#and has glass lenses sewn into the cap that are darkened just enough to obscure the color of her eyes

[vaporeon-is-cool]

I need to get this idea out of my head because it’s been floating around my thoughts non-stop

I thought up a The Sea Beast AU where Sea Beasts have human forms and Crow finds a sea beast baby (Red’s daughter) in their human form inside of a cave like nine years prior to finding Jacob and raises the two as siblings.

(In human form the only signs telling that someone is a sea beast is from the color of their eyes and a colored horn protruding from their forehead.)

At first, Crow thinks the baby has been abandoned by their human parents so, of course he takes pity on the child, thinking that the least he can do is leave them with a children’s home.

But upon noticing the horn, he thinks maybe they’re the offspring of a siren or a mermaid (cuz come on if sea beasts exist there’s bound to be those too if not rumors/myths of them at least), he refuses to kill the child for fear it might bring bad luck and tries to return the child to where he found it but can’t bring himself to ignore the shrill cries the baby lets out as he attempts to leave, so, he’s resigned himself to dad duty until the child grows up into a proper mythical creature lol.

Except that doesn’t happen as planned: the child doesn’t grow scales/gills or sharp teeth or sing songs that draws one into a trance or become half fish when placed in water, they’re basically just a human girl with irises an impossible shade of color and a black horn slowly growing out of their forehead.

So—back to his original thought—Crow begins to think that the girl (whom he named Armeria) is neither siren nor mermaid but is a human who’s been cursed for their parent’s dealings with Gwen Batterbie (like maybe they were expecting parents and Hunters who were desperate enough to visit Batterbie requesting for her to make a potion that would allow them to defeat any sea beast and boom “your baby is a sea beast now, this is what you wanted >:)” but the parents didn’t understand that it was the result of Batterbie’s potion so they were horrified/disgusted of their newborn child and abandoned them in the cave.

Only it wasn’t that, either.

It was actually Red who placed her sleeping newborn in the cave—in a spot snug where she knew they wouldn’t be able to roll into the sea by accident—in the area where she was hunting for food.

Red didn’t leave her baby back on Monster Island because there was no one to watch them (still debating on whether this is bcuz the dad/her mate was killed by Hunters 😢 or if he was just busy patrolling another part of the Dregmorr 🤔).

Red doesn’t notice until it is too late because she was hunting veeeeeeery deep down under the ocean but she does determine that it was humans who’d done the deed (smelt their scent) this plays a big part in why Red hates humans and will attack hunting ships on sight.

But back to Crow and his “cursed” daughter, he treats her with his own brand of love just the same as Jacob, raising them to be fine Hunters, the entire crew of the Inevitable knows of Armeria’s “curse” and is ride-or-die for her so she’s never felt wrong or excluded.

It isn’t until the Brickleback fight at the beginning of the movie when Jacob and his sister are smacked by that one tendril/tentacle into the ocean that Armeria transforms into her sea beast form for the first time (which is basically a black recolor of Red with a slightly different shaped horn and eyes a softer shade of yellow, she takes after her father).

Armeria is dazed at first from the sudden change so she doesn’t gather her bearings until around the time Crow kills the Brickleback and is the one to help Crow, and Jacob, get back to the surface.

The crew recognize the horn immediately as Armeria’s, believing this is just another part of the curse placed on her but since there’s nothing they can do Crow orders her to lie low until the Inevitable returns from repairs.

The story goes on like normal until the first fight with Red, which still ends with her swallowing the lifeboat, so Armeria swims after Red to get Jacob and Maisie back but to her surprise finds herself learning of her true heritage and family after reaching Monster Island. :)

That’s all I’ve got for now. 😁