I coughed. "That reeks!"
He stared at me over his cup wearing the tiniest smile. "And yet, it will save your life."
This is Kevin. (That's not his actual name but you can't pronounce it and neither can I. So for all intents and purposes, he is Kevin.)
Kevin is a merman, who can take 'human' form - he could never pass as human. Not in a million years.
He is a specialist at making magic tea. Tea that can make you live longer. Tea that can heal wounds. Tea that can turn you into what he is.
The list is endless.
He guards these secrets very closely.
(Note: the tea usually tastes and smells terrible. He doesn't care. When his daughter starts to learn to make it, she insists on remedying this nonsense.)
Kevin is an OC from my Pirates of the Caribbean/Legend of Zelda AU's that I play in with @mudora
This is a re-ink and face lift of an Inktober drawing I did in 2018. I've always loved it, but wanted to spiff it up.
I will be coloring it too!
I got this comment on my Nile river merman design a while ago and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So I have Naddaha a friend (*cough* queer coded love interest). Bes is a young prince next in line to be pharoh but wants to just do rebellious youngster things. He falls into the river and gets pulled out by Naddaha, spends the next few years looking for him and they meet again when the Nile suddenly gets dry and they have to go on a quest to get the water back.
((Also I promise they are appropriate toned for Egyptians but the blue filter makes them look kinda green, oops))
So I kinda wanted to do something fun and interactive with my mutuals and followers (and even those who aren’t following me I suppose)
I want to make a character with you guys— specifically a mermaid/merman character since it’s Mermay.
So to do this, I’ll be taking your suggestions in the comments for the different features and such (mind you for tail we are going with the generic style) the method we will use is by what comment number you are.
I don’t know if anyone is going to want to actually participate but I just think it would be fun, so here we go!
1. Hair length/style
2. Skin colour (literally any colour is welcome, the more specific the better)
3. Hair colour (keep skin colour in mind to help pick a colour that will go nicely)
4. Eye colour (any)
5. Personality (preferably four or five suggestions)
6. Any accessories?
7. One random fact
8. Sexuality
9. Likes
10. Hates
11. Name
It’d be really cool to see this happen, I love doing group oc creation, it can be really fun if done right!
Anyways I hope this takes off and I get a comment for all the things so I can do this. Also feel free to reblog and do your own :)
Whump story commission for the wonderful @loor-101, based on the prompt “a mer dumped in an inhospitable environment. Finding itself in the middle of the woods or a city, nowhere near the ocean.”
Hope you guys like it! <3
*
Alek’s world had become a blur of fear that stole his breath, enclosed spaces with clear walls, shouted human words he only half-understood.
And pain. There was a dully throbbing pain all over him from being dumped onto decks, manhandled, dragged, shoved into these too-small enclosures. Tanks, they were called.
He hated them. The water felt wrong. It was too warm, stifling. He struggled for every single breath, his gills working twice as hard to take in half as much oxygen. It sapped him of his strength and he could only lie there, unable to fall asleep and escape this nightmare for fear he’d stop breathing entirely if he did.
Tanks were too small. There was no way to stretch out or get comfortable. He shifted and squirmed, his tail always ending up curved in some way. The ground was hard, no soft sand or gentle sea grass to lie in. His muscles soon cramped and ached.
A lid was placed over the top, blocking out the sky, and with it all hope of escape. He was forced to lie there, sore body curled up uncomfortably while bruises bloomed across his pale skin, sick and weary from struggling to keep breathing. And so, so frightened.
Now the humans are taking him somewhere. The movement makes the water in the tank slosh around and makes his stomach queasy. Alek can feel the sea growing farther away and his heart aches. Will he ever see it again? Will he ever swim freely? Or is he going to die like this, held captive by cruel men?
After a while the movement stops. His small tank is moved onto something. There are more human voices, muted by the glass separating him from them. He can make out their blurry shapes, hands waving and pointing to him, eyes peering in at him. He's too weak to snarl at them; he only blinks back, hoping maybe one will take pity on him.
They don't.
All at once his world shifts. The tank is - is lifting up. He tries to grab onto something, anything, but his hands only slide over the smooth glass uselessly.
Then he’s falling gracelessly from the confines of the tank, but not to freedom.
His already bruised back hits the inside of the new tank with a painful thud.
“Careful, you’ll damage it!” he hears a human snap
Alek doesn't have a chance to catch his breath or do more than groan before water is being poured over him, filling the tank. He curls up facing away from the humans and lets it surround him.
This tank is no bigger than the last. The water is a little better, he doesn't quite feel like he's suffocating, but it's still too warm, still uncomfortable.
The humans shove the tank, and Alek with it, into a big empty room and slam the doors, leaving him in darkness. Now he can no longer see the ocean or the sky. Or...much of anything.
Chest tight with fear, he curls up in the corner and wraps his arms around himself. The room he’s in begins to move, the ground beneath him rumbling. Alek closes his eyes.
It’s impossible to truly sleep with the rumbling movement of his container and the fear that grips his heart, but he manages to lull himself into a temporary calm, humming quietly, eyes squeezed shut, pretending the rumble and the rocking water are nothing more than a storm that will pass.
He’s stirred back to awareness by a high pitched wailing sound from outside. He glances up but still sees only darkness.
The room he’s in slows and then stops. There are slamming sounds from outside and then more muffled human voices. He wishes he could hear what they’re saying, and if it has to do with him and where he’s going…
Suddenly there are slams and shouting. The room his tank is in shudders and jolts and then suddenly it’s moving again, fast. He’s thrown against a side of the tank with a cry as his shoulder hits the glass.
The water in the tank sloshes relentlessly and it truly is like a storm now, the only thing keeping it in is the tight lid on top. The room jerks violently this way and that. There’s nothing for him to grab onto, no way to steady himself, and so he’s tossed back and forth with it, slammed around between the hard walls. He’s breathless, dizzy, hurting all over -
I can’t take it -
I’m going to die -
Make it stop, please, make it stop!
It seems to never end. Alek is either going to be sick or knocked out. He hopes it's the latter. At least then he won't have to endure this. He can't get even a second to catch his breath.
Just when he thinks it couldn't get worse, the doors to the moving room fly open. He can see the world outside rush by, an unfamiliar blur of strange shapes, and no ocean.
Something shifts, and Alek realizes with growing dread that it's the tank, sliding across the floor slowly.
Towards the open doors.
No, no -
The whole room lurches and suddenly the tank is over the edge. There’s a moment of weightlessness and then -
CRASH!!
Alek goes tumbling across a hard, rough surface, his pained sounds drowned out by shattering and screeching. He skids to a stop with a groan, sprawled heavily on his chest on the ground. He closes his eyes, head spinning.
The world comes back into roaring focus all at once. Every inch of his body lights up with pain. Sharp pains, from shards of the broken tank embedded in his soft skin and fragile scales. A burning in his shoulder that flares if he moves it even the slightest. Tail twitching, scraped up, scale broken and torn. Soreness all over his body from being tumbled around in the tank. He’s wracked with violent shivers; the air is cold after the overly warm, stale tank water.
It all hurts so much. It hurts so much, everywhere, all at once that he can’t breathe -
No. No, I can’t breathe because I-I’m not in water...
He tries to take in moisture with his gills but comes up empty. He’s so overwhelmed with pain and fear that it takes his lungs a second to kick in. The lack of oxygen leaves him dizzy, soft darkness blurring the edges of his vision.
He wheezes and gasps and finally manages to take in some air. It’s not enough, and the failure to breathe properly on top of everything else makes misery wash over him as he lies there lost and hurt and broken. A low wailing escapes his lips and he curls up, gasping harshly when even the slightest movement hurts.
Through the haze of pain he begins to notice things. Sounds. Near him, mumbles and footsteps and strange slams and clicks. Distantly, rumbles and honks and screeches. All of it terrifyingly unfamiliar.
Slowly Alek places his palms to the ground. He flinches at how hard it is on his sensitive skin; hard and cold and dark gray, like a rock. He shakily props himself up so he can look around.
Lights, everywhere. The sky is dark but there are so many lights, some white and blaring, some high up and colorful. He blinks rapidly against them, trying to see more. Slowly, shapes and shadows emerge from the blur of light. Shapes of buildings and vehicles and…
People.
Humans have stopped and gathered around him, staring. Some are holding small flat things, pointing them at him, little lights flashing from them. One lifts the flat thing to their ear and speaks into it quickly.
The mumbling begins to clear and take form, words that he can now hear without the water and glass surrounding him.
“What is that?”
“Touch it!”
“No, you touch it!”
“Do you think he can understand us?”
“He’s fake, right?”
Alek stares back, eyes pleading, help me, someone help me? It was humans who did this to him in the first place, but now they seem to be his only hope. Yet none of them move towards him.
Trembling, he looks around for water, any water at all. He finds none, but does spot a gap in the cluster of humans. In a moment of desperation, he begins to drag himself towards it.
It’s short lived. His tail drags across the rough ground and he gasps, high and broken, at the painful scrape of it. He lowers himself back to the ground only to keen when a shard of glass digs into his side.
With a hitched sob he gives up and slumps down, shivering, face buried in his arms. In the distance there’s a high pitched sound that pierces him down to his core. He whines and covers his ears, a headache forming behind his eyes, pounding relentlessly.
Loud. Hurts. So cold. C-can’t breathe. Make it stop, please, please...
The human footsteps draw closer and he can only flinch as unfamiliar hands tentatively prod at him. He squirms, trying to shake them off. Don’t touch me!!!!
The awful sound draws closer and closer and if he didn’t have to use every remaining bit of energy to remain breathing he would scream -
It stops.
Slams and footsteps and words that he’s too dazed now to try to decipher.
One voice cuts through it all, clear and calm.
“Everyone move back. Give him some space.”
The cluster of humans back away. Alek hears a new set of footsteps walk right up to him.
“Poor thing,” the voice says. “You’re far from home, aren’t you?”
There’s the rustling of fabric as the human crouches down. Alek whimpers and braces himself, afraid he’ll be grabbed and dumped into another tank.
Instead, a soft, gentle warmth envelops his upper body and wraps around him. It’s something cloth, heavy and dry but so warm. He lifts his head and peeks his red-rimmed eyes up, wheezing little breaths falling from his lips.
The human’s eyes meet his. These eyes aren’t like the others he’s seen, appraising or judging or cruel or curious. They’re...kind.
She smiles.
“Don’t be afraid. We’re going to help you.”
Her hand touches his hair and Alek’s eyes flutter shut at the first gentleness he’s felt this whole horrible day. His aching body relaxes, exhaustion taking over. The human guides his head to rest in her lap.
She begins speaking to the other humans, giving orders. Alek tunes it out. He loses himself in the comfort of the warm blanket and the soft lap and the gentle hand in his hair.
As the comfortable veil of sleep falls over his weary mind and body, he catches a few words. The best words he’s ever heard in his life.
