#I'm supposed to be doing mermay and yet here i am | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

demonprincezeldris · 11 months

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Happy Mermay!! I've been enjoying you and your anons’ siren au so much and am writing a little spin off based on it. I wanted to get your opinion on something. The au has Estarossa and Gowther and the sins, but what should I do with Nadja and Gelda?

For Nadja, I am tempted in several directions. One is a scenario where Mel and his pod ‘steal’ her from her maneater pod. Gowther would earn his “commandment of selflessness,” so to speak, by singlehandedly facing off against the managers until the rest of his family arrives (could not return that to “maneeaters” after the autocorrect, that's too funny to me). Mel taught him well and is so proud, and exhausted from the anxiety. During this altercation, the maneaters go to gouge out his eyes but fail, leaning him with scars that mimic the shape of his glasses in the original manga. I'm not too familiar with the manager lore but I think that upbringing will be an interesting element to put with Nadja’s personality (though understanding that will take some more research. I feel like I barely know the gal).

The second idea I have is to make her a voyager who knows she was born in the sea but can't bear to see foot on land or in the sea. She travels all along the coastline as the top advisor/navigator of a ship, but due to her constant refusal to acknowledge she is half (?) magical creature and all that comes with it, weakens until her crew has no choice but to seek out a magical creature who could help her save her own life somehow. Third is a classic mermaid x human scenario, with Gowther meeting Nadja at the same place as the Original Gowther met Glariza, a massive library off a coastal city. In this scenario he would be accompanying Estarossa on his crazy personal quest to get Meliodas some help with his mental state. Long story short Mael and Esta end up trying to get their two brothers to learn something from each other. This little adventure might be in the prologue to the spin-off. I've written a bit of it, with how Estarossa meets Mael. In this event, Mael would basically uses himself as leverage, jumping in the water to play with Zeldris. Ludociel feels he has to be civil with Mel now or risk his baby brother being drowned by Mel’s brothers. I made Mael chaotic, felt that Ludo deserved that mental stress in this au lmao.

As for Gelda, I am considering making her a runaway princess. I can see her having the time of her life as part of their pod, crushing on Elizabeth and Zeldris and Arthur, having a lot of peaceful yet exciting days where she's making her own way in the world and relishing in having people by her side as she does so. I adore so many of your fics with Arthur, Zel, and Gelda that I'm going to have to pair the three together here too.They're all such wholesome sweethearts and I love their potential dynamic. These mer are going to do a LOT of falling in love <3 and snuggling. I think they would cuddle pile for comfort

Also beginning to think that me making this spinoff is just giving the sirens as many wacky friends as possible. They are all kids and should not be unsupervised running / swimming around an island like this.

Ban and Arthur and Merlin are going to have SUCH a fun time convincing them that no, they are not “just chilling over here,” half-starved and battered from storms and constant shenanigans with sea life and island life is not actually better than “a proper life on land,” whatever you called “a proper life” before was clearly bs. Please give this a chance. And Elizabeth you KNOW sirens are supposed to live in groups with many adult caretakers stop arguing on this point- you can’t girlboss your way out of not having resources. What do you mean you’ve done it before. yes Mael I know you raised some chickens, I can see them now, honestly the fact you somehow take care of 30+ animals on this island is more concerning than you NOT getting creative, and why are they stare- is that a 4 foot tall pig

“The name’s Hawk!”

Merlin: this is 100x more concerning than you two dating mer and… ah…

Elizabeth: harpy! Also called a sky devil :D

Gelda: Gelda

I am having so much fun with this au. Hope you had fun reading this and if you’d like to see anything specific for this, I’d love to hear about it!

Hi there! Happy Mermay to you as well! First off let me start off by saying thank you so much for rekindling the flame of my Siren AU! It's so amazing to see other users be motivated by the chaos that the anons and I have created a few years ago. I'm so glad you're enjoying reading it.

I love the idea of Nadja as a voyager. I definitely see her as someone, in this AU anyway, who wants to travel and be out adventuring. Never staying in one place for too long. After all, in the original meeting, she was underneath Liones was she not and found Gowther. So kind of drawing a very loose parallel to the idea that she's an adventurer.

I also am in love with the idea of Gelda being a runaway princess! Maybe her life was drab and dark in the castle she lived in and wanted an escape from it all? Causing her to run away from it and seek out a better life for herself. Cue her running into Arthur and Zeldris and letting them show her a new life that she never even hoped to see in her lifetime. And you know that those three would be the cuddliest couple ever and would definitely cuddle pile for comfort.

Thank you again for sharing this wonderful spinoff with me! I'm eager to see the final product!

#Siren AU #Zelthurda #Nadja x Gowther #Melizabeth #Mael #Ludocial #nnt

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broken-clover · 2 years

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You asked for a prompt for Mermay. I don't think I'm the best at ideas, but I do remember you had a series called Illyria aquarium. With recent changes in the story, why not a prompt where delilah's introduced to the aquarium? Feels like the natural next step.

I cannot in good conscience say I had a good reason for this to be so late. Really don't. It's annoying me too. But thankfully it's done now!

Also since this is the first time in a bit I've written and posted something here, I'm going to start using my new proper tag for fics and only fics, filed under Frog Writes. I'll be going back and tagging old stuff soon with the new tag as I've promise earlier, so hopefully everything will be better organized.

Every new mer was a surprise at the aquarium, even if she knew they would be coming. Jack-O hadn’t believed Axl at first when he’d said as much to her, but even after a half-dozen or so newcomers, she was always excited about whatever new fish was being brought into their care. Each one was special and unique in its own way, and finding out about their own individual quirks and making them comfortable in the aquarium always made for a fulfilling challenge.

“Morning, Axl!” She strode into the building with even more excitement than usual. “Is our new guy here yet?”

“Oh, heya, Jackie. Yeah, got a call a few minutes back. Gonna head up to the lab, soon as I’m done with the floor.”

“The…the floor that I am…currently standing on.” Turning pink, she moved off of the spot to let Axl vacuum it.

“Much obliged.”

Still, she could tell that he was just as excited. They fell back into chatter as soon as they had the chance, hurrying up to where they knew their coworkers and the new guest would be.

“So, what do you think it’s gonna be?”

He shrugged, still smiling. “Dunno! Maybe another octopus? Hey, y’know, it’s probably not this, but I’ve always wondered what it’d be like if there was a kissing fish version of a mer. Y’know, the ones that fight with their faces?”

The mental image nearly made Jack-O trip over her feet. “Oh my god, that’s such a weird thought. Would they just go around, aggressively kissing everyone?”

“And you just know someone would take that the wrong way.”

“The other mer, or the visitors?”

“...Yeah.”

The lab tank had been set up as usual, full of rocks and plants to hide behind if the occupant was too nervous to let themselves be seen. Jack-O could almost make out something purplish-brown half-hidden in the thickets, but I-no’s voice pulled her away.

“Oh good, the kiddies have arrived.”

“And g’morning to you too,” Axl snarked back. “Ain’t you bright-eyed.”

It was hard to tell how literal that was supposed to be, but Jack-O could spot several of the woman’s coffee mugs scattered across the table. “You’ve been awful busy, huh?”

“Getting a new mer doesn’t mean I get a break, it just means I gotta keep track of one more thing than usual.” I-no took a sip from the mug currently in her hand, then scrutinized the bottom. “And if you guys didn’t show up soon, I was gonna have to start mixing the special shit into my coffee instead of my usual.”

The girl gave her an odd look. “...Isn’t your ‘usual’ already 110-proof whiskey?”

Another sip. “Yep.”

“Uh…” She decided to move the topic.“Still trying to see if those splotches on Faust are mucous?”

“Raven took a sample this morning, we’re pretty sure he’s fine. And he seems perfectly happy, as long as he just looks peculiar and doesn’t act peculiar, then we’re not all that worried.”

Jack-O nodded. “Makes sense. Just wanna make sure our favorite seahorse isn’t sick, y’know?”

“Jackie, I’m a marine biologist. That’s literally my job.” I-no still gave her hair a friendly ruffle. “Amazed you two haven’t talked my ear off about meeting the new girl yet. Guess that means I gotta reward you~”

Axl rolled his eyes, arms folded along his chest. “Never thought I’d say this, but can we be horny some other time?”

“Or what, you’ll fire me, temp?” Still, she seemed to get the point. She moved over to the large tank and looked it up and down. A finger pointed somewhere along the bottom. “Right about there, you see her? The shadows make it a little hard, but you can see her tail moving.”

Jack-O tried to hide her excitement as she and Axl pressed up against the glass. Sure enough, with I-no’s direction, she spotted the mer rather quickly. Quite a tiny thing compared to what she was used to. Short brown hair fanned around her head in the water, but it didn’t do much to make her look bigger. Jack-O surmised that she didn’t need to look bigger. The mer had her own way of being intimidating. Despite being curled up on the sand, she still glared back at the starers with a frightening intensity for her size.

“Still a kid, huh?” Jack-O said. She already knew the implications of this, and none of them were especially pleasant. “Was she found stuck in something?”

“Sorta.” I-no shrugged. “As far as we’re aware, she was originally from some exotic breeder, guy was cranking the things out like crazy to sell ‘em to rich folks. Makes for a conversation piece, y’know? Put ‘em in a big tank in your ~atrium~ or some rich bullshit and invite your rich friends over to look at it.”

Jack-O could tell that everyone else already hated this as much as she did. “They found her at the breeder mill?”

“Nah, she was sold off. Bought by a traveling circus so guests could gawk at her. ‘Course, when you don’t socialize a mer properly and don’t feed it enough, that’s how you get idiots with nipped fingers. And instead of trying to fix anything, they ended up just trying to cut their losses and dumping her in a nearby river.”

Axl was aghast. “Th- They dumped her in the river??”

“Aaaaand this is why I didn’t bring you for pickup.” I-no sighed. “I can’t blame you, though. It’s fucked. Remember, this is shit we’re good at. If we do what we’re paid for, then she should be fine.”

Jack-O put a hand on his shoulder. “All that matters is that she’s with us now, right? It’s all up from here.”

“Right. Right…” Axl looked convinced, but it did little for the disgust in his eyes.

“Does she have a name yet?”

“They didn't bother giving her one, she was just ‘the mermaid.’ Raven’s suggestion was ‘Delilah.’” Said I-no.

Jack-O thought about it for a moment. “It’s cute, I like it!”

Axl’s hands were still trembling at his sides in anger. Jack-O reached out and took one, giving it a squeeze. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna take care of her.”

With his free hand, he reached out and brushed his fingers against the glass. “Hey there, kiddo. You’re gonna have a great time here. It’ll be real nice.” He looked over his shoulder at I-no. “What kinda fish is she? Tail looks sorta sharky, but I got no idea what kind.”

“Still haven’t quite figured it out. Hard to tell from a glance since there’s a human head instead of a snout, but the size and fin shape’s saying something in the Dalatiidae family- Raven doesn’t agree, he’s thinking Somniosidae. Hell, can’t say for sure she isn’t some kind of hybrid, who knows what that freak was breeding together. Either way, definitely some kinda shark.”

“Shark, huh?” It was hard to see that without the massive teeth and beady eyes, but Jack-O had read more than enough of her mom’s textbooks to know sharks came in all kinds of strange shapes and sizes. “Is she a biter?”

“Eh, got a temper, not like I can blame her. Make sure you wear the heavy-duty gloves.”

“We moving her now?” Asked Axl.

“Still figuring out where to put her. We’re gonna want to be careful with this. She’s pretty aggressive, but also pretty fragile since she’s young, so if another fish smacks her into the wall, it could do a lot of damage.”

“So, Potemkin, then?” Jack-O offered. “He’s usually our go-to.”

I-no shook her head. “The thought I’m having right now is putting her in with another adult female. Might help with the socialization. Pot’s fantastic, but even if he bonks into her on accident, he could break something. Besides, I think the big guy needs a break from playing peacemaker with the trouble cases, at some point it’s gonna stress him out, too.”

“Uh…Ram and El, then?”

“Too friendly. Delilah would probably see that as threatening and start a fight. Sharon might work, but then we’d have to worry about Slayer-”

Axl suddenly snapped his fingers. “Baiken. Put ‘er in with Baiken.”

Both Jack-O and I-no looked at him in horror. Moreso Jack-O, as ‘horror’ was currently second fiddle to ‘viciously homicidal’ in I-no’s eyes.

“Baiken, are you insa- ?!”

She cut herself off as quickly as she’d started. “...Actually,” I-no tore open a file cabinet and pulled out a few test papers. “All of our notes on Baiken show that she doesn’t tend to fight unless someone bothers her first. Maybe that’s crazy enough to work.”

“Maybe, maybe. Worth a shot.” Axl nodded. “I got something else, though. Any of ya familiar with cats?”

++++++

A sturdy mesh fence had been installed to partition the tank into halves. Sturdy, at least, for the subjects involved. For someone like Sol or Potemkin, it would be like tearing apart soggy paper. Baiken, thankfully, only watched with annoyance, and stayed on her rock.

Anji took to the new oddity with the same response he did for everything new and possibly harmful to him, curious wonder. The way I-no held her long stick, she almost looked inclined to swat at him with it. But as long as he stayed a good enough distance away, she held back.

Delilah, likewise, wasn’t especially thrilled with the situation she’d found herself in. She tried to chew on the net she was scooped out in, and when that didn’t work, she tried to grab onto and gnaw on the hands holding it. Hauling her out of the transport tank wasn’t a complicated task with her size, but Delilah’s restlessness had it take a lot longer than usual. Any attempts at placating words were merely met with an angry hiss.

The very moment she was free in the tank, she tore off and squeezed into the corner. That much was normal, at least. Being in a new tank could be stressful, especially for a mer who was completely new to the aquarium. No matter what they tried, it was only natural that it would take some time for their new guest to become comfortable. For the time in-between, all they could do was take care of them.

“Fingers crossed we don’t get too many weird questions about it.” Jack-O looked from her co-worker back to the tank. “But then again, I know the little kids tend to really like sharks, so she’ll be popular…which means a lot more people at the tank.”

Axl shrugged. “Eh, gonna try and hope for the best. Just say Delilah’s a little shy, don’t gotta explain everything to ‘em.”

“I guess that’s fair.”

After the fact, it didn’t take long for things to go back to normal. A new mer was serious business for a couple of days, but it quickly settled into being just another part of the daily routine. That was how it was for the staff, at least. Though they hadn’t gone out of their way to advertise, social media spread things around quite quickly, and many a visitor stopped by the following week with eagerness in their eyes to look at the new shark.

“If they don’t quiet down, I’ll never be able to get a good snapshot.” Another mechanical camera click bounced off of the glass, followed by yet another sigh. “Dear Miss Hale, are you certain you can’t shoo them away? Not even for ten minutes?”

Jack-O grimaced in sympathy. “Sorry, Tes. I’m gonna see if we can set you up with some time after-hours. It’ll be a lot quieter then, but it means we��ve gotta keep this part of the building turned on longer, and that means we’ll need more people staying overtime.”

They nodded. “Understood. I suppose I should have anticipated this crowd.”

Though if anyone could make the best of a wait, it was Testament. Every time she passed by on a tour or to restock the bathrooms, she spotted them on the bench across from the koi tank. They had their camera trained on it and kept peering into the lens, every once in a while sitting back and grabbing the sketchpad at their side to draw out a few lines. They almost made it look fun, which was impressive, given that basically nothing was happening. Baiken went in circles, and Delilah napped on the same rock she had spent most of her stay on. It was almost as though they refused to acknowledge each other's existence. Both stayed away from the grate altogether, and even Anji had lost interest.

“You’re not bored?”

“Mmm.” Testament made a noncommittal noise, sketching a bit more. “Delilah’s lack of movement makes it easier to draw her. It’s a good opportunity.”

“You couldn’t just snap a picture and draw from that?”

Another noise. “I suppose. This feels more organic.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Jack-O shrugged. “I’m not an artist. Closing’s in half an hour by-the-by, if you can wait a little longer.”

“Duly noted, thank you.” They gave the tank a sly look. “I’ll get my perfect photo, dear mer. I am a very patient individual.”

The last of the visitors gradually straggled out. As soon as the pre-recorded closing messages played out over the speakers, Jack-O made her way around the walkways, picking up garbage and making sure nobody had tried sticking around after hours. Movement in the corner of her eye made her jolt, until she processed the fact that it was just Testament. The fact that they seemed significantly more spirited than usual didn’t help her brain decipher it.

“You look excited! Finally get a good shot?”

Testament turned to her with a genuine smile. “That and more! My goodness, it seems those two are making for good friends!”

“...Friends?”

They gestured to the tank. Delilah had left her sleeping rock to drift quite close to the fence, head tilted in curiosity. Baiken, likewise, was looking over with vague intrigue, though she stayed to the side.

“What the heck? Where’s this come from?” Jack-O asked as Testament took several eager photos behind her. “When’d this happen?”

“Ten, perhaps fifteen minutes ago?” They replied. “But I believe this was actually the blue one’s doing, he seemed quite interested in the fence. He’s swam off for now, though, I couldn’t tell you why.”

Anji? It didn’t feel too out of sorts for him, but it still left her feeling strange. Why would he swim off?

“Well, I guess it’s good they’re warming up to each other a bit? As long as they keep their distance, It should be fi-”

No sooner did the words leave her mouth for her to immediately regret them. Baiken’s long, spotted tail swept out from underneath her, and she began intently paddling towards the other side of the tank.

“No, oh no no nope, this isn’t happening.” Dropping her bag of garbage, Jack-O sprinted for the employee stairwell and threw all her weight into tearing open the doors. “This is not happening right at the end of my shift!”

It was harder to tell what was going on from above instead of through the glass as the water rippled, but it was clear enough that Baiken was still moving closer. A blurry silhouette of Testament waved its arms in the air, but any words were impossible to decipher.

Nobody else was around to assist, forcing her to unlatch and pull open the overhead grate with only her own two hands. It was always moments like this that had her bemoaning passing up the gym, but that didn’t do much good for her now. The metal slammed hard against the concrete as it was let go. On a better day, she’d have been more careful- well, on a better day, she’d have help. Whether or not there was a crack could be a problem for later.

After hauling the weight of the grate, the temporary fence in the tank looked positively flimsy in comparison. And in the one moment of desperate hope she allowed herself, Baiken promptly erased it. With utter ease, she tore at the metal with her one arm and yanked a chunk of it back, just as easily as Sol would have. Not large enough for any mer to pass through, but a glaringly clear example that Baiken was capable of it.

“And this is why I said we should’ve used Potemkin!” She snapped at nobody. “Shit, shit shit shit-” Jack-O scrambled for the supply station that housed the diving mask and I-no’s prodding stick. This was grim, but if she was fast (and incredibly lucky) she could still intervene before anyone could start mauling anyone else.

Baiken continued to tear apart the grate, at one point poking her head through before going back to pulling the hole open wider. Jack-O fumbled with the mask’s clunky straps and tried to see through its glass eyeholes to make sure the water wasn’t filling with blood.

It hadn’t. But Baiken was swimming through the wall.

The last of the straps clicked into place. The only reason that she didn’t immediately dive headfirst into the tank was a last-second realization that she still wore the work belt housing her supplies, and, most importantly, the radio. Which meant more buckles and straps to undo. It was an easy task…at least, it was in the morning, but now she was struggling in panic, and even moreso worsened by repeatedly glancing up from the belt to look at the tank. Baiken had bypassed the torn-apart barrier and swam straight to Delilah, and through the rippling water, she had a hand trying to wrap around the smaller mer before she could pull away.

Jack-O’s heart sank deeper into her body. No- she could still stop this. This wasn’t a lost cause, not yet. The last strap tore clean off from enough desperate tugging. She moved to throw it behind her and lunge forward, and-

Her belt started to vibrate.

“...Huh?”

More on autopilot than anything else, she fished for the vibration, and pulled out her phone from one of the pouches.

New Message!

From: Testament

Attachment: 1 Image

“Tes?” Were it anyone else, she would have thrown it aside. Instead, she clicked on the notification and let it fully pop up. Just like it had said, the message only contained a single image.

It was the mer.

Jack-O looked up from her phone, then back down. Baiken’s arm was nowhere near Delilah’s neck, or any other vulnerable spot to rip at. It was merely draped over the girl’s shoulder. And, curiously, Delilah was completely tranquil, curled up against the larger mer’s chest.

Her phone buzzed again

Testament: Lookit thm!! Cue!!!

Usually, Testament’s texting was just as flowery as their speaking voice. They must have been in such a rush that they skipped the formalities. And the spellcheck.

It was a hard sight to believe. She kept looking back and forth to be sure it wasn’t a mistake, and then, to make sure it wasn’t momentary. Baiken, who reacted to most problems by biting down on them hard, was snuggled up to the shark as though they had been friends all their lives.

Still cautious, Jack-O tucked the stick under her arm and fished through her belt.

“Hey, uh,” She fumbled into the radio, “are any of the docs still here?”

++++++

“What the- ?!”

“I see…”

If there was some consultation, it was that her employers were just as confused. Raven less obviously so, but his dark-ringed eyes had sparkled in the way they were only known to do when something interesting caught his attention.

“So you guys aren’t sure, either?” Asked Jack-O.

“This is quite unusual.” Replied Raven. He looked over to Testament. “You’re quite certain nothing of interest occurred?”

They shook their head. “I’m certainly no mer expert, but aside from Mr. Mito’s vanishing, they simply stared at each other for a while.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“If mer have their own language, we still don’t know it,” I-no said. “Maybe it was body language. Or something else. This is gonna be one heck of a study.”

“But it’s not something to worry about?”

“Eh, wouldn’t worry about it too much, kiddo.” Jack-O was given a friendly pat on the head. “Should probably pull out the ripped fence so nobody gets cut on it, but we can let them mingle. Never thought I’d see Baiken getting along with kids…sheesh, every time I think I’m starting to figure these things out, they throw me for a loop.”

The way Baiken had curled around Delilah and Delilah had curled into her, it was hard to see it as anything other than contentedness. Jack-O wondered what they must have said or communicated to one another to have them be so friendly like this. Maybe she’d never understand. But as long as they were happy, that’s what mattered, right?

#Frog Writes #ask #guilty gear #delilah #Baiken

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