The 12 Days of Christmas of 2023 - Day 9

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: nine ladies dancing!
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

 

There are many theories about what the nine ladies are supposed to represent.

 

One such theory is that they represent the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit, as explained in the Book of Galatians. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

 

My fantasy version:

 

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: nine mystic mermaids!
Eight hearty hobbits,
Seven dwarves a-mining,
Six flying horses,
Five magic rings,
Four mountain trolls,
Three phoenixes,
Two forest fauns,
And a unicorn as white as the snow!

 

In some cultures, mermaids are seen as protectors and guides of the ocean and its creatures, representing the power of nature to nurture and sustain life.

 

In my world, merfolk are fiercely protective of their territory. They won't hesitate to attack anyone who harms their environment or any of the undersea creatures living in it. Then again, they'll handsomely reward anyone who helps them.

 

As much as I love Disney's The Little Mermaid, I do make a few corrections here and there.

 

Inktober 2018 - Days 8 and 9

Still doing all three "Inktober" versions. Maybe three challenges at the same time is a bit excessive but I genuinely enjoy it, and not much else is going on, so it helps to pass the time. It's also cathartic for me; art really helps when I'm feeling sad or stressed. Life could always be worse, but it hasn't been a big box of doughnuts with rainbow sprinkles, either.

Even so, I think I will take a small vacation from art when this is over.

For day 8: Star. Naturally, I thought of the star in my most favorite kind of video game. I could play just about anything with Mario; Super Mario 64 was one of the top games of my childhood, and I currently own the DS version, which I find a bit more fun. More than half of our Wii games have Mario in them, and I also have a Mario Kart bedspread and even the Super Mario Bros. theme song for a Smartphone ringtone.

Day 8 of Disney: The Sword in the Stone. Nice little Disney classic that made up a decent chunk of my childhood. My Reid is modeled partly after Wart, you know.

Day 8 of Fantasytober: Merfolk. I don't think this is what humans had in mind when they said they wear masks for Halloween!

Day 9: Precious. Naturally, I thought of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, and I thought I'd add my own funny twist to that iconic phrase. That's either a jumbo strawberry or a teeny-weeny unicorn!

Day 9 of Disney: Animators. Every Disney animator, past and present, is fabulous. But Ollie Johnston, who worked with good old Walt Disney himself, holds a special place in my heart. I'm also deeply fond of Frank Thomas, Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, and Eric Goldberg.

And finally, day 9 of Fantasytober: Fairy. It's the great candy fairy, Charlie Brown!

"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.