2.5.5
on July 9, 2025
at 3:00 am
nearsighted people can you confirm that this is what glasses do and/or what it feels like to chew 5 gum
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
nearsighted people can you confirm that this is what glasses do and/or what it feels like to chew 5 gum
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: I’m COLD. I’m WET. There’s a FISH ON MY HEAD-
Image source: see
tumblr text: hey look! a mermaid!
. It’s mostly dark, slight glowing spots that fade into two dark shapes. Indistinguishable words float through the water.
. “What?” Alinua asks, squinting. “I can’t–” She winces, shutting her eyes. Green lines glow around her ears and eyes. “It’s so dark and– and loud, I can’t– I–” she breaks off in surprise as her ears morph into a mermaid’s and her eyes glow, changing.
. Alinua stares at the two in front of her in shock as the mermaid who had found her points at her. “There! She did it again!” A pale-skinned sekrai, with nautilus armor and holding a spear, frowns at Alinua. Her hands are tied behind her around a whale rib sticking out of the sand.
. “You see?” the mermaid demands.
Intro is a bit wonky, but I like this one
Bluesky text: rude awakening
“I’m COLD. I’m WET. There’s a FISH ON MY HEAD-” SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MOVIE REFERENCE??!!?
FIRST?
Nice try… but no-one can beat @Zer0 Wolf xD
Please stop with the “first” comments. You have better things to do
Ah! So @Ophidiophile was actually right! 😀
Thanks for the nod.
Just checking, when do we leave the area of useful spontaneous mutations and enter the area of body horror?
Or did we already cross the line?
Probably depends on how permanent these changes are.
Amazing username, I gotta say.
I think the fact that Life is (seemingly) making these changes without Alinua’s concent is enough to push it over the line. Although she is keeping her alive with the gills… does anyone know if invasive surgery requires the persons concent in our world? Like, someone who had been knocked out in a car crash and had a piece of metal lodged in their skull would still be operated on, right? So I guess it might fall under that area of moral exception?
But I’m not so sure about the eyes and ears… Alinua wouldn’t be able to communicate with the merfolk or even see without them, but it wasn’t *essential* for survival, more like an operation on someone with a disability, almost? Like, if a person agrees, it’s great to be able to improve their hearing/eyesight but… it’s definitely not a life-threatening emergency. What if Life just randomly decides that Alinua could do with an extra pair of arms to hold the groceries? Does she draw a line between neccasarily to live, neccasarily to currently and immediately function and just sort of helpful? I hope so. Not saying Life is evil or anything, but she is an incredibly alien being who is not used to being part of other autonomous beings, and she might not quite understand the ethics of that…
TLDR: the changes themselves may not be extreme enough to count, especially as they’re very helpful, but the fact that Life is seeming to do this without Alinua’s prior knowledge of concent, just *BAM* shapeshifting, might be enough to tip it over the line.
Brother, this is the primordial embodiment of Life itself we’re talking about, since when do consent laws matter for fictional goddesses?
Hey everyone, I found Zeus’s account!
Additionally, imagine it like the actual medical field. If a patient’s arm was experiencing necrosis, you’d have to amputate it, without their consent, to save their life right? With Alinua, Life is increasing her odds of survival, making sure she can breathe, see, and hear underwater. She is far more likely to die without these changes.
I addressed this in my comment!
Embarrassingly, I didn’t see your comment, only the TL;DR. Like I literally missed it when I was scrolling. Sorry. Idk how.
If I were to speculate one could argue the ears to be necessary, I think you can get physically deafened by water pressure and I know you can get permanent inner-ear trauma from it. Alinua might be able to heal from that but not when she’s still underwater so changing her ears might have protected her from permanent damage,wherever or not she could heal herself of permanent damage after leaving the water is unclear, the jury’s been out on wherever or not she can do things like regrow her own severed limbs, we know she can’t regrow other peoples limbs though. But we’ve seen her ( or atleast Life ) do stuff to herself that she can’t do to over people.
Theirs also the possibility that life somehow recognised that this is a situation where Alinua has to be able to communicate to be able to protect herself and survive, how Life could figure this out I don’t know but I think she might have done this once before way back in the forest where they first met Falst, and Alinua seemingly talked to that bear chimera but that might have been me reading to much into things.
Either way I don’t really know the morality one way or the other, but from Alinua’s perspective the horror element certainly qualifies.
I think the reason that she can do things to herself that she couldnt do for others is either because she has a unique connection to Life that allows her to bypass the soul barrier, or that her soul is uniquely flexible and so can withstand the changes, or both. Or maybe her soul isn’t flexible and she’s going to have *problems*
I think there was some aspect of expressed desire, at least with the ear and eye mutations. Like we know that Life is sort of in Alinua’s head, and she was conscious, and expressed confusion and distress about not being able to see or hear, and Life “Solved” that for her. Not necessarily in a way that would be acceptable among people, but its already been pretty explicitly stated that the reason life and Alinua are so connected is because she wants to learn about what it means to be a people in the first place. So is it a little creepy that she’s modifying Alinua’s body? yeah. But also her motivations are probably genuinely worried and helpful.
Actually I’m wondering this is Life doing anything right now. She’s been very careful not to do anything through Alinua using ambient energy, because she’d cause a chimeric plague event. The only time we’ve seen her actually channeling through Alinua, she did so with a lacrima, which has a very limited amount of energy so she couldn’t hurt anyone by using too much. Now, earlier, I might have bought it, because the gills were necessary to save Alinua’s life, and there was no-one around her apart from a chimera (so it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d chimerized it). But now Alinua is surrounded by other non-chimera creatures, and with no lacrimas at hand. Life couldn’t risk channeling through Alinua, she’d hurt them.
However, we have seen Alinua channeling while knocked out before. For example, when Voidy attacked her while Kendal was talking to Ilia. Then she healed herself and only woke up after (or rather, in the middle of it). And here we see her reacting to the pain in her body and adapting. She probably doesn’t intend to do it. But we already now Alinua’s magic is very intuitive, she listens to what the body wants to make and then helps it make it. And here her will probably wasn’t more articulated than wanting it to stop hurting, so the magic reacted to the vagueness in an unexpected way.
Yes, assuming that Life is personally and directly responsible for these mutations is just that: an assumption. It’s equally likely that Alinua is doing this to herself unconsciously, or that her magical abilities are activating instinctively to keep her alive. Self-Preservation is a powerful thing, and we have no real basis for how it interacts with inborn magical abilities.
Yeah, I was exploring the possibility of Life doing it because of how that would emotionally affect Alinua, but it definitely could be Alinua herself! I dont think she’s doing it on purpose though. Also, i doubt that Life purposely turned Alinuas eyes green way back in the story, but it was still due to her power, and reflected Alinuas fears about her individuality and personhood. Even if Life isn’t purposely doing this, she’s still ‘doing it’ in the sense that a normal mage wouldn’t do this, so its the unique connection to the Primordial of Adaption and Survival that is the root cause.
I find your articulation of this very compelling, OngoingConversationCouplet! I do hope Alinua A) won’t blame Life and B) won’t blame herself for this but even if 1) Alinua becomes more in tune with and accepting of her magic and 2) Life actually *communicates* what is happening in a prudent manner for once, Ali’s probably still not getting out of this mentally scot-free…”scot-free,” what a weird turn of phrase…maybe they could figure out a way for Alinua to dream and be aware of goings-on when knocked unconscious, so that there’s less chaos next time?
“It’s so dark and – and loud, I can’t -” and then her eyes change to adjust their refraction for under water and for the low light, and her ears change so that she can make out voices. This is Alinua getting what she wants. And needs. I don’t see why any of this would not be reversible, nor do I see where morality enters in. While Alinua was worried before that she was mutating and could become a chimera, we now know that she didn’t because she was different from everyone else. Specifically, she is Life’s Avatar, a manifestation of Life in bodily form on earth.
All of the Chimeric Plague carriers where Life’s vessels (or at least attempts at them) and they got mutated! I think the difference with Alinua is that at some crucial point something clicked, and her soul and body somehow ‘accepted’ Life’s power.
Also, she wasn’t worried about her eyes mutating because of this because she thought she was becoming a chimera, its because she worried becoming Life’s vessel was taking her autonomy and personhood away. And now her body has shapeshifted, whether unconsciously or due to Life’s indstruction (although, as i have tried to say, Life is the primordial of Adaption and Survival, they are fundamental parts of her being, so she is certainly responsible for it, though likely not on purpose). This may lead to Alinuas concerns over green eyes to be much larger.
Alternatively, Alinua is instinctively making these changes to herself. Survival instinct is strong.
Also while I’m not precisely nearsighted (just plain bad eyesight), the first few panels bear a striking resemblance to my vision when I try to look at distant objects in the dark.
Depends entirely on whether or not you consider sudden gill-growth as something to be worried about.
Pretty sure Blue would be shitting bricks.
To me its probably only when things stop being useful or start being permanent does it start being body horror from an outside perspective, for her, it certainly is, and will only even possibly stop when she understands what’s going on.
“Congratulations, Alinua… You’re a Flesh-Shaper…”
There is a character in The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers who could pull off similar survival-type adaptations. His were temporary, and required him to activate his implant to trigger his bio-defenses.
Very curious how she ends up feeling about these adaptations.
Also curious to see how far they end up going. Is she going to end up full mermaid or is it going to stop at like webbing or something
The world slowly fades into clarity again
For Alinua, tied in the merfolk’s den
Anyone knows what they’re saying in panels 1-5?
The bottom one in panel 2 says something about flesh-shaper
The bottom one in panel 3 is “Hello! Can you hear me?”
I am still deciphering the rest.
I would say it’s “Can you understand me”, not hear
Bottom of Panel 2 is something about flesh-shaper
Bottom of Panel 3 is: “Hello! Can you hear me?”
I am still trying to decipher the rest.
Was just revealed on Tumblr. Minor spoilers for upcoming chapters.
https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/788644201528213504/the-auroracord-is-trying-very-hard-and-mostly
Huh. More aquatic adaptations, I guess. Makes me think Life is giving Alinua these adaptations piecemeal issues come up. Can’t breathe underwater? Adapt gills! Can’t hear or see deep underwater? Adapt the eyes and ears to accommodate. Makes me wonder whether she’ll get webbed hands and feet to help with swimming eventually.
It’s very difficult to tell what the mermaid and the Sekrai captain were talking about, but one of them mentioned flesh-shaping, which is… well, illegal because that’s how you make chimeras.
*as issues come up.
Her power is largely spontaneous/instinctual. She lacks any sort of formal training and largely does things “by feel.” I think this is more just how her body reacts to problems like this rather than any direct action by Life. Don’t forget, she’s essentially a stable plague chimera, and it would be entirely in keeping with the way they’re described for them to transform like this in response to environmental stimuli. She’s kind of functioning like Darwin from X-Men: First Class here.
I’m guessing once she’s back up where it’s bright enough that her now-dark-adapted eyes (side note, this explains the merman’s goggles – they’re basically sunglasses for venturing up into the more brightly-lit parts of the ocean) won’t function properly, they’ll transform again into something that will work in bright light. Ditto for her ears once she’s out of the water. The gills I’m not as certain about. If her lungs atrophied to make room for the lungs’ internal structures, she’ll need to do away with the gills and regrow the lungs, but if they’re still fully intact she may be able to keep them (at least until she’s exposed to a gas attack or something). If her limbs do transform to more readily-accommodate swimming, those will probably change back as well once she’s up on land. Well, I say “change back,” but technically everything could just change to a form that works as well as (or even better than) what she had before, if Red wants to take the opportunity to modify Alinua’s character design.
“A human is drowning! I gotta rescue her! Oh wait she’s not drowning actually. Well, that’s illegal. Now I gotta kill her.”
Elf.
The only outward differences between elves and humans are their ears and coloring. The mermaids have ears even more pointy than hers, so they wouldn’t notice that difference, nor would they know enough about non-water dwellers to know that THIS shade of purple is that of an elf while the rest of the color wheel is humans.
TL;DR We know the difference between an elf and a human, but they wouldn’t.
I really think “they wouldn’t notice the difference because they’re even more different” doesn’t make sense. People are very, very good at spotting even subtle differences and sorting others as not only “them” vs “us,” but as “them” vs “different them.” Used almost entirely for racist tropes, but we do spot differences. The merfolk having even pointier ears than elves doesn’t make how much pointier elf-ears are than human-ears disappear. Especially since the difference between elf- and human-ears is much bigger than between elf- and mer-ears.
Its more likely, though still not massively likely, that they just… wouldn’t know about them. Humans are far more common than elves so they may never have met them and, depending on these ones level of education, may never have heard of them either. Some humans have slightly more pointed ears than others, though not elf-pointy, so they may just lump her in with them.
i think its a ”okay so that person just *grew gills* while unconscious, so lets restrain them so that if they’re hostile we have a slight advantage,” as she’s clearly a very powerful mage. its more of a safety precaution than anything else
Please recall that the Chimeric Plague is probably a thing underwater just as much as it is on land – y’know, the nightmarish civilization-destroying magical phenomenon that’s specifically caused by a miraculously talented Life mage mutating people as well as plants and animals? The universally feared curse that kept Alinua in self-imposed exile for the entirety of her life up until meeting Kendall?
Frankly, Alinua’s lucky she’s just tied to a random piece of scenery instead of, like, imprisoned in a concrete bunker with no windows and a squadron of (figuratively) trigger-happy guards watching the only exit. As it is, she’s still probably gonna need to do some serious sweet-talking to convince these people that she’s NOT dangerous to everything in a 12-mile radius.
Well this is interesting!
It seems Alinua is rapidly evolving into a water creature step by step, but only when she physically notices she needs something new.
I wonder what will be next.
I have so many questions! Why is she tied-up? Where are they? Just how well can Alinua swim normally and how much experience does she have in the water?
Also it occurs to me half the group were incapacitated by the boat crash Erin, Dainex and now Alinua, I mean it’s not unexpected but it’s something I can’t help but take stock of.
Specifically the magic-user half. Lion boy, Living Sword, and Battering Ram are fine while the squishy mages aren’t.
This is what it feels like putting on glasses from a nearsighted perspective, yes. Except for the muffled talking.
Maybe that’s more what putting in hearing aids is like for someone partially deaf? Is there anyone here who can confirm or deny?
I’ve got 2 checked off so far, so if anyone’s found any more, please share (pretty sure that each card has the same things on it, just in different orders, so it won’t be fair unless we are all agreed on whether something counts or not)
THE BINGO IS COUNTING FROM THE START OF THIS CHAPTER ONWARDS!
Aahh!! I replied to the wrong thing somehow! Nevermind.
It would depend on the exact mechanism of the deafness. I specifically have severe sensorineural bilateral hearing loss. Basically, the little hairs in both my ears don’t transmit sound properly, it’s not so bad as to require cochlear implants though. Without hearing aids, I can only really hear deeper sounds. Bits and pieces of words. Putting on hearing aids is more a sudden adjustment than a gradual de-muffling.
Ah, ok! That’s interesting
Yep. Can confirm.
Well, except for the darkness. Being nearsighted doesn’t mean that everything fades off into blackness the farther it is away, it’s more like everything’s blurry, like looking through a piece of frosted glass that’s 100% transparent but it still warps the image you’re looking at.
Well, yes. I am aware of that. Alinua is probably adapting to the darkness of the sea floor, as well.
This is exactly what it feels like for a nearsighted person, i had to double check if my contacts were still in when I opened the page lol.
Panels 2 and 3 are roughly what trees look like from across the street without my glasses. If leaves were blue. Just a sea of smudgy color with some strongly discernible outlines. Like, I can tell there’s a tree close by, and the trees behind it are some distance further away, but the fact that there are individual leaves is just something I know academically, not something I’m perceiving.
Most trees have weird spots in them like the glowy eyes that are often brown, but sometimes just the wrong shade of green and I can tell that I’m seeing THROUGH the tree to the underside of leaves on the far side, but I learned that by climbing said trees AFTER getting glasses so I could see those spots more clearly.
wait did her ears just change? And presumably the eyes too, though the art style makes that less visible
We might be able to see it better when the glow fades, like it did with the gills!
yeah the ears changed, they look like the mermaid’s ears now
Oooh the Alinua Hair underwater…!
@CURIOUS AND CURIOUSER AURORA BINGO CARDS
https://myfreebingocards.com/bingo-card-generator/30-free-cards/nc3799u
Oooh! Check it off your bingo cards! Pretty sure this counts as ‘someone gets arrested’!
I’ve got 2 checked off so far, so if anyone’s found any more, please share (pretty sure that each card has the same things on it, just in different orders, so it won’t be fair unless we are all agreed on whether something counts or not)
The bingo is counting from the start of this chapter onwards!
I wonder if she was bridal carried to the arrest … ribcage bone?
As a near-sighted person (and I mean the “can’t-see-my-hand-six-inches-from-my-face” kind of nearsighted), that is indeed what putting on my glasses feels like
Oh, hey, same!! It’s always annoying having to use my treadmill because the phone stand is juuuust far enough away that I can’t really see what’s on it without my glasses, but if I wear them my nose gets all sweaty and bleuch
Or even just “regular print is a blur at 5 ft.” and *really* good glasses.
Can confirm. Glasses do give that, “oh, so *that’s* what that blur is,” feeling. Unless you’re *really* familiar with your immediate surroundings, of course.
Man, I’m sure this won’t do anything strange to her biology and fuck up respiratory system whatsoever, nah uh.
Seriously, how does this effect her lungs? Do they still exist? Will she be able to un-fuck her body when she’s done? How does this effect her soul?
I know this will probably get answered, but still!
Gills dont typically take up as much space as lungs – they’re just a bit below the surface of the gills slits, so there would still be space for her lungs, maybe a bit squashed. There is a fish with both gills and lungs! (The lungfish)
The Life god did the gill thing to keep her alive. I’m guessing, when she returns to air, Life will re-lung-ify her to keep her alive again.
(insert comment here about life, uh, finds a way.)
Life’s actually a Primordial, which is very different to a god!
Like to imagine life’s doing the whole “understanding what i’ve become” thing by just taking notes on alinua
Girl sees a fish for the first time, ooooo, lemme try that, *grows new organs*
Wow imagine Alinua’s perspective of all this, she just wakes up from being unconscious can’t see or hear or even breathe normally than suddenly her ears and eyes magically change and she finds that she’s underwater and tied-up. She is going to have a really well deserved freak out after this. ):
Life: Alinua, what do your elf-eyes see?
Alinua: Jack s**t.
Life: Oh, Sorry! Let me fix that.
Art wise, I love the three-fold disorientation portrayed in the first three panels of Alinua just waking up, in semi-darkness, and with water messing with her hearing; not just dark, but wavy and muffled too, even when fully awake. Panels 4 and 5 use the same muted greyscale from the Falst and Dainix dungeon arc to give the impression of darkness without drawing a black page.
Hmm, two mer-people with distinctly different looks and anatomy. Looking at the Aurora lore scattered about, I’m thinking the one who discovered Alinua is a younger race Merfolk, and the other, presumably her captain, is a water adapted human Sekrai.
Also while browsing said lore, I found one talking about leviathans, and how one creature that bears that name is a massive six-eyed creature made by the twins. … Eh, it’s probably nothing.
Oh boy, Ali’s been captured. At best they might think she’s some wayward mer-ferin with a fancy transformation, but honestly, I see the captain suspecting she may have something to do with Nessie. A surface woman bearing a life mark appears suddenly, scared off the monster, and grows gills; it wouldn’t take many leaps of logic to think she’s a chimera maker responsible for the beast.
Sorry, that’s a really good LOTR joke.
🤣
CARL
Aurora Question #51: What is each characters favourite breakfast food?
For Falst probably plain toast I think he’d just want something simple in the morning.
For Tess for some reason I’m thinking waffles I don’t know why.
Kendal I don’t think would eat breakfast at least not enough to pick any favorites but Vash would like pancakes.
For erin I’m imagining he’d enjoy fried eggs and probably something fancy to go with it like sourdough toast which I assume is fancy.
Alinua I think would enjoy fruit in the morning either raw or as part of a salad.
I’m not sure what Dainix would eat accept it would probably be high in protein.
I think Erin would have coffee and something from his ✨️local creperie✨️ (osp animated reference, anyone?)
Kendal would have something simple, like some granola. According to Red, he’s the worst cook of the lot, and i choose to extend that to just toasting some bread.
Alinua would have a fruit salad, some nuts and… yoghurt, maybe?
Falst: something simple and energising. Toast and jam, maybe?
For Tess, I’m thinking bacon and baked beans
Dainix, as the only one who is actually good at cooking (https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/700763940676911104/out-of-the-current-squad-whos-the-best-cook), would enjoy a wide variety of things, but i feel he would like porridge for some reason.
Oh Erin definitely frequents his local creperie
Yay! It worked!
Aurora had better have creperies, just for this!
After all, we know everyone has one of those!
As the local Erin I can confirm that local creperie and sourdough are both solid options, lol. I freaking love sourdough. And when I’m at home I do eat a fried egg every morning, so I think Erin would also play tower defense with his egg by trying to mop up the yolk with the toast before it landed on the plate.
Wait…wait! In the last panel, Alinua ‘s eyes look like the Collector’s!
i think that might be due to the life magic glow still not having completely fated
Oh huh. They really do, thought Alinua’s are a little brighter, presumably to help with the seeing in the dark.
Deep beneath the waves
The world comes into focus
Restrained by new friends?
Hhhhhmmm. They have tied her to a… a whale rib? Don’t like that. Nope, I do NOT like that for Alinua at all. I had hoped the merfolk would be friendly. Maybe that first one still will be, sort of. That sekrai (?) sure doesn’t look it, though.
That being said, given Alinua’s connection to Life and her tremendous power, I suspect if this were to turn into a fight, it would be quite one-sided in Alinua’s favor.
This definitely is not a fun thing to wake up to. Poor ‘Linua. 🙁 It must feel strange to have parts of her body suddenly changing function and form without warning. At least it’s doing so in a way that helps her stay alive and functional in her environment…
One of those text bubbles is “Hello? Can you understand me?”. Can anyone read the rest?
One is “She [… … … …] gills!” And next to that “[…] I re[membered?] […] flesh shaper.”
Third panel, bottom text: “Hello? Can you understand me?”
Can’t be sure about this but my best guess is:
something something “STRANGER HERE” something
something something “LIFE” something
“CARL”
“SAL” something something “GILLS”
something something “I RECOGNISED ANOTHER FLESH SHAPER” something
something “AWAKE?”
something “I’M WARNING YOU”
“HELLO. CAN YOOU UNDERSTAND ME?”
Okay, I’m going to speculate WILDLY here:
“I can’t believe you brought this stranger here!”
“But she’s a life mage!”
“Carl!”
“Sal, she grew herself gills!”
“She could be useful us; I recognised another flesh-shaper so-”
“Is she awake?”
“Enough, I’m warning you-”
“Hello, can you understand me?”
y’all are a lifesaver for my obsessive need to know EVERYTHING
Disclaimer: This is mostly guesswork. There’s no codex like with the Ancient script, I’m just trying to put things together in my brain, because I ALSO have an obsessive need to know everything.
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/788644201528213504/the-auroracord-is-trying-very-hard-and-mostly
Quite close, actually! Well done!!
Ah, brilliant, thanks for sharing!
Ah, that’s “SHE” not “SAL”.
Good catch, @Rai626
well i was wrong on life not interfering with mutations anymore(if life is the responsible for this) but in my defense:being able to see shit is crucial to survival
AAAH SHES GETTING STUCK UNDERWATER NOOOO
…not by the gills probably but her eyes and ears are now calibrated to work underwater in the deep ocean rather than in air on the surface. If she went back to the surface, her ears might not work and the light could be enough to blind her. *Perhaps,* though, Alinua’s adapted ears and eyes are flexible enough to work in both environments, and if not, they’re likely to change back at the surface given…recent events. But what does all that flesh-shaping do to her SOUL!? And that’s not even touching the major psychological kerfuffle she’s probably about to have, in this potentially VERY hostile situation (side note, I wonder if any society in Aurora goes too far or at least too fast with its laws regarding Life Magic. Probably somewhere). Considering that Alinua could still see *a bit* before the change, increased pressure most likely isn’t an issue. Yet. Any problems with the bends should be problems that the Merfolk and Sekrai experience with equal severity. And Life definitely won’t let Alinua die!
So who triggered both this change and the one in the last page, Life or Alinua? How much did the other party play in the process? How intentional was it!? Those are probably the same questions Alinua has but she’s going to be WAY more catastrophized about it. Especially if some war-hawk has her at spearpoint. This is why patience is a virtue, people.
Okay don’t panic don’t panic don’t PANic DON’t panic DON’T PANIC DON’T PANIC~
normally shapeshifting would cause severe soul damage and probably madness thankfully this is alinua so her shapeshifting is probably harmless to her due to safe shapeshifting being something theorical and alinua being the vessel of literal god
*Patience and empathy. Those need to go hand in hand. Also why did the Mermaid take their armbands off? Also the Sekrai is wearing a nautilus helmet! Are they half-human? I ask because I think full Sekrai are generally fishier and more glowy. I assume Sekrai eyes and ears can work both on land and in water, so hopefully Alinua’s…modifications, I guess, were based off Sekrai rather than Merfolk. I’m still panicking though. Ali’s going to need to be able to actually *choose* what is done with this new power and she might need to learn FAST. Once again, Life is a *bad* communicator. And these sea-people might be pretty terrible listeners at least in this case.
Sekrai vary in human-ness, as the shallower-dwelling ones look more human and have hair, while the deeper dwelling ones are hairless and bioluminescent! Sekrai can go on land, but aren’t very comfortable out of the water.
Life doing an experiment she calls ‘The Shipwrecked Elf of Theseus’
One person got tail; other person got leg. Why leg down in depths?
They’re a Sekrai! Sekrai are water-adapted humans, like the fire-adapted Ignans, and so they still have a basic human body plan. Mefolk, on the other hand, are a whole other thing entirely. They are a Younger Race, created by the Twins after the creation of the Elder Races (humans, elves and Ancients) and they have tails. Sekrai and Merfolk are two unrelated species, but they share an environment and sometimes live in shared communities!
What I think I’m seeing in the blurry speech bubbles:
1: “Who told you-” “-hero-”
2: “-can-” “-Life mage?”
3: “Easy!”
4: “She-” “-gills!”
5: “-I per-” “-[h]er flesh-shaper for-”
6: “[Is she] awake?”
7: “Captain, I’m warning you-”
8: “Hello? Can you [unders]tand me?”
9: “-I’m sorry-” “-but we-”
10: “C[aptain], I told you-”
11: “Just let me-“
Alinua mermaid tf arc??
Why’s the Captain got legs?
She’s just drawn that way.
See my response to @Steamweed! Hope this helps! 🙂
Thank you, I wasn’t sure of the difference between Sekrai and mermaids. I think its super cool of Red to make multiple types of underwater sea creatures. Now how to become one…
I love how much life is just like “oh, here, let me fix that for you dear”
Excuse me. Do you tie everyone you meet to a pole like a sacrifice?
Can you not?
to be fair i doubt everyone they meet is pulling theoretically impossible magical feats while unconcious
Oh Ali got night vision and a perscription all in one
Uhh, yeah basically (ngl one of my funnest memories of working in a daycare was trying to explain my nearsightedness to preschoolers, like “when I take off my glasses the world gets fuzzy. I can see clearly up to here *sticks hand out to show clear sight limit*, and after that things get more and more blurry. I can see all of you just fine, but don’t try asking me to read one of the signs on the other side of the classroom because things that far away are just big colorful blobs”)
I once described how nearsighted I was by taking off my glasses and pointing at the far side of the room.
“You see that poster over there?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t.”
the dialogue bubble effects at the top are SOOOOOOOO SOSOSO COOL!!
Huh, I wonder how long it’ll take Alinua to realize ‘hey wait a minute, i’m not drowning!’
Oooooh it’s the Chimeric Plague working as intended.
The first child to have it totally got THEMSELVES mutated.
So Alinua getting herself mutated was always on the table.
YES THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT GLASSES DO
ooh life magic shapeshifting
I really hope this tied up situation is out of an abundance of caution, and these folks turn out to be nice people. They seem cool!
They tied her to a random big fish ribcage bone. So they probably don’t have any dedicated prison.
To be fair, she’d probably have floated away if not tied down xD
Yeah, and also the fact that the first mermaid’s immediate reaction was to try and help her before she started glowing and doing weird shit. They may or may not (probably not) know about the Chimeric Plague, but they’re probably familiar enough with Life Magic in general to expect something like that if it’s acting weirdly.
life magic is dangerous and alinua is espontaneously doing something that experienced mages considered only theoretical, tying her down is a reasonable reaction
“Life patching in progress. Installed updates thus far:
Update 1: Underwater Breathing, model Gills
Update 2: Underwater thermal regulation
Update 3: Underwater Ears
Update 4: Underwater Eyes”
More like blinking some gunk out of your eye and everything is suddenly slightly further away.
That looks more like when I switch a tablet or monitor to nighttime mode (minus the pain experienced prior to activating it.)
Can confirm this is what glasses do.
…If Kendal hears about her being held prisoner by fish people he will jump down there holding his breath to get her out without a second thought. His bones are metal, he’ll sink easily enough.
Nearsighted and I can confirm this is exactly what it’s like.
Spontaneous mermaidification.
Counter analogy, from personal experience:
This is what it’s like to be near-sighted, _lose_ your heavy prescription glasses, panic, stumble into an optometrists you’ve never seen before, agree hazily to an upsell, and have the optometrist help you put in heavy-prescription contact lenses for the first time.
What the fuck–oh shit I can see–still what the fuck, why do my eyeballs feel weird–why do my hands look weird–there’s no way quarters have always been that big.
*NOT a comment on the actual proportions in the art, just the deeply bewildered wide-eyed stare in that last panel. That is the stare of someone whose eyeshape just changed having to reprocess reality and I feel it in my heart.
At-will (or possibly Life’s will) mutation/shapeshifting? She’s halfway to a Sekrai at this point! Ohhh, Falst’s going to be so jealous. Though, probably is a “Life’s chosen” exclusive power, and would likely not work on him anyways. At this point, I wonder if he’d still take the option of becoming human if it was indeed possible?
I think he’s fine how he is right now, mostly.
safe shapeshifting is something that has been theorized in the aurora world to be possible with life magic, however no one really experiments a lot of with life magic because life magic is dangerous and can fuck you up,i think falst will be fine(especially now because he has frends) but erin in the other hand?his reaction will be priceless
The way Red drew the distorted underwater scene is so good!
I know she won’t now because people are actively looking at her, but couldn’t she just swim up. And of the tooth? It even gets narrower at the top.
Good point! XD
Maybe there’s a hook at the back to tie the rope to or something
Can confirm, this is exactly what it feels like to put on your glasses in the morning.
As a nearsighted person can confirm this is exactly what putting on glasses feels like.
As a shortsighted person who just had a eyesight test and new prescription recently, I can confirm this is exactly what it’s like
Alinua’s hair is SO GOSH DARN FLUFFY UNDERWATER!!!
TL;DR: Kidnapped by mermaids.
How does Alinua being tied up work underwater? Couldn’t she just swim 5 feet up and slip her binds over that spike/rib or whatever it is?
I imagine her limbs are restrained in a way that prevents that kind of coordination, unless she’s VERY good at shuffling up a smooth vertical surface backwards without the use of her hands.
Noticed a neat little detail. The green glowy strands that stream off of Alinua when she does magic act different underwater. Before I thought they acted like like a gas or light. In air they just kinda burst into the air around her. But in water they are more like a liquid that is lighter than the surrounding water, or a stream of bubbles. That’s neat!
I’m WET, I’m COLD, THERES A HUNDRED AND FOUR DAYS–
“I don’t have my glasses, you’ll have to speak up!”
I was so sleepy i thought the text was actually blurry and tried to open my eyes more