#shape shifters

Anyway, after the initial mermaidy sketch, I very much went--okay, but what if it were a flying fish dragon??? And thus, shapeshifter, and thus, obviously, might as well be able to shift to a more human form, too (bear in mind, I also recently read Martha Wells' Raksura novels, which is probably what all this is fueled from). Shortly thereafter, still itching for mermaid-dragon-shifters, I figured I might as well sketch out a plot so I could have some fun with it after all my other projects.

This was a mistake.

There's a ton of fishermen around here. Fairly recently, I saw one group haul up a shark (they promptly began beating the shit out of it because shark), but I figure if a random group of dudes could catch a shark, presumably by accident, they could absolutely accidentally catch a dragon in mermaid form--especially if their nets are too tough for a dragon/sea serpent to chew or claw through. And if, say, the fishermen needed some cash, they could probably sell said captured mermaid-dragon to a traveling circus.

Said dragon-mermaid is very displeased by this, but by the time she realizes she can shift into a human-like (groundling) form, she's almost 2000 miles from where she was taken. Fortunately, at this point, she's been "purchased" by a very nice couple who completely understand she's a sentient creature, is suffering, and who have the cash and every intention to bring her home--until their expedition funding is cut because their patron, the duke, died, and the dead duke's son, the duke, is a dick.

So the dragon-mermaid, Lete, having now figured out she can become fairly human--enough to pass, if she wears gloves and keeps calm so she doesn't accidentally spine someone--realizes the couple who rescued her from the circus need money. And she hears about debutante season, which she understands to be a chance to earn a wealthy guy's favor, aka cash. So while her rescuers are trying to secure funding in a normal way, Lete's gone off and practiced "human" enough to start attending these balls, determined to win the money of the new duke's children, who are also participating in this debutante season.

At this point I've given in and have started writing. Whoops. I also made a map. WHOOPS.

(the relevant parts. combo of Azgaar's fantasy map generator and Legendkeeper)

Roundabout now, we have our chat about STEAMPUNK FERAL DRAGONS!!!! and I realize I should probably have a vague idea of time period for this, given that the entire plot revolves around attending balls because I really didn't fancy writing a story entirely underwater. I wasn't feeling anything regency or Bridgerton-esque, I wanted there to be magic (most of the sentient species of this world are shifters of some kind, so there's gotta be at least some magic), and after a fun little google search of various punks, I came across clockpunk, steampunk's little brother. No steam, purely wind up- often paired with a baroque or rococo aesthetic (art period after the renaissance, took the renaissance's restraint/balanced aesthetic and, very basically without any nuance, went "nah" and went on a bender). That vibe fit pretty well with what I was going for, so now the nice rescuer people are an alchemist and a clockwork mechanic, respectively, I've got a framework for the region's fashion, and we've introduced period-typical gender and religious issues to background all of this. Yay.

So now we're a good 17k into this project I said I wasn't going to work on because I have other shit to work on but Lete is very much a non-human character, and very much is not comfortable with her groundling/human-esque form--she barely tolerates her mermaid form--because lungs are gross and knees are weird and everything is just all sorts of wrong. She would very much like to go back to being her happy dragon/sea serpent true self ASAP. Unfortunately, she needs to learn to dance, first. And thus Tyrant was put on pause, entirely by accident, because Lete is fun to write.

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In answer to the other question: Lete and the dragon-mermaid-shifters don't really have fashion. They don't wear clothes. But Lete, now that she has to be dressed to pass in "polite" society, thinks the nuances and materials of this group of human's clothes are fascinating--and that if she learns fashion well enough, her non-human slips will be smoothed over as eccentricities, rather than eliciting a 'hold down the demon for dissection' reaction.

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Proof of 500!