2.5.4
on July 7, 2025
at 3:00 am
spoiling a perfectly good little mermaid rescue scenario by becoming amphibious
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
spoiling a perfectly good little mermaid rescue scenario by becoming amphibious
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: boy it’s a good thing her shirt tore in the right arrangement to show the gills or this might’ve been confusing. who said that
Image source: believe
. “C’mon, hold on–” the mermaid mutters, quickly swimming toward Alinua. She pulls something out of her bag, like a breathing tool powered by wind lacrimas. “Just– oh!”
. Faint green light streams off Alinua, eyes glowing, as gills grow on the sides of her neck and chest, Life saving her from drowning.
. “Oh. Wow.” The mermaid blinks in shock, reaching to put the rebreather back into her bag. “Wow. Okay.”
. She leans closer, pulling her light goggles off to examine Alinua. Her eyes are no longer glowing, and her Life mark has gone dark, but her gills glow green. “The Captain’s never going to believe this.”
tumblr text: sleepin wit da fishes
Bluesky text: just keep swimming!
Calling it now, there’s going to be *so* many ‘Finding Nemo’ references this chapter
I’m sure that won’t be a problem later.
Tactically exposed midriff but it isn’t for horny reasons but for storytelling purposes.
Also I would like to voice appreciation for the mermaid being a fishwoman and not “well endowed human woman with fish tail”
“Exposed midriff for horny purposes” and “Well-endowed human woman with fish tail” are two things I’d expect from basically any other storyteller, but I do appreciate Red for putting so much value in storytelling and cohesive worldbuilding.
Agreed, both of you! One of the things I love about Aurora is that I can read and enjoy it without ever becoming DISTRACTED by thirsting after the characters!
OK but you can’t deny, demon-form Danix looks hot
Agree
As a probably aroace, I definitely appreciate it! 😄
Life Mum adapting Alinua to gain gills makes sense. She also probably didn’t want to add any other aquatic adaptations out of caution.
It’s neat that some merfolk carry around rebreathers (powered by wind lacrimas, from the looks of it) in case they spot someone drowning.
Humans and Elves probably don’t compare to the Merfolk or even Sekrai, but in my experience, we’re not necessarily bad swimmers either! …and now that I think about it, our feet are probably better at being flippers than they are at being feet.
I imagine it’s a matter of courtesy and Being a Good Neighbor, like how boats are supposed to respond to distress calls, no matter what language it’s in.
That’s what I think, too!
Aurora Question #50: How do you think Aurora will end?
Praying my notes haven’t betrayed me
I haven’t got any clear idea but I’ve got a few random ones:
• I feel that since Voidy is sort of a bigger threat than The Collector, they’ll defeat him last.
• There is a slight chance of the Collector working with them, if she learns about it and that VDs escape would also destroy Life — though she might just turn to the obvious answer of, kill Erin.
• I had originally thought that it was unlikely that they could permanently defeat VD, as how could they succeed where 6 primordials have failed? But in light of the Light dragon and Dainix’s recent transmutation of Void, there might actually be a… tiny chance? It would still be able whole planet-scale primordial!
• I hope no-one dies 🙁
Final crescendo
A battle for the ages
Catharsis at last
Kendal under threat
Vash must sacrifice himself
Life beyond the guilt
Tesslinua kiss
At the least I sure hope so
Give to me yuri?
Crustables kiss too
They are so precious to me
Yaoi good as well
Okay. I love Ferinheit with all my heart, but I really don’t think tess and Alinua would make much of a couple… Yes, I know they had that “share my home with you until yours wakes up” moment, but I just really can’t see it. Tess is probably ace, I think, and I don’t think Alinua would hit it off with anyone in the current team, really. (Save for Kendal, but there’s confirmation that won’t happen.) If she’s gonna end up with anyone- I think it’s gonna have to be a new character.
Okay, but Ferinheit is the best name for this ship that I have seen.
Though I do agree that Tess and Alinua are less shippable than alinua and Kendal.
From the way things are headed I imagine crustables will kiss much earlier then that
There will be an end? Not as long as there are fans of the story! The tail may resolve but story will go on as long as there are readers and listeners1
“Wait… So it was all a dream?”
Turns out Kendal WAS dead all along.
I foresee a complicated endgame against V.D. where it all hinged on the invocation of his truename. V.D. described his great rune as “treacherously powerful” which makes me think it could be used against him in the right circumstances. Perhaps this, combined with theories about Void/Light relations, could be the key to defeating him once and for all.
As for the Collector … honestly not sure. Reconcile her past self and feels remorse for what she did? Beaten conventionally by the gang, as a contrast to the grand defeat of V.D.?
As for an epilogue, I’ve got this image of an “X years later” flash-forward where Alinua is the last living member of the gang, who once a year comes to New Vash and uses her magic to, in public, ensure a bountiful harvest and, in private, mourn her past friends with a mature and understanding Vash beside her.
(My mind, for some reason, sometimes imagines Alinua as a dragon though this, as a nod to Red’s original idea for the Elves turning into dragons, and the though that years of living and adapting has changed her to this form.)
Speaking of death, does reincarnation exist in Aurora to any extent? If so, how does it work and what effects does it have on individuals and the world at large? And speaking of dragons, are dragons sapient or not in Aurora!? I’m confused to the point of frustration because on the one hand, LD and, at least in the past, VD are known to possess dragons in a manner reminiscent of when VD possessed the first Elemental Magus for all of three seconds, and the Unnamed Stormdrake that Tess punched and got crushed by was possessed by LD right before Kendal and Alinua met Erin, when the Stormdrake appeared again at the Snowfast, the Paladins talked about how it would “appreciate LD’s gift after waking up” right as LD un-possessed it. But on the other hand, Kendal (near Windcrest) talked about how Vash knew a dragon some time ago, Argist in, well, Argist, says he unfortunately does not know any dragons that could take the Floof Squad to Helm, and Tess says to a different dragon (when Falst had just joined the Floof Squad) “I don’t speak dragon” in the middle of punching said dragon. Is the “gift” given by LD to the Stormdrake sapience akin to how the Elder Races were first given sapience, or just cool LD powers? And what the heck is a Prismatic Dragon!? Why did they fall!? How hard!?
There’s gotta be at least one dragon fight
This one has been haunting me for ages. I think they’re going to kill Life again. Freeing her means destroying the world, even if Voidy is neutralized. But leaving her alive and trapped could be torture, especially if there were some special factor involved with Alinua being a successful vessel. Because that means if/when Alinua dies, Life goes back to being trapped in that darkness, and finding another vessel risks more chimeric plagues.
I think the only way around it would be if Life’s consciousness can be isolated into a tiny bit of her, allowing her to put her self into a body of her creation without withdrawing all of her soul from the creatures using it. In that case the changes made to Kendal’s body with that first healing may prove to be a template.
I dont know if Life *can* be killed.
She was dead before the Collector woke her up. Though of course that was the Dragon’s doing. I guess the real question is can she be killed by something besides another eldrich entity.
First, it’s the eye color, now we have gills?
What’s next for the Life-induced Alinua changes lmao
So she has gills now! Considering Alinua’s… mixed feelings towards her connection with Life, and concern about her autonomy, I wonder how she’ll react when she wakes up? 😟
Fr. This may be advantageous, but.. was that automatic bc of her connection to Life? Or did Life see a need and act on instinct? Cause either way, I’m not certain it’s reversible. Is spontaneous evolution to dangers going to happen again? It took a long time to get to this. Was that a product of their relationship evolving, or is this just the most immediately life threatening situation she’s been in so far? There’s a being nearby with means of helping, which is why I’m inclined to think it’s automatic rather than Life Mum (altho she may think it a good idea anyway…)
Idk all im saying is that if this is gonna keep happening, she’s gonna be both a really powerful avatar for Life and a really odd lookin elf. which I’m SURE will DEFINITELY help with her self image.
…Asise from Alinua, I’m also really curious how Life reacts to this- and if Alinua wants to reverse it later, if Life will understand that want?
Red did state that shapeshifting is theoretically possibly with life Magic so for a life Mage of alinua’s level its certainly reversible… Once Alinua figures out How to
So she’ll just be stuck with them until she levels up? xD
yup, lets hope the conveniently boss shaped water snek gives a lot of EXP XD
New power unlocked?
Evolution is supposed to take generations to occur. Thankfully, Life her[?]self can speed up the process, just a bit.
also, I doubt Alinua is going to be objectively happy about this. Sure, it’s useful in the current situation, her previous experience with such alterations (her eye colour) might not be a 1:1 match to this, but I think this will also be a hit to her self-image. Perhaps similar to dysphoria, perhaps not.
It might take billions of generations for mammals to evolve gills like that, if it was even possible (evolution needs to be advantageous at every stage of development, and those slits are unlikely to just appear out of nowhere)! So it’s even more dramatic than you might think. (Of course, elemental adaptation might change things a bit)
yeah the “many, many” got lost between thought and keyboard there. and I agree, developing a brand new respiratory system is not a trivial 100 thousand-year adaptation.
Probably better that you skipped that — my comments always get far too long before I know what’s happened! xD
@ niacdoial: according to the Characters page, the Life Primordial uses both she/her AND they/them pronouns (and NOT it/its pronouns—guess I misremembered that, whoops!), I try using both equally. I also theorize that the other Primordials would have scoffed at the concept of a strict gender binary, but that’s neither here nor there. Walter (the Void Dragon) uses he/they (I thiiink that the Light Dragon, nicknamed Lucy after St. Lucia I think, uses she/they, but for whatever reason Lucy’s not on the Characters page so don’t quote me on that), Caliban uses he/she/they, and finally, according to AsTheLightFades, all Merfolk use she/they (at least when they interact with the Elder Races; Merfolk do not have a concept of gender, and fun fact: the Younger Races in general either don’t have a concept of gender or have an entirely unique concept of gender from the Elder Races and from other Younger Races)!
The pronouns that the primordials have are actually just the ones that are assigned to them by the people in this world! According to Red, they might not even have a concept of gender and, if they do, it would almost certainly be completely alien to humans. So their pronouns fall into the ‘dont care’ category — it’s tradition more than anything, call them what you like! (I’m a Christian and this actually just made it click in my head that my God is ‘He’ without being the male gender. It felt weird calling Him anything else, but it doesn’t really reflect his gender!)
Some links to sources! 😀
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/623127815208976385/is-the-void-dragon-called-that-because-theyre#notes
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/630627766279323648/what-are-the-pronouns-of-the-primordials#notes
oh, OK, good to know that this webcomic has the same idea as me on “how dare you assume the gender experience of a divine/primordial/eldritch/etc being is something that can be easily described by mortals”
also, all of this makes me wonder about languages. it’s easy to imagine that what we ultimately see (an English translation) is not entirely faithful to how people want to be referred to as. not to mention the possibility of different languages in the comic’s world (is that the case? I’m not that well versed in the lore beyond what the comic itself shows). Do the primordials even have a native language to describe their self-perception in?
All the Auroran languages (about 10 currently) are part of the same language family, and descended from the First Language. The First Language is the language that runic commands are still written in (eg when Erin uses a runic circle or Falst carves on a lacrima). Since the Primordial’s souls respond to the first language and only to it, it is theorised that it is the native language of the Primordials (suggesting that it is more innate than our languages, since their dead souls respond to it? idk). The current alphabet used is the same one used for Runes, so is also probably from the Primordials, but the Ancient alphabet was different, developed in isolation.
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/642955104603062272/so-although-we-dubbed-the-language-as-aseran
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/671072075968020480/youve-mentioned-before-that-the-languages-in#notes
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/700960176298229760/sticking-to-the-cipher-train-what-made-you-decide#notes
As far as I know, the Primordials’ language is the so-called First Language, which is written in those Runes that we see here and there in Aurora. The First Language is used for spellcasting, as the Primordials react to being “called upon” in their own language even after death (Life was resurrected of course but Her body still reacts and is as much a part of the world as ever). The First Language was also…well, the first language to be spoken by the Elder Races and the gods they knew.
The runic language that is used for magic is the language of the primordials.
SHE CAN DO THAT??
Well, she can now! XD
Can’t grow a tree about this. Gotta grow organs about it.
Big fan of how life looked at the giant sea serpent and was just like, turn on the anti-fish light for 6 seconds, give my vessel gills, that is all.
Speaking of disphoria, I have come to realize it manifests A Lot in this comic. The first time it is obvious, Dainx and Faust are talking about it, but it could also be seen in Kendel (refusing to see himself), and Life. I posit that Life was initially shocked and horrified at what their body had become in death, and that this set the Collector on her mission. But that Life has since then tried to find peace with, or at least understanding, about what they have become. They do not “hate” what they are now, it was just so far removed from what they had been that they had a disphoric episode.
This has been my general theory of the whole deal with Life/the Collector. You summed it up amazingly!
Never considered this, and it’s a fascinating and engaging theory!
“Oh! Oh. Wow. Wow. Okay.”
Honestly, pretty reasonable reaction to Alinua’s strangeness.
Congrats to those who predicted Alinua would grow gills, or at least Life would force gills upon her. You can still see some lingering life magic markings that accompany her biggest feats.
One thing I’ll note though is that, while the gills have been grown, they’re still glowing green on the inside. Are the inner parts of the gills still being worked out, or are these gills requiring constant life energy in order to function?
The fact these mermaids carry magic breathing devices for land-dwellers on their persons, or at least this one does, lowers the fears I have of these mermaids having less that savoury moralities. It doesn’t dispel the fear completely, they might be pirates wanting living people to ransom, but it does lower it.
Honestly, I’m not sure what this mermaid’s job is. They carry sun-goggles and have lacrima breathers for land-dwellers, so they’re expected to operate close to the surface. I don’t see any weapons, so a guard or pirate sounds unlikely. And they’re part of a hierarchy.
A scavenger from a group led by a captain perhaps? Maybe tasked with retrieving precious cargo and rescuing survivors from ships wreaked by Nessie.
I think it would be hard(er) for them to see detail with the goggles on, so they might have taken them off to see Ali and her magic more clearly. They might also be confused since, iirc, there isn’t much of the other elements underwater.
Yes, there isn’t much of other elements underwater! Though Life can dissolve in Water, and would be found in every living creature, there might be less Life *energy* around.
The goggles have only little slits to see though, and it looks like the mermaids pupils are a *lot* bigger than ours — they take up her whole eye, in fact! That would result in her vision being very obscured, possibly even more than that of a human wearing those. So she might take them off to get a clearer look
Some sort of scout would make sense to me, they’re running pretty light in terms of kit.
Might also be that Mermaid capabilities are such that if they get into a fight it’ll either be something they can drown/rip apart or something they can outrun
Also, shout out to the fins at the base of the fish tail, I love this aesthetically and biologically. But it’s bold of us to assume that this merfolk, their kit, and their behavior, are part of any trend beyond them and the “Captain.” They could be outliers.
“Yay! It’s a Monday!” Said only people who read webcomics.
So that takes care of the, y’know, BREATHING problem, but what about the increased pressure in deeper waters? Presumably the Merfolk have other devices for that…which makes me wanna know how they work. And the rebreathers. Also, the Mermaid took off her anti-blindness glasses…so…I guess they were going to go up to the surface and/or were reacting to Alinua’s light show, but she’s not actually in the danger zone of brightness yet? Or maybe it’s safe since they’re looking *down* to examine Alinua. That sounded unintentionally weird. I’m probably overthinking all of this.
Alinua if she had normal dreams: “BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERN’S LI—*looks up* wait why are you a fish? *looks down* and why am /I/ a fish!? *looks at hands, regains lucidity* WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOA—*wakes up*
And now I wonder what Ali’s Green Lantern outfit would look like. Fanartists! I propose a challenge: draw Alinua in a Green Lantern costume! Or a different colored Lantern costume if you feel like it. An original one, not just stuffing her into the standard-issue one. The reward: …the art you made along the way?
Those gills look like copies of Merfolk gills…Merfolk cannot breathe in air…oh gods, Red, I know you probably won’t anyways, but please don’t let Alinua get stuck underwater!
It might be that the breathing lacrimas only work long enough to get up to the surface. But I think that this world doesnt have an atmosphere with gas composition like ours, it’s just all Wind that they breath in. I think Red’s said that aquatic creatures just breath Water, not oxygen in it… because there no oxygen. All that to say that the lacrima might just be able to draw in Wind dissolved in the water for people to breath! And since Alinua has survived freefalling from a mountain, I hope she can heal from some pressure! Or just use life magic to get rid of her bones? That’s cursed.
I’m hoping her lungs are still functional!
…so IRL humans wouldn’t be able to survive on Aurora? Interesting. I keep being thrown by how deeply fantastical Red has made Aurora… purely because of my own assumptions.
While I’d love to see what others make, I don’t think I’ll be able to do a particularly good job with it… My art style is basically entirely pencil, with notably different proportions and the like. Does still sound like fun though…
ALINUAPTIBILITY yes, this is so cool
Life… finds a way
Indeed!! Brava/o (gender depending @Runnick!)(smile)
So Alinua is going to be introduced to the crew? Is she going to be swept up in another adventure? I am sure Alinua would have loved it under normal circumstances (But when have there been ‘normal circumstances’ for the Floof gang since this story started?)
Easy adaption
Thin barrier to your death
Yet, against your will
The new kenning of the text is really clear on this page! I liked the old one, and this will take some getting used to, but it looks really nice!
GILLS GILLS GILLS GILLS!!!!!!!!! sadly no mermaid tail, but still really cool!
Since Life has previously appeared to be worried about the effect of her magic working through Alinua, she probably did the bare minimum needed to keep Alinua alive
When your party member becomes a fish.
Wait is it uncommon for elves to spontaneously develop gills?
Those kinda look “life magic green”.
Normally changing the body like that should runs into the Soul barrier. Anything more then simple healing (up to a point) runs into it. And this seems way beyond that.
She might be subconsciously casting – but if she isn’t also clearing elemental buildup while doing so she might end up a Chimera. Subconscious water channeling is what made Tarren sick.
I think Life is doing it for her!
That is incredibly cool and I wanna know if Alinua is doing it on purpose/ reflexively or if Life is helping her because she seems to be unconsious.
Alinua is still new to being Amphibious and somewhat knocked out.
You could say she is … green around the gills.
BOOOOOOOOOOO
I wonder what the mermaid is currently thinking Alinua is?
1) Sekrai? No, unless she doesnt know any sekrai. Alinua doesnt look like one.
2) Half-elf/half-sekrai? Maybe, I’m not sure if sekrai have fish gills or not, but if so, she could look like one.
3) Merferin? No, she doesnt look like one, and would probably have shifted back to mermaid by now anyway.
4) Really weird never seen before Unstable Fish Ferin? Maybe, Red’s said that there arent any known aquatic ferin, but the mermaid doesnt know that.
5) ??? Maybe she just has no ideas at all. This is probably quite the surprise xD
Just a very weird mage.
I’m not actually sure that that would be the first place her mind would go (although it’s certainly an option, thanks for adding it!). Mages normally should not be able to do that, while there are actual beings in this world with gills.
Water Alinua is born.
✨️🐠Aqualinua🐠✨️
Alinaqua
Gillinua
PERFECT SHAPESHIFTING OH MY GOODNESS!!!!
alinua, you just did the impossible. or was it life herself that did it?
I love the idea of merfolk that just carry around magical breathing devices for land-dwellers in case of emergency. At least, I presume that’s what this is.
Come to think of it, I realize I have headcanoned that Please-Let’s-Not-Call-Her-Ariel came up to investigate the boat exploding or some other disturbance, or was shadowing the giant eel chimaera. As in,[she] was prepared to rescue air breathers because it’s part of why [she’s] up here.
Red needs to tell us her name asap!! Or terrible things may happen xD
I propose Ariain’t
Accepted! I was calling her Nellie for some reason
Life has historically been much better at adapting animals than reversing the adaptations later. This in mind, I hope the gills follow the pattern of the green eyes and the life magic mark and just stay on Alinua’s body forever. Just one more weirdness she has to explain to people. ‘Those? Okay, so shaggy dog story, one time I was on a boat…’
Scarf, maybe?
‘Sweeping social reform’ may not be in life’s powerset, but by GOD this feels like a pretty OP power to have
…sooooo. Is Ali kinda like, a chimera now, or…..
you’re a mermaid Ali
Alinua’s new gills mirror the gills that the mermaid has. Since the gills are for keeping Alinua alive while underwater, additional changes may occur once Alinua wakes up and realizes she needs some more improvements.
i doubt it, life only interferes in life or death situations(like this one) instead of “whenever alinua feels like it” because she seems very much afraid of causing another chimeric plague and or killing alinua
I feel like Alinua is kinda like Shin Godzilla.
As has been stated in the Old Laws…
“Life, uhhh… finds a way.”
is it just me and my terrible vision (and need of new glasses) or has the text changed somehow?? seems like there’s maybe- less spacing in between letters??? maybe I’m just tired
The mermaid rushes, the sinking one to aid
But finds Life helping her drowning to evade
TL;DR: Were-mermaid???
Looks like Alinua finally got her mermaid! Also, I’m back!
Called it with the mermaids, lol!
Gl Alinua!
Oooh… will the gills be permanent? If so, can she still functionally breathe out of water? If not… “bone wants to make more bone” according to Alinua. If she’s always healed off of vibes, will she be able to un-gill herself successfully?
Cool that you find it intreasting miss mermaid but can you please save our girl?
OMG!!!! That’s so cool???
It is!!
Exactly how it feels to clean your glasses
MERFOLK ARC?! MERFOLK STORY AAAAARRCCCCC OH MY GOSH I’M SO EXCITED THIS IS MY JAM