MERFOLK
Originally created as a personal contribution to the yearly MerMay drawing marathon, this became a captivating exploration of characters, one where the source of inspiration - the animals that inhabit the oceans - informed the traits of the characters I created.
Like all sea centaurs, Capri stored all his fat in his turtle shell bottom, flaunting a ripped turtle shell tummy.
Heartless. Brainless. But 95% hydrated and pretty AF. Elektra was not one to be touched.
“Titanic, light of my life, water of my fins. My sin, my soul. Ti-ta-nic.” hummed Humphrey Humphrey to himself. He would’ve given anything to play with a 1:1 reproduction in one whole piece.
Would Shōji stop pretending to be so coy.
Some would have killed for Theta’s body, but in all likelihood Theta would have killed the bodies of some.
How a blue spotted stingray became interested in Sufism, and how it became the first dervish of its kind, is unbeknownst to most. Perhaps not even Rumi himself remembered, entranced as he was whirling through the Dardanelles.
Jonathan was the first of its kind, but he didn’t know that. Surrounded by a sea of starfish that could neither see nor smell, he thought he was exactly like them. He had never see his own image after all. What he had in common with them was a voracious mouth at the center of his underside, so busy scavenging for food that one wonders if starfish will ever evolve the capacity for speech.
All was good on the Cartesian seabed. Then one day Solah learned about the Z-axis and ever since then she refused to adhere.
Naughty naughty Lucien. What he lacked in vision - a rudimentary sense in his species - he made up in touching, and touch he did. He had an addiction to those freshly abandoned second-hand shells and could not help himself exploring every nook of their form, finding clues and imagining all that he couldn’t deduce. He likened himself to an investigator but most underwater folk just deemed him a pervert.
Toxic musselinity? Not really. Arnold trained for his own personal pleasure, dedicating himself to building muscle mass which, if you think about it, was his inner self. All those conchs were so boring, busy as they were making their outer shells pretty and not spending a minute on what lies under the surface. Besides, try purging the mollusc.
Hammeruko was certain about three things in life: 1. One cannot have too much sashimi 2. Freshly caught sashimi is the stuff 3. Had she not been the daughter of a shark and a mermaid, adding up her fish DNA percentage to 75%, she would’ve been much more human-like, anthropomorphic even.
Kat had whiskers for days and smarts for... a fraction of a second. Had she not relied on her looks so much she would’ve probably lived a longer life. Pictured here in one of her last appearances, before being catfished one final time.
“M” hummed Fritz at the final cut. A remarkable langoustine, booked on both sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific to weave his flimsy algae films together, he began with silvery seaweeds that made no sound. Only later he moved on to crunchier ones - the talkies - and eventually put together nets of colorful algae as well.
Madama Puffer ate her spirulina cookies daily without questioning whether she liked them or not, they were healthy and that was reason enough. One day, sipping her bubbles, she reflected on the symmetry of people drinking liquids and merfolk downing gases, and all was well.
For the umpteenth time, anemones are animals, and predators at that. To a human eye they might look limbless or amputated but they are perfectly formed as they are, able to move and swim. What they cannot do is talk, and even if they could Adonis would have not been the talkative type, barely tolerating the company of the odd clownfish as he did.
Donna was passionate about reggaeton, sea grass and her career as a doula. She was also pregnant and had finally eased into the idea, in fact she was already picking the moves to teach her child. Oh and Spanish, she could finally start a language class and then raise a bilingual dugong! She wondered whether her partner would’ve minded Marc Anthony or Rosalía as names for the little one.
Enough with the questions, the biological clock inquiries, the body shaming. Sir Sealip was not pregnant, had no stable partner and yes, he did indulge in decadent meals daily. He did appreciate being given the best seat on the coral tentacles however, and because of that he decided to prank the whole reef and tie the knot.