"Inktober" Challenge - Day 20

Twenty entries down, eleven to go! And after that, it's NaNoWriMo once again. I'll definitely have to do "Inktober" again next year, and maybe the year after that.

But yeah, I know: focus on one thing at a time, Mel.

Disney theme for day 20: "Family."

Easily one of my most favorite Disney families. It's so cool how Rapunzel's parents not only regain their daughter, but obtain a (future) son-in-law as well. I'm still on the fence about the TV series, though it does look pretty neat.

Other theme for day 20: "Deep."

My own spin on the classic aquatic fantasy. Terence and Rhiella would be absolutely thrilled to meet a mermaid or merman, and they do...in time.

Much as I adore The Little Mermaid (I like the written story, too, though it's a rather bleak read), I don't find their designs entirely convincing. They just look like people with special "tail suits." So with my merfolk, you see the human bodies joining seamlessly with the fish bodies, and they still have scales peppering their backs, arms, shoulders, necks, and faces. Due to their lack of exposure to the sun, their skin is quite pale, and due to their scales, they often "shimmer" in the sunlight, but that's loads more plausible than sparkling vampires, isn't it?

Besides their pale skin, they come in all sorts of colors; most vary between blue, green, purple, and silver. They have nice, long, flowing hair, with long, flowing beards for the males. They have hypnotic eyes and even more hypnotic voices; one could listen to a merperson's singing for hours. But they're not sirens, who lure sailors to doom.

My merfolk have no qualms about eating fish, so the idea of humans eating fish doesn't really bother them. But they do find it very strange that a human feels the need to clean and cook the fish before eating. Being water creatures, merfolk have no need for fire, and whenever they get hungry, they just catch what they can and eat it exactly as it is. Meaning they just snatch a fish (or an eel, or even an octopus) out of "midair" and start gnawing away, innards and all. So watching a merperson eat can be rather nauseating. Once in a while they'll eat underwater plants, too, and on extremely rare occasions, they'll make a feast out of a shark.

Merfolk are water magicians. They can manipulate liquid in almost every form. They can use water to heal injuries, and save a drowning victim by summoning the water from the victim's lungs. They can even make it possible for a human to breathe underwater, if they're feeling generous enough.

Like in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, merfolk live up to 300 years or more. But while they believe that they cease to exist after death, that they have no "immortal soul," that's actually far from the case.

Pretty neat, huh? I always like to adhere to the original fairy tales and mythology while adding a few personal touches. In this world, unicorns and dragons are your next-door neighbors, and fairy tales are literally history.