#mer!four

Mermay Day 6: Sweet Treat

Mermay Day 11: Redraw!

Also, if you have additional character concepts for this au, or notes you’re able to share, I’d love to read them!!

Warriors: metallic silver scales with microscopic iridescent ridges. He shimmers a green-blue, the more prominent color depends on the lighting. He does still have his scarf in this au (unlike Twilight, rip wolf pelt), and Legend thinks it’s the most ridiculous thing ever. Warriors’ fins are more angular than most and even look like razor blades from the right angle. He still has the burn scars on his left arm, but Volga is a sea serpent that spits boiling water in this au. Mer Wars is a bit more prone to enjoying shiny things in Linked Seas, he likes wearing bracelets and other jewelry as long as they’re not too dangly. His favorite is a cuff Artemis gave him, the sharp angled metalwork matches his scales and has inlaid emeralds and diamonds.

Wild: I forgot, he does make a couple quick cameos in the first fic! His tail is champion blue with darker highlights (like how his LU tunic design is split on the colors). The edging of his fins (dorsal, tail, and ears) fade into white. He has just as many if not more scars as he does in LU. His tail curves to the left from the scars’ tightness, and it makes it harder for him to swim in a straight line. Does that stop him from being the fastest mer in the Chain? No. No, it does not.😂 He just has to work a little harder than most to get there. He wants to learn a speed spell, but he can’t seem to find a book or a teacher to help him (Legend knows a speed spell, but is a little concerned about what Wild might do with it. Legend has elected to not volunteer his information or the fact that he knows anything in the first place🤣) Wild’s dorsal fin is a little twisted, too, but his reaction time is second to none. He refuses any and all attempts to tame his hair.

Four: second smallest in the Chain Tribe (which is honestly saying something, most of them are pretty little for mer). Instead of a Minish feather earring, it’s a Minish scale in this au. Looks similar, just scale-ified. The scale is Ezlo’s, the one mer who spoke out against Four’s banishment. Four once had a fairly straightforward, green tail, but it changed once he met Shadow (courtesy of some rather concerning magic he did to save Shadow’s life that couldn’t possibly cause problems later …😈). Now, Four’s scales glitter in every color, but there are clear lines for green, red, violet, and blue sections if you look at him head-on. Most of the time. The other guppies say they’ve seen his colors change like an octopus. Four tends to slip away whenever the guppies make these claims around the older members of the tribe. To offset his disco ball of a tail, he wears very simple clothes, just a darkish tunic with sleeves that barely cover his shoulders. And yes, he’s one of those mer who have four tail fins. I had to. The Colors are more distinct and vivid on the membrane part of each fin (each Color has one fin in the same order as Four’s LU tunic; same for the general lines on the rest of his tail)

Shadow: he and Four are identical twins, but because he used to be with the Demise Tribe, Shadow’s lost color where Four has a ton. His hair and tail are deep black, and his scales have faint white lines running through them, almost like cracks. The lines weren’t there before he defected. No one but Four knows why. 

Wind: ironically, looks more like a tetra than Tetra does🤣 Red tail (King of Red Lions colored) with a blue streak down each side. Fins fade to an orange like his pants in LU, Malon likes to say he looks like a sunset. Darker tips near the point of all his fins. He’s still smaller than the smallest adolescent (Legend), but that won’t last much longer. Wind is built to be BIG someday if he keeps getting the care he needs. Tetra gave him her red bandanna, saying he’d look better in it, anyway (she gave it to him to remember her by, and they both know it). He’s going to love jewelry he salvages/pirates from human ships once he’s big enough, especially if it’s something nice he can give Aryll. He wears a similar tunic to LU, just shorter and with hourglass designs on the tops of his short sleeves

I’ll do ones for Sky, Malon, and Aryll soon! (Lmk if you’d like me to tag you to make sure you see it when I post it)

And extra lore? Hmm … what flavor of lore did you have in mind (specific character, worldbuilding, specific tribe, fluff, angst, culture, a combo, etc.?)

Oh ho ho, you picked up on that? Nicely done!👌 The full answer to this question has some spoilers, so I’ll give you the vague version first and then the spoilery version below the cut.

There isn’t a specific age mer become adoles. Adolescence is based on when a guppy’s super soft, super delicate scales start to harden (once they’re fully hardened, the mer is considered an adult and is much more damage and disease resistant). Mer can start that process anywhere from around seven years old to twenty or even older in rare cases. It really just depends on the individual mer and their genetics.

The short, (mostly) non-spoilery version is that Four and Shadow COULD be considered adoles, but they’re actively hiding it from the rest of their tribe for the time being. They’re both fifteen, which roughly equates to twelve or so developmentally in human years.

I’m especially concerned for Four and Warriors, since it seems extra unnatural for them to be on their own!

eeeeeeee! I’m so glad you’re loving it!! I’m having a blast with this au, let me tell you

And you are so right on all accounts. Everyone in the Chain’s been through some ROUGH stuff, even Malon a little bit

(Long) Backstories for Four and Warriors below the cut!

is it that there's extra fins on the tail like

or just multiple fins at the tip at the tail?

or something else?

(also I've never drawn mers before this is so much fun hahaha)

multiple at the tip! But I could easily see some other 4-fin mer as having it the other way, they both look super cool