a Mernananggal relaxing after taking off her legs for the night.
mermaid and manananggal mixes are rare but not unheard of in certain areas and body types vary depending on which parent's genes fight the hardest. she absolutely has a sibling who can hold their breath real good and detach their torso at will but is otherwise a normal human.
a Coral Mermaid watching over the reef.
there's some debate about whether these actually count as mermaids, but other mermaids obviously think they do so everyone else's opinions don't really matter. they begin life looking and acting like any other non-sapient coral, but over the years they grow very large (like, 12 to 15 feet) and vaguely mermaid shaped (in some cases so vague that you only know what you're looking at if you catch them at a specific angle and suddenly you're swimming next to A Person).
they do not move or make audible sounds, but many are seen with "masks" tethered to their "heads" by thin flexible tendrils. this is the closest they get to emoting. the "masks" are often pieces of their own bodies that have molted or broken off, but they'll sometimes be spotted with an acceptably sized piece of driftwood or other chosen debris. reports of coral merms using human skeletons or entire sunken ships as "faces" make for good stories, but they probably are also just stories. there are cooler, more accessible skeletons just laying around and She was probably always a myth.
the deceptively named Cradle Kelp is actually a type of mermaid that makes their home in kelp forests. little is known about them due to being on more of the eldritch ocean spirit side of the mermaid spectrum, but they seem to be harmless unless threatened (then they become VERY harmful) and intelligent enough to have an extensive sign language.
Fun Facts:
when resting they use their alarmingly strong grip to anchor themselves to the sea floor or nearby kelp stalks and let the rest of their body float free.
they love to go in shipwrecks and fiddle with buttons and levers and things that have interesting textures.
they have retractable claws.
if they feel like it they can comfortably leave the water for a few hours. so if you see trails of hand prints in the sand, don't worry about it :)
divingbelles are mermaids in the selkie family who use humanoid skins to house aquatic forms instead of the other way around.
as this lovely lady demonstrates, some of the more delicate divingbelles that take after jellyfish or molluscs hold onto their skins kind of like snail shells. they dislocate the pieces to unfurl from the spaces between when under water, and pull the bits back together when they want to hide or walk around.
it's a good thing you aren't a parent figure and our wellbeing isn't dependent on your continuous presence and effort, then we'd miss out on the unexpected delight of your reappearances and conscious enjoyment of your hard work when we have the privilege to see it. also can i have a cig
finish your milk first.
companion critters from way back in january. i want to make more little guys for that creature escorting/research thing i started a while ago. these are early or "safe" area critters.
loose typings for these babies are, starting at the upper left:
branch type, hive type, net type (siren type?), bone type, seed type, beyond type, and endless type.