A WIP for the merfolk au I’m working on! I decided to make Echo a war veteran who’s retired on the shores of Lake Superior. He fishes for a hobby, despite his disability, and also spends a lot of his time removing illegal gill nets/fish traps and abandoned fishing gear from his area. He has made friends with a shoal of the lake’s merfolk who spend their time doing similar work to help preserve the native species they herd.
I know it’s a little hard to tell, but this is how I think Omega’s introduction to the Batch will go: Echo comes across her caught in an illegal net, and wants to free her. But she certainly doesn’t make it easy! Although merfolk aren’t a secret in this au, there is animosity between humans and merfolk because the merfolk aren’t afraid to sabotage humans who treat their home waters disrespectfully. So there’s not a whole lot of trust between the two worlds. Omega doesn’t know Echo isn’t the owner for the net she was caught in, and it’s pretty scary being all tangled up like that! Echo’s hand will be fine. Though he’ll have a nice scar to remember the kid by XD
I’ve seen a lot of mermaid au’s where the characters are sea creatures. Freshwater fish often get overlooked. Which is a shame! There are a lot of really cool freshwater species, and I think they should get more love in these au’s! Last year for MerMay I designed a red-finned catfish Hunter mer, and this is kinda a continuation of that idea! I’ve got a lot of plans for this au, so stay tuned if you like it!!