#flora grows a sakura AU

[abowlofcurry]

BEFORE THE BEGINNING ?

BEFORE THE BEGINNING — three sentences (or more) about something that happened before the plot of my current project

What leads to the beginning is the aftermath of the Irodori Festival. Well, aftermath may be too strong a word for it. What happened is that Klee, excited as she was about being in Inazuma and seeing "all the cool things big brother Albedo!", climbed a sakura tree near the Narukami Shrine. Blossoms and flowers stuck to her hair and clothes, and some in her bag without anyone noticing it until they're already on the way back to Mondstadt. First, Klee thought about keeping them for herself, but then remembered that Flora would probably be really excited for a flower from Inazuma! Which leads to Flora growing a skura tree.

Does Flora know she is growing something divine in a flowerpot on the street? No. Will she learn of it? No idea yet!

[evergreen-dryad]

Title of your WIP: the witch wins in this one

Genre: Fairytale Retelling, Romance, Fantasy (Mermaids - focuses quite heavily on their world/biology)

Trigger Warnings: (none of these show up in the WIP early on) mentioned death of a character via suicide, merfolk culture dissonance on mainly sex & food, magical racism (afaik)

Stage of writing process: first draft, approx 1/4 through

Synopsis: Three days to win over the Prince’s heart, and a human soul for herself. Her heart soars at the thought, reminding her when the pain and soreness in her legs gets too much. When everything of the land and dry air gets too much. Except -- the witch’s actions seem to be getting more and more confusing, and the Prince isn’t paying that much attention to her -- his little brother is.

Character information: 

Nene - the Little Mermaid in this tale. She falls in love at first sight with the human prince that embodies what she has romanticised humans as. Brave but impulsive, she goes to the rumoured Sea Witch to let her live with the Prince, so she can at least understand him more after a traumatising event at sea where he nearly drowns.

Hanako - the Sea Witch. He is playful and acts flippant. He tries to dissuade Nene from taking a magical solution to her problem, but as she insists he makes a deal with her: three days to live on the Near Shore of the humans and of terra firma. If she doesn’t fall happily in love with the prince and vice versa, she will now be bound to him as a slave assistant. (More deals: tail for legs, voice for a human form for himself) He may seem manipulative at first as he has been lonely down in the depth of the abyssal zone, but he tries his best to look out for Nene, and grows to genuinely care for her (in three days wow). In the three days he does his best to advise Nene from the silver mirror he gives her, but soon grows conflicted between wanting her to be happy and wanting her.

Kou - the Prince’s little brother, that Nene ends up successfully seducing instead (it did not take much effort.) One look at her and he also falls at first sight, not to mention his mother hen instinct taking over to care for the lost, dumb girl with ghostly eyes and hair. Obliviously good-natured, he soon notices that the girl’s eyes always follow his brother instead, but still wishes her the best. On the reveal that Nene is actually a mermaid (and since she couldn’t seduce his brother she has to be bound to a witch for the rest of her lifespan now) he is dismayed and tries to fight for her, only for his brother and his right hand man to cut in.

Teru - the Prince. Well-loved and charming, he is genial to all, and is a little distant as he is occupied with the duties of the Crown Prince of the Kingdom. He is only perfunctorily kind to Nene, and lets Kou and Akane take care of her instead. He hates any sign of witchcraft with a fervour as his mother had been cursed by one soon after Tiara was born, and it is often the cause of disruption around the kingdom. Thus, he has close ties to the temple, and is engaged to marry to the princess of the neighbouring kingdom.

Akane - the Prince’s right hand man. Faithful to Teru, he carries out his duties absolutely, and also hates the supernatural as a childhood friend was taken from him in that manner. Ironically, he’s got a pretty good spiritual sense when he takes off his glasses, and can see more than the average human. Later on while he and Teru confront the ‘criminals’ he meets Aoi come to save Nene and is struck dumb -- he’s convinced he’s found his beloved again.

Aoi - a fellow mermaid, best friend and confidante to Nene. Practically sisters, they tend many of the sea’s flora and sedentary fauna together. Aoi journeys a lot more than Nene, and moves around in more social circles, so she hears more rumours more frequently. Kind, level-headed, and ultimately more clever than she lets on. She confronts Hanako after finding Nene’s note, and later shows up to save Nene, and is opportunistic enough to recognise a chance when she sees one: she drags Akane into the water and puts all the humans into a stupor with her song.

(will they play a part? Or just mentions)

Sakura - the princess from the neighbouring kingdom, who’s affiliated with the temple, and Teru’s beloved betrothed. Especially after she saved him from the shore, taking care of him.

Tsukasa - the younger brother of the witch Hanako, who used to be a human called Amane. He shows up, shocking Hanako pale, and still adores Amane. He has kept his memory strong by becoming the kingdom’s astronomer. However, he has been a necromancer all this time as well trying to raise Amane’s spirit to him? (honestly. I am not sure if he drives the plot significantly. Am not clear about his role and character either.)

Links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NBLMoINkIL8iAoEzjnFEK0CQgQj6V2sFeXF7P_3c1NA/edit?usp=sharing

WIP tag: #mermaid au

Other WIP Information: I don’t think I’ve figured everything out just yet, because I like to let the characters take the reins. This is also a fanfiction WIP of JSHK, and I’m attempting to make it easy for anyone to read. Will probably just keep editing over time.

edit 3/4: do feel free to ask me any questions! I’ve a lot more concepts/scenarios/descriptions and a rough timeline in my notes, just don’t want to put them all up just yet. The docs is just all I’ve written for it so far.

Considering changing up certain things like inputting more musical/sensory descriptions as basing mermaids on dolphin biology and the fact they have a stronger culture around singing, sound is likely to be more prominent to them than sight.

Constructive criticism: yes, particularly characterisation and pacing.