bakerstreet | Keep the little merman away from me

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Keep the little merman away from me

mermaids & land dwellers
a possibly (au) mermaid ❝shipping❞ meme

Few fantastical creatures have captured the imaginations of those of us stuck in the mundane quite like mermaids. It's understandable: the ocean provides an endless canvas for us. Who knows what may live in those deep, seemingly endless depths? There's something intriguing about the mermaid, too, as a being that exists between two worlds. Beautiful human up top, dangerously alien down below, a mix between the comforting and the unknown. Such a combination is all very alluring, speaking perfectly of both the sense of freedom and adventure and and the impending doom offered by the high seas.

Because of the mystery and excitement provided by mermaids, people have been considering what the relationships between those who live on land and those who dwell in the sea would be like. For as long as there have been mer-tales, there have been stories of lucky or unlucky seafarers who earn the attention of mermaids. In some cautionary tales, merfolk are said to be little more than sirens who relish in driving sailors to their doom, luring them to the waters with gorgeous songs so that ships may be crashed, blood spilt, and flesh rend to fill the bellies of sea-demons. In other, more optimistic tales, there are lonely mermaids who fall in love with sailors, fishermen, and princes and will do anything to be with their objects of affections, even if it means turning to sea foam. Of course, earning a mermaid's love may not be better than becoming their prey; after all, in their ignorance of the children of earth, they may pull a person under the water and forget that air is a necessity for some.

Perhaps you are a human or other offspring of the land who has grown up with the tales of mermaids. You know that caution must be taken should you go on the ocean, lest you become nothing more than a meal. If you were in that situation, you would never fall for the merfolk's charms. However, that's so much easier said than done.

On the other hand, you could be a mermaid. Whether you are "good" or "bad" depends entirely on upbringing, just like with anyone else. Finally, you've come upon a land dweller. Will you be infatuated with them, look at them as a sweet morsel, or be more scared of them than they are of you?

how to play;

- Comment with your character and preferences. This meme allows for characters to be the one who lives on land or the mermaid. Feel free to do a mermaid AU for your character!
- Reply to others. Use the RNG to get your prompt.

prompts;

1.Good: Everything said about merfolks is wrong. They are reclusive, but not evil. Especially not this one. Maybe they even saved you. No matter what, they love you, absolutely. And, were you to be honest, it was love at first sight on your end, too. But that doesn't mean you can be together...at least, not easily.
2. Bad: Come, jolly sailor bold. Come into the arms of a mermaid, and you will not regret it. They will hold you, and you cannot resist, even as you're dashed against the rock.
3. Wild: Good and evil cannot be applied to mermaids here, for they are like any other wild creature, more beast than man. Yet the more they're exposed to the kindness of humans or others who live on land, the more fond they grow towards it - and those who show them that kindness.
4. Ignorant: The mermaid's intentions are good, yet he or she doesn't realize what they could do to hurt their land dweller lover.
5. The Mermaid Dilemma: What can be done if someone wants to do more with a mermaid than give them kisses or sweet words? Not much, it seems. At first glance, that is, though who knows what can happen if one puts their mind to it.
6. Not What Was Expected: Beauty is always expected of a mermaid, but what if such a creature looked more like this? Who could care for such a beast? Well, there's still charm there, and with enough personality, appearances can be looked past.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

ooc | she's p. much a nerdy disney princess / or she's a super curious landlubber!!

[ probably the land dweller. ]

( Either. )

( she's kind of the ur-example of this. )

[ Up for good or bad ]

( Either )

[ She's wild in canon but leans good as she gets to know humans. Still a little feral. What is personal space, what do you mean humans don't hiss at each other when they're mad. Siren song creates something like a drug addiction in whoever hears it. In ocean water, she transforms, quite painfully, and acts on her instincts (kill or be killed, mostly.) She can be curious and inquisitive but honestly think feral cat. ]

[the mermaid or a nicer-than-expected sea witch, shipping prefs]

[A mermaid or merman]

[ooc: Shapeshifting landlubber/skyrider for merman Loki. Did you have any particular prompt you had in mind to shape the nature of this encounter?]

Edited 2018-10-14 02:46 (UTC)

[Either!]

[Preferrably Sui as the merman, but open to either!]

[Well why not? He’d be the merman, annnd likely gonna drag you down to your death to eat you. Unless perhaps you save his life? PM me with any questions!]

[ Either role but I'd love to play him as the mermaid/merman. ]

[ shark mer~~maid~~dude. definitely on the darker side of things (drownings, murder, scarier true form showing up) though i love making up my own shit about merfolk so it could go either way. ]

[Much like how humans had different 'races' so too did those that lived under the sea. They weren't are frequent, tended to be reclusive of each other and never mingled. Each of them had their own race and unless it came to competing for a resourced, they often passed one another like two ships on a foggy night. The sea was vast, and all the songs sung to him as a young pup nestled clinging to his mother's long braid told him of the others. See but don't be. Hear but don't bear. Taste but never make haste.

However, his society was matriarchal where family groups moved together like orcas or elephants. They schooled together, needed to socialization of their own kind, but theirs was a harsh world where females ruled because of the strength of their voices, their knowledge as matriarchs passing down knowledge to sisters, daughters and granddaughters. A male was welcomed only for a short time, and for the young ones, starvation was a very real reality for most of them when they were chased from the group as soon as they seemed to be heading towards sexual maturity.

He had found his way to a coastal town where the food was easier to come by and going onto land wasn't unheard of when it came to a meal. He survived into adulthood that way, but humans were... a cruel lot and not in the laws of nature kind of way. They had found him intriguing, had used strange substances to make him tired and hauled him from the sea where they had destroyed the singing aspects of his vocal chords. He might not be female, but the allure of his voice was one of his greatest weapons, and they couldn't have that.

He spent years in one of their small tanks, samples taken from him, electricity applied to the water, bars over the top of the tank. Females didn't survive in the experimental environment, not long anyway. Without their ability to sing, they seemed to fade away and surrounded by men, they rebelled to the point of insanity. They weren't keen to survive without their family, so they died. Males like him were better adapted to the hardship, but most of them even died.

He knew that others existed, but his time in the tanks where his body had been scarified and used, he had come to see them. They were like sharks where he was more like a fish. Their colours might have been similar, but he still bloomed yearly where his scales would take on rich red hue over the black of his tail. Only the scars wouldn't bloom, but they... well, he couldn't recall seeing the sharp-ones bloom.

Scheming for years was one thing, escaping was another. Murdering a human guard wasn't difficult, pulling himself out of his tank and slithering his way across the cement to a safe place for long enough to allow his body to dry out was another. It was the most dangerous part with the alarms blaring. But he had dried, his scales absorbing into his body and becoming legs, and he pushed himself up with the intention to leave.

A metal pipe became his main weapon, but he wasn't afraid of human guns either. He had seen them enough. Most of the others in the facility were sad and pathetic, wasted away to bones or so badly damaged mentally that they didn't respond for his inquiries on if they should leave.

So when he came upon a sharp-one who seemed at least as capable as he was to leave, he pushed back his dark hair from his face and tapped the glass with his pipe. Learning the human language came par for the course, so he expected this one to at least have enough good sense to understand when he used the human tongue. If not... well, he would just move on. Time was running out before the entire facility would lock down.]

I'm leaving. Can you fight?

[ Squalo's story, however, had been much simpler; he'd gotten captured as he lived - recklessly and in overabundance. He loved the deep waters and hated the lumbering land creatures, but every so often, he'd be tempted to swim to the shallows of the islands and gorge himself on the fat shellfish that filled the warm waters. ]

[ Little did he know that the biggest island had gotten sold for an industrial complex, and inevitably, when he was passed out in a shallow digesting crabs and alcoholic sea slugs, snoring awfully and loudly enough to hear a mile away, he was found by humans that had moved onto the island. ]

[ His people were mostly solitary, grouping up only to play, mate and tell tales, or when they were hunting an exceptionally large prey, and even then some preferred to go at it by themselves in an attempt to carve their legends. The hunt and the glory, the most important parts in a shark's life. He'd been at it since he could remember, ditched by his mother at the entrance of a cave his father was calling home. He'd gotten some lessons, some advice and some legends, and then he was on his own. ]

[ They couldn't sing, nor flourish in bright colors, but they had sharp skin and teeth, long tails for speed and bodies that healed up from injuries fast. It was that ability to regenerate that humans were most interested in; he hadn't spent that long in the research facility but they'd already been cutting bits and pieces off of him to see what would happen. ]

[ Well, as it turned out, he couldn't regrow a whole hand, or at least it was taking a lot longer in these conditions than anything else. He'd sworn vengeance, of course, but for weeks there was no opening for him to use. ]

[ Until now. ]

[ Alarms blaring, he whips around in rage as soon as he hears a tap on the glass, spikes bristled and fangs out, a growl that's part hiss and part bubbling in the water. What he sees, however, is not a human but one of the sea folk, albeit horribly malformed from dehydration. His skin smooths out just a tad, returning him to that prettier appearance, as he grimaces for a few moments as if considering whether the possibility to escape is worth dirtying his jaws with the ugly human language. ]

[ Unfortunately, it was. ]

Break the glass and I'll show you.

[ His voice's low, rough as if suffering from disuse or an illness; he flashes a teethy grin in addition. His glass is probably reinforced, but a pipe had to be harder than the toughest shark skin. ]

Edited 2018-10-13 20:45 (UTC)

[Sharp ones were not to be trusted, or so he had been told. His exposure to them was in songs and tales at family gatherings, and that had been a long time ago. They were vicious and hungry, seemingly willing to eat themselves into a state of unconsciousness before moving on. They could be taciturn and one might never know when they might decided to make a companion a meal.

They were also know for how viciously they could fight. They gave no quarter, and at this point, he would have that on his side. If anything else, he would only have to outrun the sharp one at the end of the day as they likely would have to pick their way back to the sea. How far away that was, he had no idea. He was simply done being a test subject.

He narrowed his eyes for a moment, the burn scars on the left side of his face and neck twisting. He didn't have the same healing capabilities after all, and he bore his scars with little complaint. He snarled and finally grabbed the pipe with two hands, deciding that this would have to be the right course of action.

It took two hits with the pipe to break the glass and water spilled out across the floor, almost offsetting his balance as it drove into his knees. His scales rose through his skin in reply, but he fought the urge to re-enter the water as it washed away and would eventually be sucked up by all those drains he had seen laid into the floor.

Instead, he waited for the worst of the water to break against other tanks, equipment, and walks and then forced his way through the knee high water after the sharp one. He figured it would take time for that one to dry out, if sharp ones could even assume a two-legged form. He offered the pipe as a weapon and looked down at the long-haired creature.]

If I carry you, will you dry out and be able to walk? We need to be free of this place quickly, and I won't slow down much for you.

yes

sharktrash - 2018-10-13 21:32 (UTC) - Expand

cady heron / mean girls, the musical ( ota )

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu | Danganronpa | ota

davy jones | oc | ota

ariel ♆ tlm (darker fantasy au) ♆ ota

Eijirou Kirishima | My Hero Academia | ota

Sphintus Carmen | Magi | ota

Ryn | Siren | ota

Wanda Maximoff | MCU

Loki Odinson | MCU | OTA

no subject

Varian | Tangled TV series | OTA

Suigetsu Hozuki - Naruto - M/F

Todd the Wraith // Stargate Atlantis // OTA

Derek Lockwood | Original | OTA

Squalo Superbi // KHR!/Reborn! // ota

Sort of 2, 3 and 6

this should be an action movie tbqh

we could be onto something. we should go into film making clearly