River Mermaid, for Mermay 2021 :)

her kind do not die

once upon a time there was a prince and he loved a mermaid do not picture her incorrectly she was not as mermaids are in the paintings and indeed the prince did not love her for her beauty for though she was as silver as a fallen star her hair was tangled with seaweed her skin was scarred by fights with sharks and whales and her claws sometimes pierced the prince’s skin when they kissed too passionately (the sea does not breed kindness, after all) but her heart was noble and her stories enthralling they planned their wedding on the golden shore of the southern coast of his kingdom near the place where they first met but his father said,

“it is a sin unnatural and even if it wasn’t you cannot have children and even if you could she cannot sit on a throne and besides her kind do not die they only grow larger.” and the queen shook her head gently and said, “my son, oh my son you do not even know what she is.” but time twisted onward and the old king died and his son’s coronation day was also his wedding day the mermaid bride radiant in a carved marble bathtub wearing a crown of coral and a veil of jellyfish arms and if any of the priests had anything to say about it they kept their mouths shut then they ripped out half the castle dug great, wide moats replaced the ballroom with a swimming pool all for the new queen and then she had a son (do not ask me how they managed it i expect it must have been magic or else some quirk of biology if the method was ever known it is lost to time now) their son was almost completely a man though he, too, was as silver as a falling star and he could breathe in water as well as the air and when an invading navy came to their shores he sang the warships onto the rocks he married a princess with cornsilk hair and sapphire eyes and then they had a son who was not silver but could still breathe in water and learned his grandmother’s songs even though there was no magic in his voice the king grew older but the mermaid queen remained as young and radiant as she’d been on their wedding day though perhaps a little taller a little wider and when her husband died she took his corpse and swam away from the castle and never returned i suspect i know why she left the moats were growing too narrow for her the ballroom too stifling after all her kind do not die they only grow larger but time twisted onward there were new kings, new children new generations they lived and they died and though they all loved to swim in the moats and the pool that was once a ballroom none of them had silver skin and nobody could breathe water or sing warships onto the rocks for there was too much human in them now and not enough of anything else but they were joyful, and they were good and when an invading navy came to their shores they were unprepared he wanted their princess, the man in the warship for what men like him want most is for others to be unhappy and if she did not marry him he would tear through her kingdom like a wolf tears through meat and the blood would be on her hands and so the princess put on her great-great-great grandmother’s crown of coral and her veil of jellyfish arms she said, “before we are married, i wish to sing an ancient song as my wedding gift to you.” and she stood at the bow of his warship and smiled and though the stories do not say if she inherited her grandmother’s teeth i like to think she did and as her song carried over the water in the darkness the surface rippled and a great head emerged waterfalls poured from ancient shoulders ebony eyes gleamed like a moonless ocean and a mouth opened to teeth the size and shape of lateen sails and behind them the abyss after all her kind do not die they only grow larger effie calvin, 2021

Deep sea

Mermay 2021 by Serge Birault

thank you all for your mermay suggestions this month!

⚡(find me on instagram, twitter, inprnt: @jakeromanoart)

women want me, fish fear me 🧜‍♀️💦

mermay 2021 🧜🏽‍♀️💐

★ twitter | ko-fi | ig | prints ★

Mermay 2021 (part 3) by Axel Sauerwald

One last moody mermaid for mermay ! 

It was interesting to play with dark colours this time.:)

this was meant to be for mermay.... but then i forgot to post it lmao

Mermay 2021 (part 2) by Axel Sauerwald

forget me not 💙

★ twitter | ko-fi | ig | prints ★

Sea serpent mer!zhongli for your viewing pleasure~

Same conceptual universe as my mer!childe~

---Cerealiii

2021-06-16

Mermay 2021 by Ksenia Svincova

let’s go cowboys nation  🤠

My Castlevania-Mermay set :D

Had some fun convos on a Castlevania Discord and that’s the result <3

Trevor as a battleworn orca 

Sypha is based on a lion's mane jellyfish

Alucard/Adrian as lemon shark :)

Fun bit about lemon sharks : they get jealous if their favorite diver gives attention to other sharks and fights them off

Sneaking in at the very last minute with my sole contribution to this year's mermay 😁

Mermay 2021 (part 5) by Maxine Vee

some sketchy doodles for my mer au! (the words read “no translucency/bioluminescence while on land” if my handwriting is illegible btw)

Shrimp Street