Name – Tika

Age- 23

Gender- Female

Backstory – Ever since she can remember, there's been strange, unnatural items in the water. The elders would talk of when the water was clean and it sounded like paradise. Tika knows the items come the land walkers, but she's never seen one and she doesn't particularly want to.

Sometimes there's treasure in the debris however; she once found a strange knife not made of bone or shell, with perfectly smooth edges and a wicked point. She was young and overconfident, searching out the biggest thing she could find to test it on. She quickly lost her new knife in the side of a shark and gained a scar instead. Tika is now quick to examine anything unnatural in the hopes of finding something similar to that amazing knife in the future.

Personality – Playful and curious, Tika often got into trouble when she was younger. Even now, she can seem rather childish at times despite the hardships the pod has been facing as of late. This could potentially annoy more serious individuals, which can be exacerbated during the times when her brain is slow to interpret the emotions of others.

Calm in most situations, it takes a lot to anger her. If you've managed to get on her bad side, you should watch your back; Tika is a huge fan of revenge and has been known to hold grudges for a very long time. However, if you apologize and are sincere or if it was a misunderstanding all along, even grudges that have been held for years easily evaporate to be replaced with forgiveness. At least, that's what Tika likes to tell herself...

Appearance- Measuring five feet and six inches from head to fluke, Tika is perfectly average in size. Her skin is sleek and a deep black with a white belly and eye spots, resembling the patterning of an orca. A large patch of misshapen and discolored skin mars her left hip, a trophy from her reckless youth. Her eyes, a dark brown, often seem as deep as the ocean itself.

When she was born, Tika had a thin, fuzzy layer of vestigial hair that quickly fell away in the coming weeks. Today, she doesn't have a single hair on her body and she's quite happy about it. Those individuals that reach adulthood and retain such a hindering attachment will often shave it away; Tika is glad she doesn't have to deal with that. She can't imagine why anyone would keep their hair either, since it creates drag when swimming. Then again, not everyone has a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Talents/Skills - Normal hunting patterns have become difficult to execute due to declining prey levels, leading to some individuals to get creative. Tika has taken up what the elders consider an extremely dangerous hunting method: cutting the nets of landwalkers and stealing their catch. She risks getting caught in the nets herself, so she's learned to pick out the best spot to cut to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. She's also very capable when it comes to disabling traps and collecting the crustaceans within.

While most mers prefer the spear, Tika enjoys simple knives and close combat. Her current knife is a simple sharpened stone piece with a driftwood handle. If you get in a fight with her, don't think it's over if you manage to disarm the knife; her teeth are just as deadly!

Strengths/Weaknesses – A smart individual, Tika learns things pretty quickly... as long as she thinks they're interesting, otherwise she couldn't be bothered. This has led to her seeming ignorant on things that others view as common sense.

Tika is very fond of knives; they're like large handheld teeth! She knows the best place to stab to kill prey quickly or simply cause enough pain to get an enemy to retreat. However, now she's obsessed with potentially finding a landwalker knife like the one she once found when she was young, leading her to investigate potentially dangerous areas on even the slightest chance that she'll be successful.

Sometimes Tika just.... spaces out. Her mind becomes suddenly blank and it takes a moment to come back. While she's out of it, it's very difficult to process things and she'll sometimes go on autopilot. It never lasts long and most people rarely notice, but it's led to some embarrassing moments. She's low key terrified it will happen during a life or death situation...

Generally, Tika thinks she's pretty average when it comes to reading emotions. However, she's aware that sometimes it just fails to process for her. She wont realize it until later or until someone points it out to her. This happens most often when she tries to talk to someone about something she finds interesting. She'll go on and on about it, not realizing the other person is annoyed.

Note: Some of her stuff is based on my own personal Autism things

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Name –
Kekoa

Age-
25 Years Old

Gender-
Male

Backstory –
Deep, open oceans are what Kekoa has always known, up until he joined a rag-tag pod of various merfolk. During his youth he mostly traveled in various areas near Hawaii, close to shallow waters where he was born. There he learned to survive and interact with various species and merfolk. He was unlucky to venture into territories of merfolk that did not welcome visitors passing by, mostly species of bachelor males that would claim territories to attract mates. Various battle scars (both from merfolk and predators) and rough play between other juvenile's gave him the experience he needed to survive such harsh environments. One encounter left him a horrible mess, he had been swimming through a deep channel of rock and reef when a great white had ambushed him from below. It was able to catch him by surprise, wrapping it's powerful jaws around a chunk of his tail and slamming him to the rock. Kekoa was able to escape after a couple jabs into its eyes with his claws, but he was left visible shaken and wounded. It has been a couple years now since the event and he sports a large bite scar from the traumatizing encounter.

Personality –
Even though the species he is based off of are usually solitary beings, he found himself traveling alongside a rag-tag pod of individuals. Because of his more lone-wolf nature he can act domineering and 'rebel' from decisions he does not want to follow. He is pretty self-sustaining as well, mostly due to his past years living alone to fend for himself. Meeting new individuals can be in other words, tense, it has been hard to stuff down his instincts to be cautious and maybe even avoiding new individuals. Kekoa however, cares deeply to the ones he keeps close and will do what he can to care for them, even if he does screw up at times with his aggression. He can exhibit dog-like behavior when his interest is piqued: though cautious and stubborn to the unknown. Like most Oceanic Whitetip's he is a very opportunistic predator exploiting any resources that are available to him. He is competitive and when it comes to it, can even be very territorial, it is hard to have him back down from a challenge leaving him to cause risk to himself or others.

Appearance-
Kekoa's upper half resembles a more humanistic appearance, he has a reasonable amount of muscle strung about his body, however he holds a lot more strength than at first glance. Kekoa has relatively squared shoulders, a deep collar bone and a sturdy body structure. He has a small mass of dark brown short yet curly hair atop his head, he keeps it until it becomes a nuisance to him, cutting it away from his eyes and shortening it when needed. His eyes are a pitch black, almost swallowing the rest of his sclera. Like most underwater species he has a nictitating membrane in his eyes, basically a third eyelid to keep away debris and injury. However, due to his eyes being a pitch black, they cannot see as easily in the daytime as he can at night, resorting to electroreceptors along his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, appearing like freckles on his skin. Due to a more carnivorous diet, his lateral incisors and canines are broad with entirely serrated edges, fang-like in appearance. He has fashioned make-shift bracelets from old fishing net and other land-walker items that found their demise on the bottom of the sea floor, he adds a bracelet for every new place he visits or any memorable event(s). He currently has three bracelets on his left arm and two on his right.
Kekoa's body is similar to a Oceanic Whitetip Shark, colored a brownish blue upon his body and splashes of solid white on his underbelly. His rounded fins (dorsal, pectoral, pelvic, and caudal) are mottled white on the tips. He is considered a medium-sized requiem shark. His tail is strung with muscle, 11 ft from the dorsal fin upon his back to the tip of his caudal fins. He weighs in around 300 Ibs minimum, most of the weight coming from the muscle in his tail. Unfortunately due to his size he is slow-moving, definitely not a fast swimmer but is capable of bursts of speed when threatened. Kekoa has long, widely spread pectoral fins on what would be considered his hips, used to keep him balanced and turn in quick movements. Gills rest upon the sides of his ribs, they are unfortunately vulnerable to attack. Scattering of various aged bite marks and scars litter his body, mostly his tail, signs of hostile merfolk deciding they did not like a intruder in their territory when he was young.

Talents/Skills-
Declining prey rates haven't affected this predator as harshly as it has others. Kekoa is a very opportunistic predator and exploits resources around him to obtain a easy meal. in his youth he even risked detection by stalking land-walker fishing boats, stealing injured fish or creatures that slip free from the nets. He is a very exceptional craftier as well, skilled with weaving old nets and other miscellaneous materials to become useful for the pod. He is a peek predator during the night, able to blend and glide through the dark waters to ambush, using his electrorecptors to sense prey in near vicinity and his sense of smell heightens. He is also skilled with his teeth and claws, preferring to use more primal methods in his attacks, rushing in before retreating a safe distance, rinse and repeat till he tires out his opponent.

Strengths/Weaknesses –
Kekoa is a very strong individual, able to use his weight and strength to his advantage during battle. His colors give him a advantage in open ocean able to blend into the blue ocean water, giving him a advantage during hunts. Like most shark species, he has electroreceptors, these sensory organs help him sense electric fields in the water as well as locate prey hidden in the sand. Due to Kekoa being strictly carnivorous, it can be both a strength and weakness, it leaves more vegetation for others but when prey is hard to find it can be a challenge. His size can be an advantage but it slows him down, his species is slow-moving and known for short bursts of speed. His bracelets can also hinder his movements if not careful. The light affects Kekoa, unable to see to well during the daytime however at night he is a highly skilled predator. His size can keep him from defending attacks against his more vulnerable spots such as his underbelly, tail end, and gills, if not quick enough to act beforehand.

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(This is a character I already have, if anything is too unrealistic I can modify it, just PM me please)

Name – Nanuq

Age- 22

Gender- Female

Backstory –
Nanuq was born into a small family group. The group consisted of her mother, father, and her father's sister. They weren't the kindest souls but that's life isn't it? As a child, she had a twin sister named Nukka. The two were much nicer to each other than any of their family group was to them, but Nukka was small. Nanuq's mother told her it was her fault that her sister was small and sickly. She was always told that when Nanuq and Nukka were in the womb, that Nanuq was greedy and took all the life she could get so Nukka was left with only scraps.
This crushed Nanuq, and she felt terrible for her sister, but Nukka still was loyal to her and more than happy to be with her.
On the 10th year since their birth, Nanuq and Nukka agreed they would run away together, and no longer live in their family group. So on one of their hunting outings, as their elder's stalked to an injured waterbird, Nanuq and Nukka made a run for it, darting through glacier foots and stopping only when they reached the end of the ice shelf. The two were ecstatic, they were free! They knew only the migration path to the south, and that was where they were heading.
Along the way, the two found themselves swimming under a dark mass, seeing as they had been traveling almost non-stop for what seemed like days, they both believed the mass to be a small iceburg. They shot up from the waters, calculating carefully the angle to emerge that would lead for the easiest mounting of the mass, but as they breeched the waters surface, they saw a mass of colorful objects entangled together. They landed harshly on the mass, they landed on a rough patch of shiny metal half-loops, and thread that was entangled with the colorful collection of waste. Their weight seemed to have been held up by the tile though, and in a moment of stupidity, they decided the strange configuration was safe enough. This was proven wrong, however, when the mass began to fall apart, at first they didn't notice- the thread they had landed on sunk slightly every few seconds, and without much time passing, the realized it was taking them with it. The two began to freak out, trying to get off the mass, but the more they moved the more the thread became entangled around them. Nanuq realized this and tried to stop her sister's thrashing as they began to sink under the water. Nukka was terrified, and with each thrashing of her tail or arms, the thread only entangled them more, and then the sickle shaped metal began dig into their flesh. Nanuq's heart raced as the sickles pierced her shoulders, arms, and torso, she was less tangled however, and with a rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins, she ripped the hooks out and managed to free herself from the line. She then tried to help free her sibling, but the hooks had pierced her so deeply that it was already too late. Nanuq tried to free her dieing sister to no avail, she watched as the body sank down to the depths below.
She circled the same area for hours in mourning before continuing south.
Now, at the age of 22, she has migrated rather frequently on her own, every year the amount of those cursed islands and their size only grows larger. She loathes the damned things, and the men that create them. Nanuq has grown colder over the years, and has been in solitude for nearly the entire time, save a lost mate years ago whom she wasn't too fond of to begin with. She frequently wanders beyond her traditional stomping grounds, traveling further south with every migration, just to see the world.

Personality –
Nanuq is generally a solitary being and doesn't take to others very well, the death of her sister 12 years before caused her to become more withdrawn and loathsome. She isn't very confrontational and would rather hide or flee than face another, though that doesn't mean she won't fight if she has to.
Nanuq doesn't want to get close to others solely because she doesn't want to lose those close to her, but if someone were to crack her shell, they may find that she is quite playful and social. She wishes she could have a hunting partner again but isn't sure she can really let that happen again.
Nanuq is a naturally curious creature, but experience has also made her very cautious of her surroundings. She has an affinity for learning and paving new ways to do things, she is fairly intelligent. When Nanuq is on her own she tends to study the creatures around her and keeps mental notes of all the creatures she comes across.

Appearance-

Nanuq is based off of a leopard seal. Her lower half is a base shade of silvery-grey with white countershading on her underside and dark, patchy marks on her top. She is quite doe-eyed with chocolate brown irises so large they leave little white to be seen. Her upper part is that same silver-white countershading, but the thicker dark grey marks thin out over her upper body into almost freckles. Her face is littered with these small grey freckles and her lips are an ombre of that same color into a dark burgundy color in the center. She has a thick patch of hair on her head, it goes just down to her chin and flows in wisps under the water. Her mouth is lined with sharp teeth, conical towards the front, and three pronged in the back, good for filtering krill. Her mouth itself is somewhat wider than what would seem normal, and curls upwards at the corners almost as if she were smiling slightly.
Nanuq is a rather large individual, 7 feet long. She isn't too thin, but not fat either, a simple middle ground with a more feminine appearance. Her skin is littered with thick, messy slashes from being tangled in the line with her sibling.
About 3 years ago, she took the opportunity to kill a polar bear cub who had tried to go for a swim on it's own. She fashioned the creatures skin into a cloak of sorts, using its sinew and a bone needle to sew the eyes shut, and crafted a shotty button from the bears toe-joint, sewing it onto the top of one paw, she cut a small hole in the other, allowing for the paws to be buttoned together and to wear the head as a hood, it works well for keeping extra warmth, but it does cause tremendous drag.

Talents/Skills-

Nanuq is a rather skilled hunter, even taking to hunting man if she has the opportunity. Though she spends most of her time filtering krill, especially with the fish and penguin population dwindling. She isn't insanely talented when it comes to craftmanship, but she's okay at it. She likes to stick to the old fashioned way of hunting, but will occasionally use a knife.
She is a strong swimmer, can swim for days on end and is slightly better adapted to swimming outside her native range than others of her kind. Nanuq isn't too good nor bad at anything, she's just kind of a jack of all trades, maybe the a little worse at making use of human trash than others, but that's about it.

Strengths/Weaknesses –

As stated above, Nanuq isn't too outgoing in any categories. She is more adaptable than her base species. She is a strong swimmer, has swam for days with almost no breaks. Probably the worst weakness for her, is she is incredibly cautious of just about everyone and everything that she deems suspicious. Other than that would be she does suffer mild PTSD from her experience with her sister, but other than that she doesn't have many real strengths nor weaknesses.

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Name – Narti

Age- 21

Gender- Female

Backstory –
Used to the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, Narti and her pod are forced to relocate due to the sudden lack of food, due to the warmth in the water rising. The phytoplankton population is decreasing, causing food sources to dwindle. The pod becomes split up on their journey, leaving Narti alone with one of the young, a weak male named Yorak. They hope to find shelter in a new pod, one that will accept them with kindness, but their luck is scarce. The merfolk don't want to accept different species, and are very wary of new threats. After a year of search, they are accepted into a small pod of outcasts. She must adapt to life in this new territory, with different food sources, and more threats.

Personality –
Ever since she reached maturity, Narti knew her path was with the young. She had always felt a strong need to protect them. She is very nurturing, but a bit of an outcast. She'd rather spend her time playing with and watching over the young then socializing with merfolk her age. She becomes incredibly protective when the young are in danger, and will not let any creature harm them. Outside of her love for the young, she likes to help the merfolk get better. Being in a pod of outcasts means more injuries, more threats. Many of the hunters and protectors come back with wounds, large or small. She takes it upon herself to heal them, with the ancient techniques from her old pod. Although she used to be much more daring and curious, her journey has caused her to weather herself down to be more serious. Underneath her serious exterior is a sweet, adventurous mermaid. She feels as though she must not have fun, since she has duties to attend to.

Appearance-
Narti's appearance is closer to humans, while her body is covered in gray and white scales to help her camouflage in the Southern Ocean. Due to the change in temperature, her species has been slowly adapting to survive in warmer water since the 1950s, when the change started. She is carnivorous, with large sharp teeth and sharp claws. Her long tail has various fins, and she uses her large tail fin to attack and protect herself. She has chin length dark hair, which is regularly cut in order to maintain easy movement, and also to hinder being caught. Her eyes are almost black, and like sharks, she has ocular adnexae around the eyes but never closes them entirely. She has a large scar on her tail from when she protected the young from a shark, trying to get an easy meal. The scar is a bite mark, and a chunk of the tail was removed from the shark. Although her upper half is rather short, her tail is around 9 feet long, and is incredibly strong. Her body is feminine, and she is a bit on the thin side due to lack of food.
Talents/Skills-
Narti is skilled in healing, and most in her pod come to her for help when injured or sick. She uses old techniques, passed on from her ancestors to heal. She is a strong swimmer, and is able to herd multiple young to follow her with the flick of her tail. Although the young are usually rebellious and have a hard time listening, she manages to get them to listen to her. She enjoys going up to shore to watch the humans, learning new things from them. She once saw a human with a missing arm, and in place of it was a fake one. She practices making these, in hopes of figuring out how to help a member of her pod who is missing one of his tail fins. Although she doesn't hunt, she crafts the spears used for hunting, and she is working on making nets for fish like humans use, but is still unsuccessful due to the weakness of seaweed.

Strengths/Weaknesses –
Due to her smaller size, Narti can hide from swim much faster than larger merfolk. Her long tail is slender and made to move. A disadvantage to her size is the fact that it makes her much weaker than others. She has a hard time defending herself to larger predators, and due to this she normally travels with Yorak, the male young from her pod. He is much larger, even though he is only 15. Females in her species are very small, and are normally caretakers and healers. Her color is not very useful for her new home, and due to this she easily stands out against the bright foliage and coral.

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Name – Katherine (prefers to go by Katie)

Age- 24

Gender- Female

Backstory – As the waterfront area of Washigtin State and the Chilly waters of the Puget Soud get noisier, It's becoming harder and harder for Katie and her pod to hear each other, a problem the Southern Resident Killer Whales are facing as well. The water is becoming more polluted, dirty and noisy, while the dry land is becoming more and more populated. Katie's pod has always traveled with the J,K, and L pods of the Southern Resident Killer Whales, and they're becoming saddened by the drop in numbers. There used to be more than a hundred, but now there are only seventy-three. The seventy-three that are still alive are protected fiercely by Katie and her pod, but the threat isn't from the outside, it's from the inside. With the chemicals that the salmon have injested their whole lives, and the mother whales who have eaten the chemical full salmon, the babies who drink the mothers milk get a chemical smoothie from the get go, never having a chance to avoid it. The de creasing salmon numbers aren't helping either. With less and less salmon, the whales can't get the nourishment that is necessary to survive. With the births of L124 and J56, Katie's Pod celebrated, only to mourn the deaths of J17 Princess Angeline, K25 Scoter, and L84 Nyssa. Katie's pod is good friends with the pod that protects the Northern Resident Killer Whales that inhabit the British Colombian waters. Katie's pod always accepts new members and is a walcoming one. Katie's mother and Father died of old age and were buried at the bottom of the Puget Sound.

Personality – Katie is a loving and protective female who would do anything to protect the Southern Resident Killer Whales and keep them from harm, even at the cost of her life. She is smart and cunning and also manages to be forgetful at the same time. She is playful and can usually be found playing with the youngsters, both Killer Whale and Mer. She also is good at comforting others, making it her dutie to stay with those who've lost family and try to make them feel better. She loves children and Calfs and hopes to eventually have children of her own. For now though, she's content to watch over the Calfs and Children of others.

Appearance- All of the Protector pods are patterned like the whales they Protect. The Southern and Northern Resident Protectors have sleek black tails and body's that sport the markings of the Resident Killer Whales, white undersides, silver saddle patches under their dorsal fins and white eye patches above their eyes. Female dorsal fins are curved towards their tail she and have rounded tips and are usually about three feet in height while Male dorsal fins are about six feet in height and go straight (or relatively straight) up wards towards the sky. Male Dorsal fins can be ripply (like J1 Ruffles) dorsal fin of straight as an arrow.

Katie in specific has a curved dorsal fin that is three feet tall and has a notch at the middle of it that she earned as a child from a fight. Her saddle patch is a closed one that twists up and hooks over to point back to her tail.

Talents/Skills- Katie is a natural leader and teaches the yong (both mer and Orca) how to hunt and survive in the noisy and dangerous waters they live in. She is also a good hunter, constantly hunting for the rest of the met pod and for the Orcas a well. She has learned the three dialects of the J,K, and L pods and is fluent in all three. She also knows a little of the Northern resident Dialect and uses it to speak to the Protectors of the Northern resodents. She is the leader of the Mer pod and the helper and key tie to the orca Pods. Everyone's agrees that she is the most trusted by the orcas and the most loved.

Strengths/Weaknesses- Due to her closeness with the whales, Katie is fast and strong, able to keep up with the fastest of the hunts. She also is the most trusted, the whales and met alike often coming to her for help. She has a keen eye and is able to spot even the smallest of the salmon. She is Claustrophobic though and had troubles getting into tight places due to said claustrophobia

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