#YaoRei

[nocandnc]

Happy Mermay everybody~

Following tradition(?), here’s a new piece of my mermaid OC Yao, finished just under the wire!! And poor Rei is getting bitten all to hell. I just keep making him suffer don’t I??? I’ll have to draw a fluffy piece for these two next time ^^;;;

Anyhoo, I mentioned last year that I wanted to draw Yao in a more ‘ugly’ state per the usual youkai transformation fare - which brings me nicely to one of my little headcanons...

Regarding mermaids, I like the idea of them changing their biological sex under certain conditions like some breeds of fish do in real life. I’ve seen the notion brought up in various contexts and always thought it a very interesting thing.

In the case of Yao in the GGGnK universe, I personally headcanon the Han-Gyojin as the male version of a mermaid! For starters, the way Yao transforms herself to have human legs rather than her usual fish tail would be a form of Deep Sea Witchcraft (aka youjitsu, dark arts) the Han-Gyoujin uses to transform Kitaro in episode 58. Yao can use this as a way to fight as well, making her body stronger... but if prolonged it goes out of control. Irrationality and aggression take hold as the sense of self is lost. The body changes further and further, until one is no longer a mermaid, but a Han-Gyojin... ...I have way more I’d like to discuss on this topic, but I don’t want this post getting to lengthy so I’ll leave it at that for now! Hope folks enjoy!!

[nocandnc]

This technically counts as a Mermay piece

because Yao is a mermaid, she’s just - you know - she’s got her people legs on at the moment.

And you may ask, what the heck is going on here!? Well it’s Isurugi Rei and my original youkai character Yao, who some of you may remember - I released a character sheet for her last fall!! Anyone? ...No?

Anyways, this is actually a scene from one those Kitamana side story fics I’ll never ever write but planned out to ridiculous lengths inside my head! As you can see, Rei’s passed out and soon to die from a grievous injury. With no one on hand to heal him fast enough, Yao bites off her pinky finger and makes him swallow it. Consuming the flesh of a mermaid with either make one immortal or kill them really really fast, but it ends up working to heal his injuries. And makes him immortal he gets better don’t worry about it.

I used to write OC fics a lot back in the day, but since I only started fanart in recent years I’ve never drawn scenes for them before? I'm suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious ^////^