pic - Lìadan

[askerian]

x___x; Guess who spent all afternoon drawing again.

Mmmm, tablet.





... She looks so... Femme fatale. XD;;; It's the eyes. She should look a little younger and more innocent. But heh. I like anyway. :3

I ended up not correcting the arm. I KNOW it's too long, but. eh. I couldn't find the proper angle to make it shorter, so nngh. It stays. Also there's no background because i'm lazy. Maybe another day. XD

First time I ever drew Liadan's tail. ... very not pretty. But at least it looks halfway believable with what I determined in her story -- she's not from a magical species, she's descending from genetically engineered humans, so her tail is basically unfused tailbone vertebras, plus feet with OMGLONG!toes. Except with less of a heel. ... I'm so not trying to make this a truly realistic skeleton; just trying for verisimilitude.

Comments

Feet: attached via ductape

[slamu.livejournal.com]

When touch gives advance warning... you mean like changes in water pressure, right?
Childbirth?! *insert look of appropriate revulsion here* That's gotta be a bit messier underwater than it would be dirtside. Wait. Are the merfolk marine-based amphibians? Making sure that they had to birth dirtside would give their creaters a small degree of control over them (a very small degree). Still, ugh. I can immagine that that's an "oopsie".
What about those smaller braids? "Avalible, but uninterested"? It didn't sound like marrage was her top priority before running into yon human.
I'm still trying to figure out why they were created in the first place. My leading theories are: 1) Military. Never underestimate mad scientists who got bored with death-rays. 2) Novelties. Never underestimate rich people bored with things that can be found in nature. 3) some sort of scientific "lookie what I/we can do! Give us funding an we shall breed you a legion of improbible minions that shall spread your reign of terror to the farthest reachers of the block!" Never undersetimate a mad scientist desperate for funding. The "oopsie" with childbirth might not be an oversight.
And thus I poner. *ponderyponder*

That's an idea. XD

[askerian]

Yeah, water pressure, and cold and hot currents. ^^ And bubbles and stuff.

No, they're nor amphibians. XD They've been modified so that they don't have to breathe nearly as often as humans (an unmoving, sleeping adult can stay underwater up to five hours at a time), but I'm pretty sure they could still crossbreed, albeit not easily. Of course the kid would probably come out incredibly messed up, poor kid.

The braids just mean "available", and perhaps "has never had children before". In their society, females don't have much of a choice. Since they have such a difficult time having children, the pressure to reproduce is very strong.

Hehehe. Nice theories. :D

Waterproof ductape.

[slamu.livejournal.com]

I see that you are well versed in the ways of "speak much, say little". Hmmm. Please? Small hint? Something that, in the scheme of things is less than unimportant but will keep us (or at least me) gnawing away at it with abandon?
Messed up above and beyond what kids are normally like, you mean? Man, crossbreeding would be real awkward. "So, my pond or yours?" *should stop before that goes any farther*
How does one discover something like that? Do they put give a grown man a teddy bear, say 'goodnight' and mention 'oh, by the way we'll be submesring you for a couple of hours, if you find that you have trouble breathing normally feel free to scream' and follow it up with turning out the lights? I know I would sleep REAL well under those circumstances.
Question: I am imagining a core of women/children/old fogies with a shell of strapping young breeding matirial keeping the things with teeth away. Is there a rotation of the guard, shifts, do the maids go bring them tuna sandwiches and flirt, what? Also: how important is privacy? Comparible to us, what's there to hide, everyone must have their secrets, what?
I can understand the hot/cold currents and water pressure for getting the lay of the land, but I'm somewhat partial to the good ol' Mark One eyball for spotting yon reptillian beastie who looketh upon me as an entree. Sound carries better underwater though, and sight would only work for the first twenty or thirty meters, depending on lighting, so I understand the evolutionary stimulus for that.
Therin lies a snag. THey didn't evolve.
Grrr... I must pondery now.

Re: Waterproof ductape.

[askerian]

Muahahahaha. >D

*snerk* Meanie. And messed up as in... Well, sometimes kids revert more or less to human genotype. ... more or less. ~__~ There's a number of mutations needed to make a mer, and the ones in the lower body have the higher chance of not taking, and if even one of them doesn't take well, that can be enough to cripple the kid. But they can also not inherit the lung capacity and oxygen conservation, which is even worse on the short term (mostly because there tends not to be a long term for those kids) Also the skin is thicker all over, to resist water damage better. It's not as bad when that doesn't happen, but they lose heat faster and also they look kinda ugly. pruny all over, ew. XD One of the most minor mutations is that they're programmed to have the lower body of a different color, but technically it's the same type of skin and often the colors travel a bit. Liadan has a couple of gray patches on her upper body and pink ones on her tail, but that's minor. Some of them are really mottled. XD heck, when she saw Arun in his swimsuit, all black but for the tips, she didn't even notice it wasn't his normal color. XD;;;

... XDDDD Uh. They just tell you to stay underwater until you feel that you need to breathe?

I am imagining a core of women/children/old fogies with a shell of strapping young breeding matirial keeping the things with teeth away.
XD Rather close to the truth, yeah. Except when you're too old, if the times are difficult you often end up deciding to drift off not to burden the pod.
Is there a rotation of the guard, shifts
Sure :p
do the maids go bring them tuna sandwiches and flirt, what?
XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Privacy is a luxury that they can't afford. They have sex within sight of the pod -- often hiding behind seaweed, but not all the time. They make nests of floating seaweed to sleep, so once people are in here, everyone does as if they couldn't see or hear them. even though... well... Seaweed. XD;
You don't ask things like "what's on your mind" ever. that's incredibly rude. People's thoughts are their own business that they share if they feel like it. XD; It's a very minor kind of privacy, but they don't have a lot of it to go around, sadly.