#so everyone say thank you tumblr user silima for introducing me to it

[cuteniaarts]

POV: You’re a merchant ship captain and you’re making your crew stay in a relatively small seaside town for just a bit too long (FOR BUSINESS REASONS, DEFINITELY NOT BECAUSE you’ve met a rather attractive sea monster who has just started warming up to you) and you swear the odd girl who’s always too bundled up for the summer heat keeps staring at you whenever you walk past… and are you losing your mind or are her eyes glowing?

Or: Midori has noticed that unlike her crew, who walk around town and chat up locals, Kuvira spends all her free time running off to secluded caves and beaches and the abandoned pier, and she knows exactly what (or who) the reason behind that is since she spent all of her childhood doing the exact same thing

Some design and story notes, because I love talking about this AU~

Like in SotRl, starting from age 4 Midori grew up in Haya’s ‘care’, and while I don’t think she beat her, Midori still ended up with insane self esteem issues, mostly stemming from her being half-mermaid. Haya knew about her brother’s infatuation with the sea serpent and chose to ignore it, which she managed rather successfully right up until one of the products of said infatuation was dropped off at her door. She has no idea Suiren exists though, even as a young child Midori decided keeping her sister a secret would be safer for both of them

She’s human passing enough, but inherited plenty of things from her mother – scales along her shoulders, sides and thighs (though they’re green instead of blue), sharper teeth, ears that morph into fins at the ends, glowing eyes and fully functional gills. The siren song, however, passed her over. Haya, of course, made her hide all of it, along with making her internalise that she’s a freak, a half fish monster who will never fit in with human society, but spirits help her if she refuses to try to conform

The clothes she wears serve no purpose but to hide her differences. As a child she was much more drawn to more open and lighter clothing, shorts and tank tops and the like, but Haya didn’t care. The long skirt and sleeves conceal her scales, long enough that she can safely roll up her sleeves while she works or that gusts of wind won’t ruffle her skirt too high. The scarf goes over top of the already high collar to make extra sure no one will see her gills – she has gotten used to it over the years, but at first the pressure on her gills made her feel like she was constantly choking. Her hair is styled in a certain way that keeps her ears from view, and she was taught not to smile so her fangs wouldn’t be as visible

Mermaid eyes don’t always glow, it’s actually an evolutionary intimidation tactic that can’t really be controlled, and Midori isn’t even aware she’s doing it. With her eye colour it’s easy to write off as tricks of the light, which everyone who notices it always does… apart from Kuvira

Midori and Suiren haven’t talked in a while, both thinking it’d be better for the other this way, and Midori’s current goal is remain as integrated with humans as possible. It’s often hard for her to see the point, she’s too socially awkward to make friends and it’s not like she will ever have a husband or wife, not with her defects. The people in town like her just fine, she’s nice and hardworking, but she knows she will never truly fit in. As a child she used to beg Suiren to let her leave humans behind and take her into the ocean, but they both knew it wasn’t possible. Midori can breathe underwater just fine, but her lack of a tail will make her even more of an outcast among merpeople than she is among humans, and even though her swimming is better than the average person’s, she won’t ever be fast enough to survive the dangers of the ocean. That’s how Midori lives, born into two worlds but never being enough, never truly belonging to any of them, so she can do nothing else but go about her day doing her chores, consciously stop herself from gazing wistfully at the ocean, and keep an eye on that ship captain that seems to have taken a keen interest in her sister.

Oh, and I was messing around with the light pen so here’s a version that highlights exactly what Midori is desperately trying to hide: