#mertwins

[potatoes-n-stuff]

Hewwo i tried to doodle them earlier :'3

Oh no the merformers thing is so interesting to me too... I do be clogging your inbox <:3

Sides and Sunny are like fighting/betta fish to me. Beautiful vibrant and striking colours, but highly aggressive and territorial. They have different tail types tho, Sideswipe maybe a crowntail or plakat, Sunstreaker is maybe a halfmoon

Mers like them are illegally held for their looks and fighting rings. They fetch a hefty sum at auctions

I think the twins are exchanged through many hands. Their physical conditions fluctuate wildly between seasons too. When they fight, they are well fed, but constantly injured, fins torn, plating cracked. On off seasons they are neglected, left to waste away and their colours fade. When the time comes for them to be sold, that is when they are treated best. They have to be healthy and properly nutritoined so their colours are as vibrant as can be.

All of this means they learn to trust no one. No one really cares for them. Just because someone is kind doesn't mean they will be tomorrow. Always bite the hand that feeds you, for tomorrow that hand will also literally throw you to the sharks

When the fighting ring they are held at is finally raided, obviously they don't know what happened. There's noise. There's shouting. Screaming. Energon is spilt. And then they are captured. Separated.

All the mers that are rescued and brought to a facility are kept in separate tanks obviously. They are all in various states of injury and sickness. They need to be quarantined and specially cared for. They are also understandably violent and are not fit for socialisation.

So when the twins wake up and can't find each other they go ballistic

Sideswipe bangs on the glass with his servos, shrieking and roaring at the bot that stands before him, just watching him. The black and white mech, annoyingly, doesn't even flinch. His appendages (fins?) on his back twitch at every bang on the glass, but there is no reaction otherwise. The mech seems to write something on a datapad and walks away, Sideswipe still threatening him from behind the glass.

Sunstreaker bares his long fangs and drags his claws along his glass. He's usually so careful about his beautiful claws, keeping them sharp and lustrous despite using them to tear his foes to shreds. But not right now. Now he pays no heed to his talons chipping on the hard glass as he snarls at the mech observing him. Black and white. Cold optics. Not a word from him when he walked over, and not a word as he leaves. Sunny doesn't care who that mech is but he wants to know what they did to his brother

Prowl is not quite a caretaker. He doesn't physically care for these rescued mers. But he coordinates. He oversees their care and watches them. He notes the health and behaviour of each mer and instructs their care. He notes the new red and yellow mers likely require sedatives so they do not hurt themselves. It's always a shame to see the states of the rescued mers that are brought in. But he's used to it now, it no longer tugs painfully at his spark to see them like this.

I don't actually know where this is going gjdhshd I just got carried away with the idea of it tbh. But eventually Prowl will notice something is not right with these two. As the other mers start to recover, these two do not. They remain violent, angry. No one is able to perform any physical checks on them without sedation. The way they throw themselves at the glass is hurting them. Prowl is the only one with senses keen enough to pick up on the way their fins twitch at every sound, the way their optics are always darting, but not in fear or paranoia. The way they seem to be looking for something rather than being driven by pure rage.

He knows something is missing from their tanks, but no one is able to figure out what since no one can even get near. One night, once he's clocked out, he's foolish enough to approach one of the tanks from above. No one is allowed up there, and for good reason. But maybe there is something he missed. He has seen everything there is to see from the outside, from the cameras, they must be missing something- And that's when a claw-tipped servo digs into his ankle and drags him into the water

He struggles and kicks and only barely makes it out with his spark. He's fished out of the water by other staff that thankfully had not left. A long and deep gash from the red mers claws stretches all the way from his optic, across his faceplate, and down his front. A chunk of his doorwing is bitten off

He only returns to the facility a few days later (much to the chagrin of literally everyone telling him to rest). He's no longer leaking energon, but not enough time has passed for him to be properly repaired. The painful claw marks and missing plating are still there. And he finally gets a different response from the yellow mer when it sees him

Sunstreaker recognises that attack pattern. The marks left behind from bites and scratches like that. His brother is alive

oh god this is amazing. i love all of this. normally i'd wait until i know what to say but then i'd just keep this ask forever.

i love the thought of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe not recovering at all, constantly on edge and aggressive and unresponsive to any of the research staff or other mers, constantly self-destructing against the glass of the tank, lashing out on the staff even though they know they'll be prodded and sedated.

when Prowl brings the claws from Sideswipe's attack to Sunstreaker, everything changes. The mer stops scratching at the glass and just... watches him, following around as Prowl walks, twisting his tail because he needs him to tell him where his brother was taken. Perhaps he curses and hits the glass a couple times, knowing the bot can't hear him and wouldn't have been able to understand him either, but he has to drag the information out of him somehow.

oh lord, i wonder how long it takes the staff to find out that they've separated co-dependent twins.

[egophiliac]

YOU MANIFESTED THE TWEEL CARDS CONGRATS

YOU'RE WELCOME EVERYBODY!

seriously though I was probably like. 60-80% thinking we'd get at least one tweel for chapter 10. but I was NOT expecting it so soon! both of 'em! in August! a shame we're not getting a Coral Sea event after all...but I guess I can be resigned to that and ALSO excited for getting shiny sparkly glowing(!!!!) mertwins along with Azul fighting his inner demons and going right for the eyes! AHHHH I CAN'T WAIT

(also heeeey I recognize that rowboat... 👀)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Seeing octavinelle so terrifying in the manga, can't wait to see them being even more terrifying in the sea. 4m length moral eel mertwins are going to be so scaryGet your iron thing(I don't know the English name) Yuu

[Referencing this post!]

The new Yuu for the Episode of Octavinelle is named Yuuta Mito! You can learn more about him in this post.

But yeah!! I love that the manga adaptation allows the characters to have a much bigger range of expression than their in-game models. It lets the Octatrio be truly menacing and emphasizes how much of a threat they are to the general student populace.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen “Floyd isn’t actually hurting the people he squeezes” or similar takes which soften the seriousness of what Octavinelle is actually doing 💦 Then you see their dark expressions and how their entire faces get drowned out in black in the pages of the Episode of Octavinelle… Really appreciate the manga for making it more clear that we should feel uncomfortable with, and even threatened by, Azul, Jade, and Floyd (even moreso than the “bosses” of the previous episodes).

[wonderkat11]

Mermay Day 12 || Merbaby's on the Way

Today in Mother's Day, I will be celebrating Day 12 for Mermay & Mother's Day together, so I decided to draw Melody (My New OC) as a mermaid at the age of 30, getting pregnant with her merbaby! So tell me if she's having a baby mergirl or a baby merboy, or mertwins, idk, but let me know in comments on who do you think she'll have.

At any rate, happy Mother's Day?

Made in IbisPaintX for Digital Art maker.

Rules: DO NOT STEAL MY ART! No Rude Comments Please.

Melody (my OC) belongs to me (WonderKatMEOWofRuby).

[xmoriartea]

So after our last lovely scry of the evening, we learned a few things: Strahd was taking the merfolk and turning them, Rahadin was in full gear war mode, and Nadia had been taken and was already turning others in the lake.

We had work to do.

While most of us slept in the Tiny Hut inside the Inn, the artificers Kalina and Tanner got to work prepping everything we needed. Silver powder. Ruby dust. Some bombs. You know, average supplies. Leaving the clerics their requested supplies, Tanner and Kalina then went to meet with... the elves.

Kasimir is my cleric's least favorite person, but only because Alkali isn't counting Strahd and Rahadin as people. BUT Tanner rightly guessed, Kasimir and Patrina also wanted to see Rahadin suffer, and so he supplied them with spellbooks (since as "GUESTS" of Ravenloft, theirs were confiscated) to gain their assistance.

Patrina was fucking giddy and sprinted off with hers to prepare and I'm betting this girl never needed the promise of vampirism to be blood thirsty. Kasimir kinda just grimaced a lot and looked at his sister like 'something's going to burn down, okay, lets come to terms with it now.'

For the Record: Tanner, a whole ass day later, still hasn't told Alkali, because he has an INT of 20 and she has a SPITE of 30

On the way back to Kalina's place to pick up some other things, our vamp courier friend Lexx came streaking like a bat out of hell towards Tanner demanding to know what she just delivered to Strahd.

APPARENTLY Strahd DID NOT like Tanner's Very Thoughtful prosthetic gauntlet and DOES believe in killing the messenger.

Tanner apologized, explained, and watched a vampire get somehow more pale. He then told her she best get out of Vallaki asap cause it was about to become a No Go space for all undead, and he didn't want her hurt. Chased by vampires and werewolves, maybe, but not hurt.

And because he's an Artificer™, Tanner had been having ideas. Ideas about motes and running water around the town, connecting the water to the lake, etc. Tanner didn't have the time for this, but he knew two crotchety old women with specialties in moving parts and liquids.

Kalina's grandmother Ethel and the local alchemist Faraga fucking hate each other, but they're the best in their games around. Big "If she dies who the fuck do I harass?" energy with them. Tanner found a questionable temp youth potion from the Bonegrinders... and he was offering it to the victor.

So while the rest of us fool are dealing with vampires, these two horny and hateful old women were racing to invent plumbing out of sheer spite - you love to see it.

What you DON'T love to see is Tanner trotting over to the tannery where he left Strahd's fucking HAND to be turned into a GLOVE because he AND the lowercase-t tanner are both absolutely fucking haunted.

Thankfully, Alkali had already drained the hand of its blood for her own haunted uses.

Meanwhile, since all this shit was happening at like 5am, around 20 minutes to sunup, Alkali got to work. Planning to do the ritual downstairs in the inn, she had a word with Denica about using the floor space and was told she'd received post.

Alkali was handed a letter with achingly familiar handwriting, and sort of felt her stomach drop. A vistani man had dropped it off, but it was marked with post from the port where she was supposed meet her twin.

She had no idea how this letter got to her, what this possibly meant for her brother, and she really really hated to think on it. She had just held Mina through her grieving and now had to go save 1 of 2 mertwins she promised to protect — THIS was already too much sibling crisis without factoring in her own.

So she put the letter away, trusted her brother was Far Far Far Away from this, and actually got to work with Forbiddance. Now. Forbiddance is a damn good spell. But it's not Protect the Town good. Vallaki's pretty big.

But you gotta love a fish with faith huh?

Her casting of the spell at the heart of the town was amplified by the town's guarding Saint, a being Alkali once animated the bones of to also defend the town in new and exciting ways, leaving them in her debt. This spell rolled out like crashing waves to the walls of Vallaki and held.

Now the fun thing: all of Alkali's magic is wet. It's just how it be when you're an Umberlee bitch. So for the first time EVER, these landlocked, lake-fearing Barovians are all hearing the sounds of waves and ocean, like she just slapped seashells to all of their ears.

Now there was some unrest about that, and maybe we should have given Burgomaster Ismark a heads up, but eh. They're fine.

As long as you hear the sea in Vallaki, you're safe.

Back together again, the party split up once more with the majority going to find horses and Tanner and Alkali off to pay Lady Wachter a visit. Von Holtz had promised to send us a carriage to speak face to face, but we were on a time crunch. Fish to save. So. Horses.

Lady Wachter... we know she's fucky. We don't know her whole ass deal, but we know Things™ and we know she's pro-Strahd even if she sat on the Vallaki Council. So Tanner made it quite clear that she had a choice. She either heed our words and understand Vallaki (and thus herself) were in danger OR we eliminated her as one of those dangers. She was Not Pleased. But we promised her we could be more rewarding than Strahd if she swore herself to the town entirely.

Restoring her family seemed to be the incentive she needed (but never a knock a death threat).

That all set, off to the Von Holtz estate we went. Along the way we saw your fun and casual and totally new roadside grave, sensed some undead lurking in the woods, and just sort of rushed on by all of it because it's a Ride to the estate and this was only a bullet point on our to-do list.

We get there, we stated our business, and we were asked to wait. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. We joked that this motherfucker was taking so long we could have cast Forbiddance in here. For funsies.

Von Holtz arrived, said he didn't expect us so soon, and sat across from us. Now. We're quite the party with our NPC friends, six strong. And dear Kalina... is a newfound Paladin of Gond. The moment he walked in, she nudged Tanner under the table because her God Senses were tingling.

So not everyone knows, but things start to... feel off. Tanner runs the conversation, having been the one to strike the deal about trading some manner of protection to Holtz for the dragon skull in his study. And the rest of us start to... pay attention.

As the deal proceeds, Tanner moves to shake Von Holtz's hand, and holds out his left one, putting Holtz in a position to do the same. But Holtz strictly holds out his right. Because for as much as it SEEMS he has a left hand...

he doesn't anymore. We have that in a bag.

And the moment Tanner asks why he didn't like the gift, all the remaining pieces fit into place and we realize we're in a small room with Strahd.

It fell quickly into mayhem. We were not prepared for THIS encounter exactly, but we made do. He pulled some funhouse shit and melded into the walls, as these runes started flashing around the room and we realized we were locked in.

(Oh, and don't worry. The hellhound there is ours. His name is Bandit.)

We started busting down the door, we know we did some Good Startling hits to Strahd before he vanished, but the goal was to get out, get the skull, and Peace. We mostly all got out, he showed himself again, AGAIN tried to fish and bag Arabelle, but I twin Reaper cantrip'd him (thank you Death Domain) and the fish and the polymorph dropped.

Then we started wailing on him.

Maybe we don't run yet. Maybe... Maybe we see if we can mist him. Or—

A few of us dropped to 0 when the runes in the room went off, but Mass Cure Wounds is a very good scroll and they're back up. We got... wildly close to making him HURT, but he just phased into the wall and was gone again, so we move.

Fool just keeps underestimating us though. He had prepared to give us the skull. Had had it loaded onto our cart outside well before we realized what he was. So Tanner shrunk it, shoved it into the bag of holding, and we Booked It to the lake.

We short rested out there, everyone checking in on each other, and Tanner gave Kalina the protective ring he was going to give Holtz. Alkali squinted angrily at a boat out on the lake, but most importantly, we recovered so much HP. Oh my gods were we low.

And it's about this point that I, Kaitie, started to run through EVERY Fucking Encounter with Holtz and shriek a little now knowing he's Strahd. Lads. I said so much shit to his face with a smile and a courtesy and he couldn't do shit. I WINED AND DINED HIS BRIDES WHILE HE WATCHED. Bless.

But I'm also left thinking of the original 'deal' Von Holtz wanted to strike where we let Arabelle and Rowan stay at his estate for a time and how he PROMISED Strahd would never know and I just

BUT we still had to get in the lake and see the damage. No rest for the weary in Barovia, folks.

[deadlynyghtshayde]

Dua Lipa as mermaid barbie reminds me a lot more of (except for the blue hair!) these 90s barbie mermaids

1991 Mermaid Barbie (her hair actually color shifted to blue and pink!) and Magic Hair Mermaid Barbie (part of the same release that seemed to be 3 Barbies with different features and 1 skipper babysitting mertwins)

And 1995 Jewel Hair Mermaid Midge

Margot Robbie as Barbie » Original Barbie (1959)

Emerald Fennell as Midge » Happy Family Midge (2003)

Michael Cera as Allan » Allan (1964)

Dua Lipa as mermaid Barbie » Barbie Mermaidia Nori (2006)

[halfafishandawholehuman]

"Oh, don't go and remind me of the mertwins messin' with us! I still get nightmares about it!"

[arista-the-musical]

All I Do Is Twin || Mertwins

Arista: Why am I the only blonde one in the family?

Arista: Is it like dog fur where you have like a regressive gene and that makes your dog albino?

[adella-the-romantic-blog]

Tell Me All About It || pt. 2: Valentine’s Day || Mertwins

There was a built in perk to sharing the biggest room in the house with your twin: there was always someone to help you sneak in once curfew came into effect. Not that Jeff didn’t know when his daughters sneaked back in, but he had always been one to enforce a curfew as soon as the clock struck whatever time he deemed worthy. On Valentine’s Day, that curfew had been 10 o’clock, but had Adella taken heed? With nothing but Hercules on her mind? Please.

So, once Adella had finally made it back to the Woods, back to casa de Triton, she’d expected Arista to be in their room waiting to help her in with no hassle. It’s what she’d done when Flynn had walked her home that time, and every other time that she’d stayed out at the lake longer than she was meant to. Every time she’d needed someone to cover for her Arista had her back, and vice versa. They were best friends, after all. It’s what they did.

But Arista hadn’t been waiting for her. No one had been. Their room was dark and quiet and, though Herc could lift Adella’s little frame up easily, she’d still needed to scramble up to catch a hold of the window sill and pull with all her might (which was not very much) until she made her way in. Arista had come in much, much later, all smiles and giggles and blushes.

The week or so after V-Day was hectic, Adella spending as much time with Herc as she could, and Arista being very absent from almost everything. She talked about Van a lot now, watched her play video games online sometimes, spent hours on the phone with her. Adella was glad her sister was happy and all, but she was getting just a little bit jealous. She wouldn’t admit that, of course, but it was there. Plus she had no idea what had even happened with the two of them on Valentine’s! And Arista didn’t know what had happened with her own twin!

Finally, Adella decided that enough was bloody well enough and marched into their room while Arista was watching something on her laptop. Without a second thought she slid herself onto her sister’s bed and shut the computer right on the blonde’s hands. “Who are you and what have you done with my twin?”

@arista-the-musical

[frenchcirce]

They’re soooooooo pretty!!!!!!! And look at this background!!!!

MerTwins!!

a gift for this year’s MerMay by GHHQ Art Lead @books-tea-ghosts 

BONUS:

[sketchys-art]

Other artist's drawings of the mertwins have me brainrotting over them as fish fjghfkfk

Sunny boi is next :]

[mychlapci]

I love that mertwins au so much, but the idea that they flair their fins for aggressive purposes has me wondering if they genuinely just think Prowl’s fucking furious and ready to fight all the goddamn time. Like, doorwings and wings are just There. They’ve got their own distinct meanings, I’m sure, but there’s probably very little crossover between wing cants and fan flaring. I wonder if there’s some cultural miscommunication going on between the land mechs and the mers… I imagine the reunited twins finally paying real attention to the land mechs and finding out that Prowl’s wings actually go up even MORE when he’s happy and excited. The little flutters aren’t intended to be a dangerous distraction after all.

If you wanted to get sexy with it, one could imagine that a mer’s fans are usually used for one of two things: warning off others or attracting mates. So then the twins might assume that if Prowl’s not threatening them, he might be propositioning them? And sure, he’s alright for a land mech. Not bad to look at, either. Why not? Prowl’s in for a big surprise when they drag him into their tank to “explore their differences”. The rush of bubbles from Prowl’s vents when they manage to slide their spikes into his strange land mech’s slit probably only eggs them on.

Eventually they’ll manage actual, meaningful communication. But probably not before Prowl is fucked full of a baby mer or two. Maybe another set of twins… Actually, this could go either way; are mers mammals who nurse their live young, or are the twins pumping an entire clutch of eggs into Prowl’s little valve?

yesssss, that's so cute actually, i love a little cultural miscommunication. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe always jump back when Prowl's door wings flare up, their own fins fluttering as they get ready to make one hell of a territorial display. But Prowl is just too confusing. He'll flare his "fins" but he comes closer to them at the same time, as if he wasn't doing a threat display at all... well, then he must be trying to present his glorious fins to attract his mates! well out of mating season, yes, but what do they know, things might be different for land mechs!

They reciprocate fast. Prowl can't even protest before he's cumming around thick merformer spikes <3

honestly, i prefer pups... I can get into Prowl pumped full of little eggs, but if i can choose, i definitely want him to carry Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's mer pups <33

[mrjadeleech]

Sayuri and nanami are my child octo mer twins ocs

Nanami : hey I’m nanami

Sayuri: I’m sayuri and we’re octopus mertwins

Sayuri : namami has one purple eye and one black eye

Nanami : and sayuri has purple eyes and purple hair pleasure to make your aquantance

Why, hello there. It is quite rare for Octo-mers to approach the surface. I will hope that your time spent here will be enjoyable.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

So about the mertwins?? Are the moray eels or electric eels? Or are they moray eel mermaids that can electrify preys? (those who made contract with Azul).

[We talked about squid vs octopus Ursula and Azul in this post!]

I believe the twins are referenced as moray eels, not electric eels, in several lines and in some title sequences. One example, shown below, is 3-28. (Flotsam and Jetsam from the OG movie are also said to be moray eels, so the logic follows that Floyd and Jade, too, are morays.)

If you compare the traits moray eels and electric eels, it also just makes more sense that the twins are morays. Morays or “true” eels live in coral reefs (ie saltwater) while electric eels hang out in river basins (ie freshwater). Jade and Floyd come from the Coral Sea, so they are a saltwater species.

Furthermore, electric eels are… well, electric. They are able to generate a voltage to protect themselves—however, we don’t see either twin naturally possess this ability. They use regular magic spells to protect themselves; their merbodies do not seem capable of generating that electricity on its own (else, why would someone as fickle as Floyd not want to change things up by electrify others with his touch alone instead of always squeezing or using magic).

The confusion for the twins being electric eels may arise from the name of Jade’s UM (Shock the Heart), which actually has nothing to do with electricity. It may also stem from the fact that, in book 3, Octavinelle’s golden contracts give off the illusion of being indestructible since others that touch them get zapped. It’s later revealed to be a clever deception, so the zap must have come from an electrical spell cast by Jade or Floyd (or Azul).

On the subject of making a deal with Azul to gain electrical abilities, it’s possible for Floyd but not for Jade. This is because in book 4, Floyd easily agrees to make a deal with Azul to let his dorm leader borrow his UM (something you’d think Floyd would treasure a little more) in exchange for getting a deep voice, which ended up helping out Azul in his machinations. Meanwhile, Jade explicitly states in 4-33 that he would never personally consider making a contract with Azul (on the basis that he wouldn’t trust Azul to return the collateral for the deal).

[shyspider]

Lol, I am also super excited about the MerBros, because that was how I originally found you! I fell into a hole, man. A hole of merformers. I was so thoroughly expecting to not find a single lick of mertwins, but I was blessed

~Smooch

I seriously had no idea merformers were so sought after! So many people want to smooch the fish. I just wanted to write an angsty short story with a happy ending, but nooo. Yall just had to inspire me to take it further. I ended up falling down that hole, too.

[charlie-is-three-rats]

hello mertwin how’s it goin

mertwin it am getting chased by a goat help