my name is olive! you may also call me liv if you wish, both are totally fine with me. its lovely to meet you!
i have an ao3 (unlimitedolivegardenbreadsticks) and i draw a little bit too (if youre looking for anything ive drawn, all of it will be filtered under #my art, #my doodles, or #my wips) so please interact if you vibe with any of the following:
loz / linked universe
kirby (shoutout if youve seen right back at ya)
fop / fopanw
atla / lok
attack on titan
sailor moon
spy x family
pokemon
not exactly a fully fleshed list, but i do intend to release content for these fandoms sooner or later because i cycle through these ones the most! even if you arent involved with any of these feel free to stop by, i always love to chat. please take care of yourself today!
if you by any chance wonder just how insane I am: I animated the whole thing last night out of nowhere. Just sat down at 9pm for a quick drawing sesh and didn't raise my head till 2am (I did take a break to record myself spinning a pillow for a reference, probably the only reason my back is still functioning)
first sketch. just basic poses and emotion (and clothes and hair and-)
first rough. Sun's hair felt a little off, so I decided to FINALLY go to sleep and see if I could fix it the next day..
..and I think I did. It's definitely more flowy, just the way I like it. I also added a little more frames for Sky in the beginning
Other mer designs: legend hyrule wind, aryll, granny , time twilight wild.
Yapping (warning: ALOT), close up and world building under the cut!
The theme of this one is knighthood. I don't headcanon four as a knight, but he definitely is closely related, with his dad being an knight and all. These three links were actually my favorite to design. (everytime I draw merfolk, I end up drawing the tail longer...)
Four:
Struggled a lot with him :(((( thought of making him an octopus of some sort or a minnow but in the end I discarded it all for a fantastical approach. Feather tail as a nod for the minish and four smaller fins for each color.
Hm? what is that black spot doing there? Don't you worry about it :DDD
I made his headband into a longer head ribbon, gave him the magnetic gloves, turned his tunic hoodie thing into a weird jacket of sorts and-- oh whoops he can now feature as a shounen protagonist!
The crab on his hand is Ezlo in crab form. My reason? The man is crabby
also i wanted to reference the little mermaid (again)
(Does this mean that the minish are crustaceans? Imagine four lying on the sea floor and covered with crabs and lobsters. Now continue with your day.)
Don't worry, four taped a magnet to Ezlo's shell so he won't get flung away while swimming
Has a shop with Dot (who did not inherit the throne) where they sell toys and other enchanted objects. Four puts the physical thing together and Dot enchants it with her magic. It's very important for me that they bring a certain childish whimsy with them wherever they go
Aside from Twilight and warriors, knows a lot about the land dwellers. Specifically their mechanical technology. Is working with warriors to translate some of those for underwater use.
Warriors:
Thinking about his design gave me the most world building surprisingly? Probably because in my brain he cannot live in vacuum.
I wanted to make him a siamese fighting fish at first (because look at those fins???) but my brain went nope he's shark
Shark who decorates and pretties himself up to appear as appealing and presentable as possible. Because being Helen of Troy absolutely does not bring self-image trauma nope what are you talking about ahahaha
The scarf turning into this big bow was a hyrule-using-fishnet-as-utility-belt moment.
Since we are talking about appearances anyway. Tail-extensions are highly fashionable amongst the merfolk. They decorate their tails with some kind of beautiful fabric to appear, from a distance, as if they have flow-ier and longer tail fins. To mirror the landfolk: frilly, long, soft and flowy tails and fins are considered more attractive amongst nobility. Guess who does not fall into this category :)))
Time (when he is not playing ghost), Sky, wind and Legend tho? They will not be left alone when entering the city. It's like seeing someone with long enough hear for it to reach on the ground. You can't help but admire it.
The lance is ceremonial. Swinging weapons are less desirable underwater due to the strong water resistance. It's all about quick maneuvering, piercing, grabbing and crushing here. The lance would fall into the piercing category, but also is a little too long and unwieldy to be able to use in a wide range of circumstances.
Often serves as ambassador for his colony. He often goes out to meet up with land dwellers in designated meeting spots and is an experienced diplomat. He takes immense pride in his job and is an insufferable overachiever, but also kinda hates his job because of the sheer amount of bullshit he has to deal with.
The merfolk are a lot less concerned about modesty than their land dwelling counterparts. As an act of consideration, mers living close to the shore or those involved with jobs that requires frequent contact with the landfolk make sure to cover their chest up. (Edit: unless your name is Twilight). Warriors uses his scarf as makeshift garment.
Sky:
Also took an fantastical approach with him. I just based his mer form off his loftwing.
In this au, Skyloft is an ancient sunken human city (kinda like the myth of atlantis), underneath which a great evil is sealed away. The original skyloftians that came to live there were actually keepers and servants, tasked with maintaining the seal, but as often goes, this knowledge and tradition got lost as centuries passed.
Until recently, the city is completely isolated from the rest of the ocean, partially because of Demise's is constantly trying to drag the skyloftians down to share a grave with him and partially because Hylia needs to keep Skyloft contained. Given that Skyloft is a sunken landfolk city, the skyloftians think that they have a pretty good grasp on what these mythical two-leggers are. They can't be any more wrong. Sky is not an exception. (Sun is, but she is cheating with past life memories and those aren't fully reliable either)
The type of guy that thinks that land dwellers use forks to brush their hair and that they have two tail fins (like mers) that they somehow walk with. Screamed the first time he met an actual land dweller. Cried when he met a seagull for the first time. Is friendly with the seagull mafia.
Because skyloft is so far back in the timeline, I wanted Sky to appear a bit more animal-like (but not much more) than the other links (claws and more areas of the body that have scales). Also let's not forget the souvenir Demise gave him!
He has his sailcloth with him of course (ignore the fact that I didn't draw the logo on it). Will use it as a cape or sash, whatever suits the situation at hand.
In skyloft, part of courting is making each other a sailcloth and then partaking in an intense and public game of tag where the lovers are supposed to compete in snatching each other's "heart" first. Friends and family can also participate.
It's one thing to grab the sailcloth. The other also has to let go. If both parties play the game correctly then a relationship is formed.
The sailcloth is also used in dance and other ceremonial stuff.
I started thinking about Hylia's role in this au. The three goddesses are still the main deities worshiped under water, but Hylia is a figure that is tied to heavily to Skyloft that I can't ignore her (not that i'd want to). Right now I am playing with the idea that Hylia was originally a girl that lived in Skyloft before it sunk. She was clairvoyant, but people thought she was giving out curses. When the city sunk, the people left her behind to drown. Nayru took mercy on her, changed her into a siren and gave her the task of looking after the triforce.
I think it would be fun if the first mer Sky meets is Hyrule, who is oh so lost but hey there is a mer I can ask for directions
They end up wandering for days, but hey! New friend!
Next up will be wisdomverse Silent and Echo. Feel free to leave ideas and suggestions! I think it's very obvious by now that I have more ideas for some links than others.
My kingdom for Wild, Time, and Twilights mer forms. *grovels*
Do you need some light?
~*~
(Click for better quality!)
Other mer designs: legend hyrule wind, aryll, granny , four warriors sky
Took a bit but here ya go! I ended up watching several documentaries before drawing these guys and I now have +1 trivia knowledge. Design notes and yapping under the cut as usual:
Went for a ghostly deep sea theme here. The hero's shade, the whole being brought back from the dead thing wild has going on, and the twilight realm. I almost wanted to make Wild wear the barbarian's headgear, but that was too difficult for me to draw here. The deep sea is full of mysteries, perhaps the merfolk equivalent of the Lost Woods.
Wild:
He was the first one to come to me actually. My very first idea was a dolphin, but my desire for him to have a stretchy long bioluminous form trumped it. I based him off an eel and yes he will obnoxiously wrap himself around his friends to annoy them.
Hoarder buddies with Legend, though Wild also hoards random ass things. They frequently show off their spoils to each other. Wild likes decorating himself in various ways, you'll probably see him change wardrobe and accessories a lot
Currently he is wearing a few feathers he found above the waves. I will also wear other random things as decorations
Often gets mistaken for being a sea witch. He's not, but he doesn't mind redirecting strangers to Hyrule.
Like Hyrule, he is a scrappy guy and uses anything as an utility belt. Right now he is using some underwater plant, but he'll switch over to discarded fishermen's nets
For the people who missed this post: absolutely has beef with seagulls and is very much unwelcome by the seagull mafia due to hunting them in the past. Has now learned to stop doing so but the grudge remains. On both sides.
I cannot imagine him without his sheikah slate. I have no lore for this aside from the fact that Purah is also a mer in this au and he probably got it from her.
Twilight:
Seal. I was thinking selkie for him actually, with his wolf pelt being his selkie pelt here. I'm actually unsure if I actually want him to be one.
What is a seal doing here so deep down the sea? Ever since he got cursed by Zant, he gained the ability to venture and hunt so low. It's where he met Wild, freshly robbed from his memories, while he was searching for Midna.
This curse also granted him the ability to see ghosts, it's a bonding point between him and Wind and it's very handy for seeking out shipwrecks.
Part of a search and rescue team (the resistence from tp) for land dwellers who are lost at sea and thus he is pretty knowledgeable about the land dwellers. If only books don't turn useless under water, otherwise he would join the hoarder club.
Frequently runs into Warriors while out on search and rescue. They always turn it into a competition.
Looks and acts sensible, but is absolutely not. Has pulled batshit insane things to try and help out.
Time:
Scared the heebie jeebies out of Twilight the first time they met
Transparent sea creatures + hero's shade angst? Say no more.
He's not actually transparent all the time, only when he wants to mess with someone needs it
Either Malon is also a mer, or Malon is a land dweller like Marin. I'm still debating on that one. Just like canon, they met when they were children.
In case it wasn't clear, he is wearing the chest piece and shoulder pauldrons of his hero's shade armor. Bestowed upon him by Artemis the one time he accompanied Warriors on a diplomacy mission. Kept it after he found out that intimidation can go a long way while negotiating with stuck up nobles.
Very much would like to keep his nose out of trouble, he says as he actively follows a strange sound he heard.
A foundling, raised not in the sea but in a lake by the kokiri who found him injured an starved as a child. He got released again when he got better, but he'd like to return one day to see them again.
Wind once caught a glimpse of him and thought he was a ghost. He is now trying to hunt him down in order to "help him move on". Time is greatly amused by this and considers it a game.
Since I drew the downfall duo as fairies in this post I thought it was only fair to also draw them as mermaids. Wind is there too because I adore him and he deserves to be a glorious mermaid. I might make my some mermaid designs for the rest of the boys if I have time.
Design notes + potential au headcanons under the cut:
Hyrule:
almost wanted to give him fins on his back to mimic is fairy form, but then I thought about his character. He is a survivalist and I wanted to reflect that. So I loosely based him off a common river fish: muted colors great for camouflage + small, unassuming and sturdy fins.
I still wanted some of that fairy pizzazz though. Hence I tried to give him pretty glittery scales.
No metal accessories for him. He stole those leather bracers for their coziness. Still brings cool things back for Legend tho.
Got stuck in a net once. Ripped himself out of there and then decided that it his now. He uses it as DIY utility belt by tangling the things he wants to carry with him in the rope.
Stole a raft once because he thought it was cool. Turns it over and sleeps underneath it in a pinch.
Local sea witch except not evil and doesn't know what he is doing. Everything just seems to always works out. Don't ask him how.
Very territorial, but completely harmless to his friends.
Legend:
Pink.
I was thinking of my goldfish when I drew him: frilly fins which are borderline see through at the ends.
Decked in accessories because, duh, this is legend we are talking about. I had even more jewelry in the sketch, but I had to cut them out because I was starting to lose the underlying figure, but believe me this guy can and will wear nine necklaces at once and think that it is a totally normal thing to do.
Found most of his jewelry while going through sunken cruise ship where a wedding party had taken place. The long pearl necklace was found there too and legend is currently using it like hyrule is using his net.
Will not hesitate to stab or strangle you with his jewelry.
I have no story for the hat, I just think its incredibly neat and i want it in the design.
Yanked the dagger from a guy who wanted to poach him and stabbed the douche with it. Uses it primarily to cut tangled up sea creatures free. Helped a few seagulls this way and is thus exempt from being assaulted by the seagull mafia.
Curious about land dwellers, mostly for their knowledge tho. Keeps away.
Wind
Tropical fish!!! Or well, the tropical vibes. I was thinking of a guppy when I drew him.
He had the most Disney little mermaid vibes to me: curious, explorative, fascinated with humans. But instead of falling in love with them he just greatly enjoys pranking them.
Often shows himself to children at the shore to trade. It is how he got that leather satchel.
Aryl in particular spends hours looking at land dwellers for fun and as certified Best Older BrotherTM wind keeps her company a lot.
Aryl also has accidentally trained the seagulls to steal for her in exchange for fish. This was the beginning of the seagull mafia.
Always volunteers to be scout and is very good at it! Unlike Hyrule, who just gets lost.
I did not draw it here, but he has a rusted crown he wears everywhere because he thinks its the coolest thing ever. In a week he will acquire a pirate hat and donate his crown to legend, who will just put it with the rest of his hoard.
