.
Unfortunately, she never got the chance to make it back to the surface. Something managed to disconnect the chain to the tow ship, damaging the submarine in the process while it went plummeting to the bottom of the ocean. The impact caused parts of the metal hull to cave and break inwards, leading to a wave of blood flooding the interior.
The impact loosened the sealed hatch from above, to where she was able to bust it open with a few kicks once the blood had nearly filled the entire submarine. She was swept out into the crimson sea around her, forced to swim through thick, hot blood that weighed her person down. It was a futile attempt, for the distance was too long and the liquid too viscous to swim through, leaving her to eventually pass out from lack of oxygen.
She expected that to be her end, drowning in an ocean of blood and likely to be consumed by the massive creature that damaged her sub. Except for some reason, she woke up.
When she awoke she wasn't herself anymore, but rather in the process of becoming some sort of sea creature, human hybrid. She wasn't sure how long her body had been floating in the middle of the blood ocean for. But it'd been long enough to where her body was able to adapt to the environment, with newly formed gills along her ribcage and neck that allowed her to breathe.
If the blood of the ocean enters a person's system – via consumption or wound openings where it would be absorbed directly – it'll start to multiply and overtake previous blood cells. Errors start to form in cell replication, to where the genetic material in these foreign blood cells will lead to mutations in the normal ones—mutations that adapt the body to the current environment, the blood ocean.
The process can be slow or quick depending on the amount absorbed. As it progresses, the more excruciating it becomes, as the body starts to shift into a different form entirely—sprouting fins and claws, growing a tail or fusing a tail from the legs, changing the person's size, and more.
Mutation Stages:
Stage 1: Mutations start small with scales growing on different parts of the body, causing the skin to become red and irritated around those areas—scales tend to cluster more around the infection sight and spread from there. After that, the warm color of their skin will start to fade, shifting into a muted tone with a gray tint to it. Body hair will also start to fall off during this stage, while head and facial hair are an exception.
Stage 2: Fins start to form, first at the ears, then the arms, and finally the legs. Fingers and toes become webbed and other features start to shift, such as darkened sclera – pupil and iris remain for some amount of time – talons growing from the fingers/toes, teeth becoming sharper, and gills beginning to form at the ribs and neck.
Stage 3: Legs start to fuse together, stretching and winding into a long, scaley tail with various fins and spines along it. An alternative mutation is growing a tail rather than it replacing the legs—in this case there are fins and spines along both. The body and limbs can also stretch or shrink into unnatural sizes, but tend to remain around the same size from when they were human for the alternative mutation.
Extra notes for all stages: Other feature changes may vary for each subject, such as hair growth/loss, body and limb growth/shrinkage, color changes, etc. Errors can occur in the mutation process that causes deformities in some subjects—excess teeth, multiple eyes, extra limbs, fins and spines, or even lacking specific appendages that should've formed.
(A reference sheet I made of Astra/Maris to represent how the mutations progress with each stage, along with the notes for each.)
Once fully mutated, the person's mind is severed into two parts—the memories of their previous self and the thoughts of their current self. This happens gradually after the mutation, as the mind slowly adapts to their new form and abandons their former self. For some it can take mere hours to fully forget who they once were, while for others it can take up to a couple of days.
While these memories do remain in their subconscious, the host struggles to discern them, to where it is nearly impossible to recognize who they once were. Even then, however their human self used to act plays an important role when it comes to instinct, their subconscious acting on what they remember even while the host is unaware.
There are also moments where the subconscious becomes muddled or gets blocked out completely, to where the mutated form can lash out. During those times they are no longer in control of their own mind nor body, as if some other entity is affecting them altogether.
That's when the large, mysterious creature comes into play. There's an ancient blood eel that thrives in the blood ocean's ecosystem, one that is able to control those who are in the process of mutating or fully mutated—though it is more difficult for the prior, seeing as the host hasn't been fully assimilated. All the creatures down there are interconnected by the substance of the blood, their individual consciousness apart of a collective one that traces back to the eel.
When the blood eel is affecting the subject, it'll start as a disembodied voice in the person's head, like an echo of voices combined, then turn into short blackouts where they don't recall anything. It eventually progresses into the outbursts mentioned previously, to prolonged periods of total loss of control without the person's knowledge.
Astra was the only casualty to the blood ocean, for her mutated form managed to save the rest before they could succumb to a similar fate. The SM-1 through the SM-8 were all research vessels provided by the C.O.I., determined to figure out the cause of these missing submarines and to retrieve their lost and – presumably – very valuable data. Then the SM-9 through the SM-13 were all Conviction Realization vessels, sent down as a one way expedition to retrieve information on the ocean as punishment.
To the C.O.I., all these vessels are seen as missing and the people once inside of them deceased. They are no longer able to be retrieved due to the high risk, seeing as their resources for these expeditions was starting to dwindle. It is unbeknownst to them that they'd all been saved by a sea creature, to where they were able to create a station of their own on the moon and continue research without the C.O.I. interfering. There was a lingering bitterness from the survivors, due to the unknown of what they were heading into, the cruel treatment of the convicts, and their overall questionable actions as a government body.
The researchers had connections with one of the space stations, where they were able to obtain a reactor that'd act as their source of energy, along with some oxygen generators, seeing as the air on the moon was too thin for prolonged periods of time. The station itself was mainly built out of metal scraps from the submarines they compiled, along with some limited materials provided by their insiders.
They also put the x-ray cameras to good use, utilizing their radiation factor to fend off the mutations—harmful, but necessary once they learned about how it can reverse the affects. Radiation therapy breaks down and destroys these invasive, abnormal blood cells that act like a disease, eliminating them from the subject's body completely. Depending on the spread of the mutation, the affects can only be reversed during the first and second stage, though the latter is considered more dangerous due to the dosage required since the cells have progressed further.
Currently they are trying to discover a less harmful way to reverse the mutations, or even alter the blood to where it can be utilized, essentially reversing the effects to turn them into normal blood cells.
From the SM-1 through the SM-8 vessels, they were able to compile all their observations of the ocean. The floor and caves aren't rock, but thick, congealed blood that is constantly shifting. There's veins and arteries that grow out of that semi-solid blood, along with bones and lumps of what appears to be either muscle or flesh. There's some sort of ocean vegetation that grows along the floor, similar looking to an Earth's ocean reef, except in a coppery palette and made out of the same thing as everything else down there—tissue, flesh or blood.
They've noticed that the entire blood ocean appears to be a living entity of its own, yet also contains smaller organisms that live within it. Whether it be the "plant" life that grows down there or the creatures that roam around those areas, this ocean of blood somehow managed to create and maintain a liveable ecosystem.
There are the more "normal" creatures, with fish that look similar to those that were found in the Earth's oceans approximately three hundred years ago. Except they were adapted to the blood in appearance—veins sprouting from their forms, bulbous deformities, pale or congealed skin that showed off the organs inside, jagged and ripped fins, pitch black eyes, etc. Then there were the unidentifiable creatures, unable to be compared to anything they'd ever seen before from previous data, and unable to be thoroughly studied due to the risk.
As for the fish, they're not safe to eat as they are, and have to be prepared a specific way for human consumption. All blood has to be rinsed off before the fish is boiled in salt water to kill off the infectious cells, then the skin and veins have to be removed along with any other mutated sections. Every inch must be throughly inspected and then cleansed a second time once the meat is cleared of the mutated bits, and after that the fish meat can be properly cooked for consumption. Through this method, the likelihood of accidentally consuming the blood from the ocean is significantly lowered.
Along with their new food source, they also discovered the blood can be turned into drinkable water, even if it's through a lengthy process. The blood has to be thickened then vacuum dried, which releases water vapor from the blood. That water vapor is left to condense until it returns to a water state, which is then purified by running it through a small treatment section in the station. Like the fish, this reduces the likelihood of consuming any of the blood.
It took them years to figure out how to successfully remove almost all traces of the blood, to where current day, they've managed to create a renewable water system and a reliable food source—the two main objectives since the very beginning. However, they're uncertain about informing the C.O.I. council of their discoveries and research, given all they've done and the people they've sacrificed for their "righteous cause".
So these researchers and previous convicts have been living on the AT-5 moon for some time without any further connection, for fear of how the C.O.I. might weaponize these resources and information against their own people—yet they desperately want to be able to help the civilians that are suffering, too. So they're at a bit of a crossroad on how to continue after finalizing their research.
There is the remaining issue of how they'll be able to secure these resources for years to come, seeing as the blood eel remains a big threat, along with other large creatures that are lingering in the depths of the ocean. The only way they've been able to retrieve these resources is because of Maris, the sea creature that saved them all and has been a helping hand with their endeavors. Without her, it's nearly impossible for them to safely extract fish and water from the ocean without running the risk of becoming infected by the blood, or the potential threat of a creature attacking.
As of now, they're simply going through the motions each day, until Maris brings up another submarine—the SM-13, holding yet another convict in it. A convict who is skeptical of this entire operation, and seems to have a deeper connection with Maris that even he seems to not understand.
Unfortunately, that's when everything they built will start to unravel before their eyes, and they'll no longer be able to decide their own fate anymore.
Important notes:
•In this AU, the blood does not assimilate everything it touches. It has to be through consumption, injection, or wound openings—anything that'll insert the infectious blood cells directly into a person's blood stream.
•The blood eel is its own creature that's apart of the blood ocean ecosystem, not the people of the SM-8, seeing as in this AU Maris saved them. However, it does still possess the capability of assimilating people to become one with itself, and is seen as a dangerous entity to avoid.
(And have a bonus fishie Ryland Grace that I drew recently, cause I wanted to design him in this AU just for fun >:) )
Seems we are in a merman au mood today! So here is Sirius swimming to the rescue of pirate captain James Potter after his first mate Peter Pettigrew decided to incite mutiny onboard the Stag's Pride.
Luckily, only James knows where he buried the loot, so after some careful nurturing from his handsome saviour, they live out the rest of their days in a remote tropical lagoon, drinking Piña Coladas and watching the sunset, wrapped in each others arms (while Pettigrew is arrested by the Royal Navy and hung for his pirating crimes).
More merman hucklerabbot au because I cannot resist
Jack is obsessed with toast. Should mer consume bread? Probably not but he loves the crunch and loves butter. The only thing is that with his wet hands, the bread goes soggy. He could easily dry his hands before eating the toast, but he prefers to have Robby handfeed it to him instead
Meanwhile Dennis has a sweet tooth and Robby can bribe him with chocolate if he needs to do a health check on him or anything else Dennis isnt a fan of
When robby is snorkeling or scuba diving in the bay, jack will always steal his swim fins He says its to be annoying but really its because he doesnt like how much faster Robby swims with them on, he doesnt want Robby to leave!
Dennis is a really good swimmer when he is healed but he never swims too far from Jack because he knows Jack hates it more than he lets on. When he is truly healed he even lets Jack hold on to his shoulder when Jack's tail is aching too much
Jack and Dennis not telling Robby that Dennis is pregnant? Dennis isnt sure how to do it and Jack is a little too emotionally constipated and is afraid to lose Robby to tell him even though the are both so excited about the guppy
Jack always bringing Robby shells and pretty rocks and too many raw fish as courting gifts and Dennis shyly starts putting his own small offerings alongside Jack's on the dock
Jack has beef with an octopus that lives in the south edge of the bay
Dennis offers to catch it but Jack suddenly backtracks cos he got fond of the octopus... he even named it
Robby has a scar on his wrist that perfectly fits Jack's sharp teeth, a reminder of their first meeting
Dennis likes to observe Robby doing human things, he is fascinated that humans cook fish but actually quite likes grilled fish
@lilliancdoodles created a pose at the end of last month, and gave me permission to draw it too! I decided to do the Cedrus Merman AU! Merman!Cederic was in an art dump I did awhile back <3
Merman!Cederic and Cyrus’ outfit design belongs to: @iglooshoe
Link to Lillian’s art of the pose at the other angle
So, @mothballmilkshake did a radioapple mermay AU that ate my brain. Here’s one of many sketches. It’s a super rough wip, but I liked it, anyway.
Please go read the fic! IT IS SO GOOD!
Waves on the Horizon (30472 words) by MothballMilkshake
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alastor/Lucifer Magne | Morningstar
Characters: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Lucifer Magne | Morningstar, Background & Cameo Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Human Lucifer Magne | Morningstar, MerMay, Merman Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Power Imbalance, Imprisonment, Dehumanization, Soft Lucifer Magne | Morningstar, Lucifer Magne | Morningstar Has a Heart, Alastor is a Little Shit (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor Does Not Like Feeling Vulnerable (Hazbin Hotel), First Kiss, Falling In Love, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Freedom, Curses, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Hurt Lucifer Magne | Morningstar, Arguing, Miscommunication, Guilt, Apologies, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Depressed Lucifer Magne | Morningstar, Depression
Series: Part 6 of RadioApple Shorter Form Multichapter
Summary:
In the seaside kingdom of Orena, keeping a court merfolk within one's castle walls is not only a symbol of status - it's expected. King Lucifer is no exception, and when he's gifted a beautiful, crimson merman, he thinks this creature will be a wonderful addition to his currently empty aquariums.
The only problem?
This merman won't sing.
This merman is spiteful and rude, and seems entirely ungrateful for the life he's been lucky enough to splash into. Lucifer needs to consider a few things: is Alastor really the problem, or is the entire system in need of upheaval?
