LIME THIS IS A WONDERFUL IDEA HOLY SHIT

uuuuuuuh well thomas would definitely be an elder mer, the way that patton is, but instead of being light blue he would have scales that are a gradient from red to purple and are also iridescent. virgil, on the other hand, would likely be a vampire squid - so instead of a tail, he would have a black squid’s body with lots of tentacles and markings (google vampire squid they’re super adorable) 

vampire squid ARE tiny, it’s one of the reasons i love them so much!!! 

ldad!logan has electroreception in place of the glasses of his normal counterpart, which is loosely based on the electroreception abilities of a platypus, and he has electric abilities that are based on like a combo of an electric eel and certain species of electric octopi. he’s not based on a specific fish, or he would have that fish’s specific abilities

that being said, reverse!virgil IS based on a specific fish, the vampire squid! as such, he does have a couple of cool abilities based on what vampire squid are capable of!

- vampire squid have the ability to shift to match the density of the water around them to minimize the need for swimming and allow them to hang sort of suspended in the water to catch their prey. virgil has the ability to hover almost completely motionless in deep water and extend thin, see-through tentacles that he normally keeps retracted below his larger tentacles to catch prey

- virgil also has photophores on his face, arms, and tentacles! these are organs in certain bioluminescent fish that produce the light they emit. they are generally inactive, but when virgil gets startled he can produce bright, blinding flashes of light to stun predators and escape 

- in human form, these present as huge clusters of freckles

logan, as a mer: why are you so Small 

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