#mermaid scar

[stiffyck]

”Oh no, did I scare you the first time we met?”

“Scare me? Scar, I was terrified.”

[loveroped]

a bit late for my secret Santa, it was interesting to try and come up with something for them!

@stiffyck hope you like it!

It is pretty short tho

wordcount: 1023

She crossed her arms, now wet from her hands up till her elbows, and huffed. “Rude,” she said, but her smile was peeking through the words.  This has happened many times before, and she finds she's never annoyed at Scar more than once. Although she'll definitely need a new bag. “You have flowers in here!” He exclaims, holding up a small array of flowers she'd picked typed up with a small rope she found laying around her house. She opened her mouth to respond but before she could the flowers were shoved into her hands.

Gem sits herself down on the rocks and skims her eyes over the water. The waves crashed again the rocks in a gentle rhythm she's familiarized herself with. 

She takes off her shoes and her socks and lays them next to her, before letting her feet dip in the water. It reached her ankles at lowest and her shins at highest. She rolls up her pant legs to meet her knees. 

She glances over the water again,  searching for something—something miniscule at most probably.  There's not much she should expect. She spared the waters one more glimpse, to see if there was something out of the ordinary, something to catch her eye.

When she received nothing she frowned slightly, even if she wasn't really that upset. It felt similar to the first few times she found herself sitting here. She's not sure it's ever been different.

The gentle sound of the waves rings through her ears, a gentle song with the noise of the breeze. She leaned forward slightly and took a breath. The air tasted of salt and berries.

She whistled. Not a song, or a rhythm stuck in her head. A single note pulled out over time with no direct change in it. And it didn't sound the prettiest, compared to other stuff she's sung or hummed. Not compared to the songs on the radio—but it did the job. It didn't need to be pretty to call out to someone.

And it worked. It worked this once, it worked before, and it'll work the upcoming years after.

A moment it took, but no more than a minute. From a dark form underneath the waters that drew closer by the second, to a head popped up just before her legs.

Only above his nose was visible. He stared  at her with a look that could almost seem threatening if seen by the wrong eyes, but Gem's been here many times before. It's curious, waiting. Gem stared back, putting on a gentle competition of who would break the contact, or who'd speak first. She smiled, even if she tried not to.

He blinked, once, twice.

“What do you have?” Scar says, and it startles Gem for a second, the insistence he drags in his voice, but it quickly turns into a laugh, one that leaves her giggling.

“Some people,” she starts, turning around to grab her bag behind her “would say hello first when seeing someone.”

She puts the bag in her lap, and giggles at the way it immediately catches Scar’s attention. He swims up even closer towards hair, getting more and more out of the water.

“I'm not people,” he says. And Gem can't exactly argue with that. She's not sure where merfolk fall on the spectrum of things that are defined as people or human or whatever the other options are.

He's staring at her bag, and Gem considers for a moment if she really wants her bag to get soaked again—and that she might have to buy a new one. And truly she could've just taken the stuff out of her bag, given it one by one, and kept her stuff dry. 

But she didn't really have a chance, because by the time she fully thought about it the bag was taken from her hands in a swift movement.  One that had her tumbling forward just slightly, gasping as she attempted to catch herself.

“Scar!” She yelled out when she finally caught her balance. And Scar glanced up at her once, rummaged through the bag, then looked up at her again, and smiled.

She crossed her arms, now wet from her hands up till her elbows, and huffed. “Rude,” she said, but her smile was peeking through the words.  This has happened many times before, and she finds she's never nnoyed at Scar more than once.

Although she'll definitely need a new bag.

“You have flowers in here!” He exclaims, holding up a small array of flowers she'd picked typed up with a small rope she found laying around her house.

She opened her mouth to respond but before she could the flowers were shoved into her hands.

She looked from the flowers, to Scar. He was staring at her with a determined look. Scar had a tendency to believe she could read his mind whenever he wanted to. And no matter how many times she told him she couldn't, he'd insist on it.

(“You humans gotta have something special.”)

But Gem was good at guessing, luckily. And Scar was very predictable.

“You want these in your hair?” “Yes.” “Can you say please?” “No.”

She sighed, and something fond coursed through her limbs. “Okay okay, turn around.”

And Scar did, laying his head in her lap like he's done a million times before, and Gem never could find it in herself to mind the cold sinking through the wet spot on her legs.

She absent-mindedly ran a hand through his hair. His hair was different from most humans she'd seen. It looked and felt more similar to seaweed, or perhaps tentacles, then it did hair. The texture never failed to surprise her, it was smooth, and slightly sticky.

But in her opinion it was way easier to work with than normal, or her own, hair. She quite liked doing it, if she was being honest. 

“What's this?” Scar asks, holding up something small and purple. Gem squinted her eyes to look at it. 

She picked it out of Scar’s hand, “It's a grape.” and threw it in her mouth.

Scar turned around, glaring at her. “You thief!” He said, pointing at her. 

“Says the one that took my bag,” she mumbled, leaning back. 

“There are more grapes in the bag, you'll survive!” She laughed, giving him a light shove.

He grumbled something unintelligible, before turning back around and laying back on her lap. Although slightly different than before, making a new wet spot on her legs. 

She'd be cold walking home, she knows. She runs her hand through his hair—or whatever it was. The air smelled of salt, citrus, and grapes. She couldn't find herself to mind being soaked.

[angeart]

short, but if anyone prefers to read on AO3, here you go:

flowers in your hair and air in your lungs

Grian kneels at the edge of the sea, not minding the water foam that rhythmically crashes into his knees. He stays still, watching the waves rise and fall, waiting and hoping.

They did arrange to meet, but mermaids were fickle creatures. And him especially, so much charisma and so little attention it could drive Grian mad. He learned quickly that the two of them run on clearly different schedules: Grian had the watch strapped to his wrist, ticking quietly (he’s since taken it off; it stopped working after they were playing in the water a bit too roughly), and Scar... Well, Scar. Grian wants to say Scar has the sun and the sea currents and little shifts in anything that happens below the water to tell him the time. They run on different time languages, making arranging meetups hard.

But Grian actually isn’t sure if Scar runs on any time language at all. He’s sporadic, random, and forgetful. So easily distracted. So easily swayed by whimsy.

He only ever seems to come when he wants.

So Grian kneels at the beach and hopes that this time, Scar wants—wants to come, wants to see Grian. (He hopes he can be worth it. Worth to be wanted.)

Grian has no way to reach out to him. All he can do is wait.

Sometimes, the waiting drives him crazy. Not the impatience of it all. Not the mind-numbing boredom. (He’s built many beautiful sandcastles while waiting. They were all destroyed by the high tide before Scar showed up.) No, what drives him crazy is the uncertainty. The second guessing. The terrible, nauseating feeling that something happened to Scar, and he has no way to know.

This time, Scar does show up.

He pokes his head out from the water, waving wildly with a ridiculously big grin on his face. “Griaaaan!”

And Grian wants to be cross with him. For making him wait. For giving him all those wretched feelings.

But he sees Scar, and he feels his own face betray him as it forms a toothy, excited smile.

He stands up, knees wet and coated in sand, and starts walking forward into the water.

Scar swims to meet him.

The reality of it always makes Grian a bit dizzy; his heart beats in his chest a rhythm he only knows from fear, but it feels different. It feels like standing on the edge, without being terrified of the impending fall. It feels like being cornered, but not being worried about the sharp teeth and claws against his skin. It feels like life, like something big and uncontrollable and unstoppable. It feels like—

He has an idea of what the word actually is. One simple thing. Four letters would do.

His mind swerves away from it, quietly side stepping the reality of the growing emotion.

“Hi,” he says, water lapping at his waist as they meet.

“Hello there,” Scar replies and swims in a jovial circle around him. “Whatchu got there?”

“Oh.” Grian looks down to where he’s holding a handful of small, brilliantly yellow flowers. “You seemed to like the flowers the other day. So I thought—“

“Yes!” Scar exclaims immediately happily and pulls Grian a bit deeper into the water. He tugs at him, peering at the flowers in his hands, eyes wide and curious. “These are different.”

“Yes,” Grian nods, staring at the flowers instead of looking at Scar. “You know there are many different flowers.”

Scar pauses, as if genuinely considering that. “Do you want me to show you some seaweed next time?” he offers, laughing quietly, half-serious.

Grian chuckles dismissively. “No, that’s alright.”

“Okay,” Scar lets go of the thought easily, eyes twinkling. He moves his hands and puts them over Grian’s—his are cold from water, wet, his skin hard and scaly, but his fingertips are soft where they press against the warmth of Grian’s skin. “I really like these.”

Pensive, Grian separates one small flower from the rest. His eyes flit up, meeting Scar’s gaze for a short moment of hesitation, before he reaches towards him and tucks the flower into Scar’s hair. The colour pops, shiny and vibrant, matching Scar’s sunny smile.

“Oooh.” Scar moves a bit back, following the pull of a tide in his surprise. His hand goes up, gingerly touches the flower, before he tips his head to see himself in the water.  “Is this what you do with flowers?”

“Well—“ Grian stammers, caught off guard by the question. “Sometimes? Usually, we just let them grow. Or put them in vases? You can make wreaths and flower crowns and braid them into hair, too, though, if you’d like.”

Scar whips his head up, excited glow to his expression as he meets Grian’s gaze. “I want! Please please can we do that?”

A small, fond chuckle escapes Grian. “Alright.”

“Will you teach me how?” Scar does this weird thing that Grian tenderly considers to be happy bouncing, even though it’s hard to tell what exactly it’s supposed to be, since they’re in the water and Scar is swimming all the time.

“Alright,” Grian repeats softly.

 *

 The sun is setting by the time a few tiny practice flower crowns are drifting away from the shore.

They’ve moved to an area with a cliffy side, where the boulders dip low and close to the water surface, but the water is deep enough for Scar to comfortably swim around. Grian was getting cold, and Scar wanted to keep to the water, so they found a compromise. It’s been their spot a couple of times in the past, so it was easy enough to navigate to it.

Grian is starting to think of the place as somewhere special, littered with shared memories.

Now Scar is leaning up over the water edge, and Grian’s sat down with his back to him.

In any other scenario, this would not be a safe position to be.

Merfolk and humans are so often at odds—antagonising each other, fighting, being a menace to each other. There’s not a friendly story told over campfires and in underwater palaces. Not a shred of good ending in books and carvings.

You turn your back like this, and you’re bound to get pulled by your hair until your head is under water and your lungs are flooded and—

And unless you have a sharp weapon and are willing to drench the sea in blood, you die.

That’s how the stories go. Inevitably, every time.

Grian sits with his back to Scar right at the water edge, Scar’s hands on his hair.

And Grian knows Scar likes to be a menace. He knows Scar loves mischief; he knows how drawn Scar is to doing silly things just because they amuse him. He knows he has claws and strength and is prone to whims and impulses, even if they hurt sometimes. If Scar is one thing, it’s reckless, unheeding of the danger.

Grian knows all this.

And he sits there anyway.

Scar touches his hair, and sometimes he tugs. It’s not malicious, though. It’s clumsy, more than anything. His focus is on his task, a quiet melodic hum escaping his lips as he works.

He’s tucking the small, yellow flowers into Grian’s hair, braiding them.

He doesn’t pull Grian into water.

He puts flowers in his hair, and then he leans over Grian’s shoulder, grinning wildly at the job well-done, and Grian turns to him, and—

There’s warmth against Scar’s face, and his heartbeat stutters in his chest.

Because Grian presses a soft kiss to his cheek, his hand lightly hovering over Scar’s jaw to keep him in place at the right angle.

And Scar thinks that it’s all been worth it.

That he does not want to hurt this human, after all.

That maybe there’s something better than fighting and blood and no air left in lungs.

That maybe—

 Maybe their story can end in some other way.

[tiphares]

obsessed!!! always hav been always will b... just wonderin when 2 finally buy the anthology?!

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

Very, VERY rough idea for something in the future for Cosmic Tides.

Could become canon, haven't decided yet. But wanted to share

[wtfforged]

ive been seeing a lot of mermaid zoros lately and i like him and i think that silly octopus that he let cling to him in the jaya arc should be his little-mermaid-flounder-sidekick friend

[peanutbutter-pumpernickel]

I finally got around to drawing my favorite fanfic there are many benefits (to rethinking this career path) by @moonliched on A03

Man i've reread this fic like 3 times now. If you haven't checked it out and like mermaid dca stuff i highly recommend it.

Anyway, this was my first time drawing Y/N and Moon so lmk if you have any critiques or suggestions.

have a fazzerific day :)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Regarding the great seven, did they win in Twisted Wonderland? Like, for example, did Jafar became sultan and the current royal family of the Scalding Sands are his descendants? Did Aladdin die because of him?

No, that's (largely) not the case! Twisted Wonderland is simply a world in which the characters we know of irl as villains that did heinous stuff are just viewed in Twisted Wonderland as historical figures who contributed greatly to society. It's no different than how we may study our own historical figures and their accomplishments in social studies/history class.

While we do hear stories about the Great Seven and their powers, we rarely hear stories which would imply they somehow "won" in the end as opposed to the heroes. For example, Jasmine and Aladdin are implied to still very much be in love, as Jamil tells the tale of a street rat that married a princess. (If Jafar had "won", wouldn't he have been the one to marry the princess?) However, there ALSO exists a tale concurrent to that one in which we're told the Sorcerer of the Sands revealed that someone had lied about their social standing to trick a princess. There are no indications that these two stories are one and the same, so in the world of TWST it seems they're two separate instances that both draw inspiration from Aladdin. There are also no indications (ever) of the Disney heroes dying because of the Great Seven. In fact, it seems like many of them still got their original happy endings. (ADDENDUM: as a commenter pointed out, it’s also possible that multiple tales or versions of the tale came from the same initial story, something which happens irl as well.) Similarly, we know that the mermaid princess married a human prince, thus alleviating tensions between merfolk and humans with their union. This would not have been possible if Ursula had "won", as that would mean that Ariel would have reverted back to being a mermaid (or that little squishy thing Ursula has a garden of) and would "belong" to the Sea Witch forever. Ariel wouldn't have been able to stay on land and marry Eric in that state. Furthermore, Ursula may have gone on to become Queen of the Seas if Triton still intervened to save his daughter... but then why is Triton still honored as King of the Seas in the Atlantica Memorial Museum in book 3?

There are a few instances I can think of which would imply the villain "won", the main one being that Scar ruled the Pridelands as a wise and benevolent king (which is not true of The Lion King movie). I don't consider this Scar "winning", but more like... a twisted or exaggerated retelling of the actual event. For the villain to "win", that would also imply the heroes are gone or in a position to not stop them, right? Yet there are zero mentions of Mufasa or Simba being out of the picture, or even of Scar banishing family members that opposed his rule.

This all points to there being an alternate telling of history in TWST; it seems that the "evil" deeds of the Great Seven were censored and/or retold in such a way to paint them in a beneficial light, since the deeds of the traditional heroes also exist and are also considered true in Twisted Wonderland's history. (For example, Scar letting the hyenas into the Pridelands is reframed as a good thing, since he promoted the integration of a previously marginalized group into the country; Ursula is actually believed to have "mended all her ways" rather than it being a lie to deceive others.) Lilia even specifically mentions that it's possible to "change" history just by telling it a certain way.

On a related note, it seems that this year's birthday series (Platinum Jacket) will delve more into TWST's history and how the NRC boys feel or think about various classic Disney characters. I'm really looking forward to seeing how those expand the lore~

[watcheraurora]

Siren Song

Had a dream the other night that I got turned into a mermaid. And as a gal who's loved merfolk since I was a kid, I couldn't resist 4.3k words

—

Grian grinned to himself. From his fishing dock, he could hear Gem on her little fishing boat belting sea shanties. She sounded like she was having fun, swinging around her rigging with a sword on her belt. She wasn't the only one who lived on their boat, but she was the only one who took such audible joy in it.

Grian let his feet dangle in the water, his overalls rolled up past his knees, and watched the sea as his lure bobbed. Early morning was one of his favorite times to fish. The quiet—apart from Gem's shanties—the sunrise on the clouds, the watery color of the sky. The calmness of the ocean. It was peaceful, like this. There was nothing else he needed to do but sit and fish. This early in the season, the ocean water was frigid against his bare skin. He didn't care.

"Morning Grian!" Gem called as she spun around a line of the rigging as though it was the hand of a dance partner. She waved from her boat's deck anchored a little farther out in the bay, not attached to a dock or wharf.

"Morning Gem!" Grian replied, raising a hand in response.

Gem beamed and went back to whatever it was she was up to. Grian suspected she was trying to do chores and just decided to have fun instead. She was anchored far enough out that they couldn't easily talk. They had to shout. He tried not to shout this early though. It scared the fish.

The water, near the hull of Gem's ship, moved strangely. A movement Grian was familiar with. Something large not quite breaking the surface tension, sliding just underneath. Large and shimmery.

Grian perked up. That was either the largest cod he'd ever seen—or something else was near.

He pulled his feet out of the water and stood up. Snatching his binoculars from his pack of stuff, he held them up and peered toward where the shape moved.

The murk of the early-morning ocean prevented him from seeing what was under the surface.

"Shoot," he muttered. "What was that? Big fish don't come this shallow often..." He moved the binoculars up and down, looking through them and sweeping his gaze in the same area without the magnification. "Geeem?" he called, as loud as he dared to not scare the fish. "Is your sonar on?"

Gem stopped where she was dramatically stomping on the deck with a mop in hand while chanting her shanty. "No. I'm cleaning," she called back.

"Mind turning it on? There's something big here!"

"Grian, you don't have the equipment for deep sea fishing."

"Humor me," Grian said.

Gem made a face that was unimpressed—even from Grian's distance. "Fiiine," she said, vanishing into the cabin of her boat.

—

Pearl grabbed Scar's wrist as a noise traveled through the water. A sonar that was revving up, but not yet active.

"Hold on," she said. Scar twisted his arm and grabbed her arm in return. They snagged each other's other arms. Pearl built up some momentum with her tail and they shot toward deeper water. Scar's torn caudal fin trailed limply behind him as Pearl sped them both away. The pearlescent white tail for which she got her name glimmered in the weak, pale sunlight that hadn't yet broken over the horizon.

Pearl swam them both for several long moments—until they were most likely out of range of the sonar. Then slowed down. Scar's green eyes were wide. The scar over the bridge of his nose shimmered. "Did we just get caught?"

"Maybe," Pearl said, looking over her shoulder. Her long hair drifted in a cloud around her head. She brushed it aside to look behind her. "I don't think the sonar got turned on quick enough. But I can't say for sure."

Scar looked down at his tail. The base of his caudal fin was bent awkwardly and the fin itself was torn in such a way to render it useless. He couldn't swim. "I'm sorry, Pearl. I didn't mean—"

"Don't apologize, Scar. It's not your fault."

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-but..." Scar put on his pathetic voice that was overdramatic for the sake of comedy. "But I'm the one who got too close to the humans."

"Yeah, and got closer in the hopes that they'd help fix you. We know that human of Jimmy's knows about us and would help. But everyone else? That man on the dock could have very well hooked your tail if you got any closer. We don't know who we can trust."

"How... how do we get Jimmy's human to help fix my tail? We just don't have the materials to splint it underwater."

Pearl made a face. "Well, it was pretty stupid of you to come this close to shore on your own when you can barely swim. You're lucky I got here when I did to get you out before they thought a shark got close to shore."

Scar pouted, sticking his lower lip out.

"Look. I know your tail needs fixing. And Jimmy and Lizzie's humans will help. But we need Jimmy or Lizzie to contact them. How those two both managed to snag humans is beyond me."

"Must be ocean royalty twin charm or something," Scar said sarcastically.

Pearl smirked and bounced her eyebrows. "Must be. C'mon. Let's go ask Jimmy and Lizzie if one of them can ask their human for help."

Scar thought for a moment, then nodded.

—

Grian stood on the end of his dock at the end of the day. The sun had set behind him and the last few rays were starting to filter out.

Soft footsteps approached down the dock. "Whatcha doin'?" Gem asked. Her rowboat bobbed in the water just in front of them both. She had on her light, soft boat shoes.

"Looking to see if that fish came back with the sunset," Grian said, binoculars in hand.

Gem yawned and stretched. "Okay," she said through her yawn. "I'm heading back to the boat. Holler if you need anything."

"Yeah, yeah. Cheers," Grian said.

She hopped nimbly down into her rowboat, untied it, and started to row back to her boat. Grian watched her go, making sure she was safe. They'd both moved to this small fishing town within a year of one another. Gem's grandparents had given her their fishing boat when they passed away and she'd chosen to live on it, and Grian... well. He was running. Always running. A restless soul with people in his past that he needed to be far away from for his own sanity.

He told the good people in his past that he'd found the sea. But it was more like the sea found him. Called him. Beckoned. So here he stayed. In a small flat over a shop—a workshop, to be specific. Three mechanics ran it. And he fished before and after work.

His eyes tracked Gem to where she tied her rowboat to the ladder on the hull of her boat and climbed the rest of the way up before she disappeared inside. Grian was older than Gem by only a few years, and felt a brotherly protectiveness of her. The two who came to the small, sleepy town from the outside.

There was no sign of that large fish he'd seen earlier. The last rays of sunlight were snuffed out by the dark night sky. The orangey glow of streetlamps buzzed to life.

Grian sighed with disappointment. Maybe tomorrow morning...

He turned and moved to stomp back up the dock to go back to his flat—

Before freezing.

A song floated across the surface of the water. The voice a warm baritone. Resonant enough that Grian felt his bones vibrate with the timbre of it, despite the obvious distance it was traveling. He found himself unable to move. Transfixed by the music. Entranced.

Slowly, he pivoted to face the sea again. The rocks that made up the outside barrier that sheltered the marina were dark. Except one spot that had a silvery glow on the far side. Not from moonlight.

Curiosity broke whatever spell he was under. He rushed to make his way around the perimeter of the marina. Toward the glow being cast on the rocks. Stumbling over rough terrain in the darkness.

—

A few tail-lengths down the rocky shore, Tango was crouched, elbows resting on his knees, as he smiled down at Jimmy. Who was on his stomach with his sky-blue tail bent up into the air. Caudal fin drifting up and down. He kept himself upright with his elbows on the ground, resting his chin on his hands as he talked to Tango.

A stone's throw away from those two, Lizzie and Joel were much closer. Joel sitting on the ground with Lizzie fully in his lap, her purplish-blue tail wrapped around him and his fingers lazily playing with her long pink hair.

Pearl and Scar rested as far away as possible. Pearl looked ready to drag him back into the sea at a moment's notice. Jittery and wound up. Scar, for his part, was trying to look relaxed. He was singing to keep himself calm. Tango's good friend and coworker, Etho, was helping splint Scar's tail and stitch his caudal fin back together. He had an intense sort of look to him, but his callused hands were remarkably gentle. Pearl was using what little magic she had to cast enough light for Etho to see and work by. Silvery moonlight from her palm dancing over the rocks where it reflected off the waves.

"You should probably go help Etho," Jimmy remarked to Tango.

"Probably," Tango agreed with a small nod and an unfocused look in his eyes. He didn't move. Didn't stand. Just stayed where he was crouched.

"Thank you for this, by the way," Jimmy said. "I know you would have done it yourself for him but—"

"It's fine. My hands are steady but Etho's are better," Tango remarked. "And he actually knows how to stitch up a wound and make a flexible splint. Or he's creative enough to figure it out. I'm not that creative."

"Sure you are!" Jimmy protested quietly. "You're very creative!"

"I mean, yeah, but not like this. I can make up a game for someone to play, but I can't invent a splint for a merperson's sprained tail. Those are different kinds of creativity and inventiveness." His eyes quickly flicked to the way Jimmy's scales glinted in Pearl's moonlight where scale met skin below his navel and back to Jimmy's eyes. "You're welcome, by the way. It's no problem. Happy to help where we can. For you or people you're close to." Impulsively, he reached out and tugged on the point of Jimmy's caudal fin, causing him to yelp—and dissolve into giggles.

"That tickles!" he protested, his fin sliding out of Tango's grip easily as it lashed back on instinct, clapping against the waves. Tango chuckled. He liked the way Jimmy screwed his eyes shut when he laughed. He liked Jimmy's broad smile. He liked Jimmy's easy personality and warm hazel-brown eyes. He wasn't sure yet what they were—and he hadn't talked to Jimmy about it either—but he wasn't worried. They shared space and conversation easily. He didn't care what they were.

Joel and Lizzie, for their part, didn't even look over at the splash of Jimmy's caudal fin striking the water.

Etho, Scar, and Pearl did. Only briefly.

Had they looked over for a little longer, they might have noticed a dark shadow moving closer, recklessly trampling over loose rocks. But they didn't.

—

Grian peered over the ridge of the rocks. And went stock still.

Etho, Tango, and Joel he recognized. Etho and Tango ran the shop below him with Impulse. Joel ran the small tree nursery up the road and taught painting in the evenings occasionally.

It was the other figures that made Grian freeze where he stood.

The woman in Joel's lap had long pink hair and a fish tail. The blond, athletically-built man staring at Tango like a golden retriever also had a tail. The two by Etho had fish tails as well. The male one, apparently, the source of the song that had drawn Grian around the marina. The female seemed to be the source of the light on the rocks. Etho had flexible metal instruments and some sort of straps that he was using to make some sort of brace at the end of the male's long, green tail flecked with yellows and oranges. There was a long row of stitches down the male's fin.

Grian stared, wide-eyed, his jaw slack. For a long time.

Merpeople?!

Gem was going to freak out, he decided.

A harsh wind blew off the sea. Grian took a step back to maintain his balance.

His heel caught on a loose stone. He careened, his arms pinwheeling.

Splash!

—

Seven heads snapped in the direction of the sound immediately. Pearl curled closer to Scar and bared her teeth in threat. Etho half-stood from his sitting position, looking around. Scar had grabbed Pearl's wrist and just held her there. He'd stopped singing.

Lizzie disappeared off Joel's lap and vanished into the water without so much as a sound.

Jimmy twisted and followed his twin sister into the surf. But instead of lurking in the murky darkness of the ocean at night, he swam around the ridge of the rocks to the back side, where the sound had come from. Tango bolted to his feet, standing upright.

Jimmy saw the human man—young, smaller than Tango somehow (Jimmy was unaware that adult human males could be so small)—appeared to be shocked by the cold of the surf. After a moment, the human began to thrash, fighting to swim back to the surface, obviously struggling with his shoes—as Tango had called them—still on his feet.

Jimmy grabbed the human under his arms and hauled him upwards, breaking the surface and dragging the human onto the rocky shore.

The human coughed as Tango scrambled over the loose, uneven ground to get over to them.

"Holy smokes," Tango said, sliding down the ridge. "Are you okay?" His gaze flicked between Jimmy and the human. Who was facedown but keeping himself up on his elbows as he coughed.

The unknown human coughed again and looked up. His hair was wavy and light brown. His eyebrows scrunched. "Tango?"

Tango gasped and took a step back, nearly losing his balance himself. "Grian?! What are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Jimmy asked softly.

"He lives in the apartment above me and Etho's workshop," Tango explained. "He's a friend." Tango dropped to his knees in front of this Grian. "Hey. You okay, G?"

Grian coughed more seawater out of his lungs, but managed a nod. "Fine. Lost my footing." He cleared his throat—hard. "So. Who's going to explain to me what's going on?" He pushed himself to his feet. Drenched and shivering. Tango slid out of his thick bomber jacket and held it out. Grian accepted it and slung it on, shivering. "Tango—"

"Grian, we can explain—" Joel said, scrambling over the top of the ridge.

"I really hope you can," Grian retorted. "Because you were cuddling a mermaid."

Jimmy bristled a little, glowering at the stranger. "Don't talk about my sister like that," he growled.

Grian looked down at where Jimmy was still propped up on the shore. "Uh... sorry?"

"Jimmy," Tango said softly. Almost a warning.

Lizzie's head slid out of the surface, watching with wide eyes.

"Okay... so..." Tango began. "Merfolk exist?"

"Oh, no, really?!" Grian retorted sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed!"

"Listen, Grian. You can't tell anyone," Joel put in. "It's not our secret to share."

"Who would believe me even if I wanted to?" Grian shot back.

"Fair enough," Tango muttered, smirking down at Jimmy, who had not yet relaxed.

"Scar—Scar hold still!" Etho's quiet voice ordered from the other side of the ridge.

"But I wanna seeeeee!" Scar's voice put in.

"Scar," Pearl warned.

Grian peered between Tango and Joel's heads. "That's the voice I heard singing," he said, a touch of wistfulness laced through his voice.

"Oh shrimp," Pearl exclaimed. "Really, Scar? You had to use your siren magic?"

"I didn't mean to!" Scar protested. "I was just trying to distract myself! It's not my fault I'm this handsome and alluring."

The sound of damp skin striking damp skin and Scar yelping in surprise meant Pearl had probably whacked him in the arm. "Not the time to sound arrogant, mate!" she snapped.

Grian slid between Tango and Joel and approached the ridge to peer over it.

Scar shrunk back against Pearl's protective hug as the human got closer. Pearl bared her teeth. The soft moonlight coming from her hand turning from a small orb of light into a sharp-edged dagger. Grian didn't get any closer when he saw it morph.

Etho patted Scar's tail where a human's knee would be. "Go ahead and give that a try. Let me know if it's flexible enough to swim."

Scar looked between Etho, Grian, Tango, and Pearl. Pearl took his hand. The two scooted back into the water and disappeared under the surf.

"Scar!" Pearl said when they were safely deep enough that the others wouldn't hear them. "You can't go using siren magic when we're this close to a human town! You know your songs can be heard farther away than someone else's singing at the same volume. You have to be more careful!"

"I know, I know," Scar replied, looking defeated. "I didn't think anyone would hear."

Pearl sighed. "It's fine. It was just one. You will have to explain to Jimmy and Lizzie's mum what happened, but at least he's friends with the humans who already know." Pearl sunk lower and inspected the brace Etho made. "How's the splint working?"

Scar tested it out, swimming slowly.

—

"Okay," Grian said once the green-tailed male and the white-tailed female had vanished underwater. "So merfolk exist and apparently no one has figured that out yet?" He gave Etho, Tango, and Joel a look.

"We keep ourselves discreet," the pink-haired mermaid who'd been cuddling with Joel said from where she was a few meters out into the water. "Our cities hide from human technology with magic. And that's all you need to know." She spoke with a weight and gravitas to her voice that showed she was used to being obeyed and listened to.

"A few of us find connection with humans, but not many," the broad-shouldered blond merman who'd been making doe eyes at Tango added. "We're not supposed to, but it happens anyway. And you can't tell anyone."

Grian shook his head. "This is a lot to take in. So, wait. Was it one of you I saw earlier today? Near the hull of my friend's boat. I saw a large fish almost break the surface, but not quite."

The blond merman and his pink-haired sister met one another's eyes. "What color did you see?"

"I can't be sure. The sea was murky. Could have been blue, could have been green?"

The pink-haired mermaid sighed. "Scar's being reckless, Jimmy," she said softly to her brother. "He's getting too close."

"You know him, Lizzie. He's curious," the brother said.

"Look," Grian interrupted. "I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm just... startled, I guess? I don't know—"

He was cut off by the green-tailed merman who'd disappeared with the white-tailed mermaid bursting out of the water and doing a flip. "Woohoo!" the man cried as he splashed back in before resurfacing and throwing his hair out of his face.

"Scar!" the white-tailed mermaid protested, her head breaking through the surface. "You have to be quiet!"

"But I can swim on my own again, Pearl! It worked!" He beamed at Etho. In the faint light from the town's streetlights, Grian could see a scar across the bridge of the merman's nose. "Thank you, man!"

Etho shrugged. "Just a little creativity. No big deal."

The white-tailed mermaid raised a brow. "Etho, I don't think you understand how dangerous a sprained tail is," she said. "Without your help, he could have been hunted. We really appreciate it." She pulled herself out of the water and back onto shore. Her eyes were noticeably bright blue and suspicious when they turned on Grian. "You're the one who always has the hooks in the water."

"I just like to fish for the cod."

"Well you've nearly torn Scar's tail! You're lucky he got it caught on something else that wasn't your hook because if that injury had been your fault, no one would have ever found you at the bottom of the sea."

"How is that my fault?!" Grian snapped back. Jimmy and Tango glanced at each other before looking back to Grian—who didn't have time to wonder why they looked so surprised that he was arguing. "If he can't stay away from a fish hook, that's on him. He appears to be a full grown adult and you all have human intelligence so that's not on me!"

The white-tailed mermaid growled.

The pink-haired one muttered, "He's got a point."

"Hey!" the green-tailed merman protested. "It had a shiny thing on the end of it! I wanted to see!"

"That's a lure you tadpole!" Jimmy said with a heavy sigh.

"Don't act like you're the one holding the braincell here, Jim," Joel teased. "Between you and Scar it's a wonder neither of you are in a human zoo."

"Oi!" Jimmy protested at the same time Scar said, "Hey!"

Etho chuckled.

Grian threw his hands up into the air. "I give up! Have a good night. I won't tell anyone. Goodbye. I'm going to bed." He spun, his wader boot heel crunching in the rocky beach, and he stormed off back toward the town.

—

The next morning, Scar surfaced just under the wharf, hidden from prying eyes and quiet. The human from the night before—Grian?— was dangling his feet off the end of the next dock over, fishing line cast out. His fishing rod was held loosely in one hand, the other holding a book he was reading.

Scar could hear the human humming the same siren song Scar had been singing last night in broken pieces.

Smirking, Scar dipped back under the water and pushed himself deep before shoving off the wharf's supporting poles to cross the gap to the human. He looked up at where Grian's bare toes drifted back and forth, kicking idly, and smirked.

Using his arms to swim upward to keep his tail as still as possible while it healed—Etho's brace was great but if he didn't have to use his tail, he didn't want to—Scar got close to the surface.

He snickered to himself and tugged on Grian's toe.

Grian screeched like a startled bird and tore his feet out of the water, scrambling back on the dock.

Scar slid his head out of the water, an easy laugh leaving his throat. "Well, hello there!" he greeted brightly.

"What are you doing?!" Grian hissed. "What was that?!"

"Can't a merman just say hello to a new friend?" Scar asked, pouring bravado into his voice with a smirk.

"Not if you're trying not to draw attention! Not like that, at least!" Grian snapped.

Farther out in the marina, on one of the boats anchored away from the docks and wharfs, a voice called out. "Everything okay, Grian?"

Scar immediately ducked under the dock Grian was on, hiding among the support structures.

"Everything's fine, Gem!" Grian shouted back. "Bit of kelp just brushed my foot."

From the boat, a feminine laugh rang across the water. Scar giggled too, quietly. "Alrighty! Be safe!" Gem called.

After a moment, Grian dropped to his knees at the edge of the dock. "Still here?" he whispered loudly.

Scar popped back out. "Of course!"

"I never caught your name."

"Most people just call me Scar. My full name is too complicated. You're Grian?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Grian, I can't help but notice that you were singing my song." Another smirk.

Grian's expression soured. "You got it stuck in my head."

Scar chuckled. "Well, I mean, if you want," Scar tried to sound confident, but was definitely blustering a little, "you can always meet me in the same place out on those rocks after dark tonight and I'll teach it to you properly. You can meet my cousin Pearl properly too!"

"Was she the scary one with the white tail?"

"That's my Pearlie!"

"Promise she won't try to drown me?"

"She would never!" Scar said, sounding a lot more promising than he felt.

Grian looked skeptical. "Fine. After dark over on the rocks. See you then."

Scar beamed. "See you then!" He moved to dunk back under, and paused. "Also will you tell Tango that Jimmy has a present for him?"

"Sure. Why not. I'll find a time when Impulse isn't there."

"Well, thanks! You have a good day!" He twisted and dove back underwater, heading for open waters.

—

Grian stared at where Scar's long green tail disappeared.

"This is going to be more trouble than it's worth," he muttered. But curiosity was going to get the better of him, he already knew it.

Drawn in by the siren song.

Frustrated, he shook his head and abandoned his fishing for the morning. That would have to wait.

[trustymikh]

bruharvey fish

[stiffyck]

Mermaid scar?

Feesh

[fourthleafluck]

T4T mermaid/selkie my beloveds

As a trans person, I often find myself in awe of the way other trans people do gender, and I wanted to do a piece that reflected that love and wonderment. I tried to infuse this with all my adoration for the mutual love between people who are transitioning in sort of opposite directions.

Seeing trans people play with femininity in a way that makes them happy allows the ghost of the little girl I never was to sleep more soundly in my chest. How could I not fall in love with the rightful carers of a gender I was a steward for in my childhood? To see the way trans femmes make feminininty their own is such a unique and potent joy.

Anyways, thank you trans people for making the world more beautiful and full of color and life. I love you I love you I love you 💙🩷🤍🩷💙

[ellohcee]

Happy mermay from your local fucked up mermanoid typhoon

I had bits of every Vash in mind, the tattered red coat, the angel wings, the plant markings. And his prosthetic arm is thanks to mermaid magic

[theshadowrealmitself]

You ever have a dream you wake up from and you’re like “no, wait, where was I going with that, continue!!”

Well my dream was about some small mermaid princess trying to grow into a mermaid queen, and she lives more by rocky water

So her method of “being a queen” is going around and learning everything about her “citizens” and getting them to calm down

Well after she learns “everything” she can, a couple of battle hardened adult mermaids show up, because they heard a small kid was constantly in danger

The princess is grateful and excited to meet new people, but it quickly makes her insecure because their presence points out that she’s not actually aware of everything in the water, the other adult mermaids visibly look battle-hardened and scarred, while she still looks like a dainty never-seen-violence princess, and the two adult mermaids are incredibly competent and quick, while she’s never had to be fast in her life

(They also don’t recognize her “princess” title because they’ve never heard of her among the other mermaids and think she’s just an adorable lost kid)

Eventually they come up to some of her “citizens” fighting and the two adults start preparing their weapons, while the small princess just swims over, and sings to them till they’re calm, then gets them to separate while they’re dazed, and they swim off

However, when the princess turns around proudly to see if the mermaids liked her diplomatic skills, she finds out they’re horrified, and one’s like “what is this creature and what was that?!”

Because this isn’t a small mermaid lost in a dangerous area who needs to worry about fighting

This is a small siren perfectly comfortable in those waters because they’re her territory

Then I fucking woke up, noooo I want more!!!!

[intistone]

I got a question for the 2 Siren boys

To Sun: What's your favorite thing to do with Kelpie Y/N and Moon?

To Moon: What the weirdest thing you've bitten at?

As for Moon….

not bit.

ate.

[bgranville]

A mermaid and her aquatic frog