Merana Little

"let the oceans take my eyes, my breath, and my dreams"

- toss me to sea and let me sink

Merana Little, legally named Merana Shenqing Ci [they/them], is a 2015-introduced original character, theatre enthusiast, and aspiring designer. They are destined to be the next Rusalka from the opera Rusalka by Antonín Leopold Dvořák. They are currently attending their Second Year (otherwise known as Legacy Year) at Ever After High.

A child of saltwater, a descendant of shuǐ guǐ, in the role of a freshwater nymph condemned to the bottom of the lake; Merana balances identities like checks: constantly, anxiously, begrudgingly.

With Death at their shoulder

Growing up with the guarantee that Death was at their shoulder, Merana fears the unknown and the undecided.

the unknown, fears what isn't guaranteed, and refuses to make a choice to be happy, or to not.

Irrational as it is, Merana finds romance in despair and trades what is the right choice for what is a momentary distraction. At times they can be overzealous in their aspirations, hungry for whatever accomplishment they can get before their early demise. Because of this, Merana is simultaneously hopelessly idealistic with self-standards, and distrustful of what the future will bring.

Even though Merana worries each new day, most notably for their identity and their future, they hold themself nonchalantly, preferring to cry into their covers. For the time being, they grace themselves with a cover of mirthful light and sharp wit, lovely light waves hiding troubled waters. And though Merana wishes they were not so uncertain all the time, not so selfish and unwilling to accept, they cannot find it within themselves to break from their reverie.

Personality
Merely what appears to be yet another Little Mermaid variant in the grand scheme of things, Merana worries for her sense of identity and the pressure of Destiny and Co. Among dozens of other fated-to-die water-themed teens, she feels as if taking on a destiny has caused her to change greatly from who she was, and who she wants to be. She feels counterfeit, like a shadow of the real Merana, like her purpose is obsolete. However, a substantial fear of failure still seems real enough apparently. Merana has an obsession with self-improvement, and desires success, whatever that may entail.
 * notes for the future, streamline later, current personality will still be canon until i actually do the rewrite
 * expressive, sentimental, sensitive, feels too much! giddy and skittish and worried. sad + anxious because school.
 * easily embarassed (lil bit prideful), thinks every critique is a stab at their worth as a person.
 * wants a weird balance of not being in the spotlight but still being praised. preens at compliments, validation, cause childhood makes them desperate for attention wahoo
 * easily irritated, wants everyone to know that theyre irritated, but doesnt want to be called out for it. bit pretentious and hypocritical. judges everyone for their incompetence but that's their exasperation with the world getting bottled up and them projecting + inferiority complex.
 * overthinks, bites off more than they can take, idealistic in that way. never gets to doing whatever they plan, and so feel guilty and inferior.
 * both resents + is afraid of the future. super pissed at the world and how their fate is in limbo (are they going to die? what to do now, that they won't? theyve prepared their entire life to die) and also just not. a fan of commiting to big decisions, but feels like they have to.
 * ALSO just wants someone to blame lmao, will have to blame yourself if you make the wrong decision
 * rusalka takes a chance and ends up so much worse. merana will not take those chances.
 * loves the beauty of the world and of existence, but also hates its duality? people can be so vile, nothing is pretty.
 * this edit is not important just. strong yearning to be more connected to their heritage.
 * life revolves around theatre a lot more (no longer plays the sax rip but theyre a cool erhu-ist now lets goooo)

There is a clear divide between the kind of person Merana aspires to be and who she is with her guard down. Growing up consuming media featuring particularly jaded lone wolves made Merana fall in love with a persona she has built to fit herself into. The prodigy distant from everyone else, the cynic pulling badassery out of their perfectly written and edited character arcs, and someone who she should aspire to be. Her romantic nature combined with her want of admiration and attention has led her to subconsciously try and fit into the role better, even forcing herself to put up the facade. And over the years, it has come more and more naturally to her.

The identity Merana strives to be half her waking moments is wry, remarking on daily incidents with oh-so-seemingly blasé comments, handling everything life throws at them with cheek, dramatic flair, and morbid humor. She excels in all areas, garnering praise and trust from her elders, inspiring awe in her peers, while treating the matter as if it was not enough. She must raise her eyebrows at the most opportune moments, scoff and murmur, half-lidded eyes bearing boredom and absolute superiority, win all arguments and always have a snappy one-liner ready. And, exist as if personal lighting, make-up, sound, and wardrobe crews were with her at all times.

Very much so not this persona she exhibits, Merana is uncomfortably aware that she's changing her behavior to put on this cold and harsh front. And though being true to herself and having people genuinely admire her is somewhat of a goal, Merana enjoys the feeling of being superior, this passive-aggressiveness, and meanness because she's a frustrated teenager. As you would expect, the harshness of this persona has seeped into Merana and incorporated itself into her personality.

Merana, when she is not trying to embody a TV Tropes page, is expressive to a large degree. Usually, the heart on her sleeve isn't covered with a leather jacket. She's easily excitable at the mention of her interests, easily frustrated when she is disrupted, and all too easily nervous when faced with just about anything. Through smiles and narrowed eyes and movement and energy and irritated huffs, Merana lets herself crack open a cold bottled emotion.

However, her issues with self-image and identity are also noticeably apparent with the loss of her pretense. Merana craves attention and praise, she idealizes being put on a pedestal, and she becomes desperate when there's a noticeable lack of validation. There have been many points in time where Merana had deliberately manipulated other people into supplying praise.

Merana, having been awarded a prestigious destiny because of hard work, glamorizes high self-standards. By nature she is an over-achiever, eager to improve and with no shortage of a telltale perfectionist attitude. However, she often pushes this to the extreme, wanting to better her skills so much that she gets overwhelmed with what she perceives as the quota. Not to mention, she has such high standards for herself, disguising them as expectations of others, that she becomes unhealthily obsessed with her work.

After competing with others for so long, Merana developed the mindset that if she were not up to par, whatever that may be, she would fail, whatever that may be. Her feelings of helplessness and dependency when she was younger were self-interpreted as weaknesses, consequently she started feeling like she was weak. To deal with this, she finds comfort in success, usually in academics, subconsciously trying to find peace through attention.

She also tends to overthink anything and everything, getting nervous and fussing over the smallest details. Partly because of her ever-embellishing nature and partly because she's kind of pretentious. Because she gravitates towards much too grandiose ideas for simple situations, she ends up running herself exhausted. Merana has bouts of laziness where she indulges in her idealist tendencies and writes a whole future in her head.

Merana's self-consciousness and easy embarrassment also rears its ugly head in her pride. For all she pretends, Merana is actually really sensitive to criticism and insults, and being aware of that piles shame and guilt onto her ego. She tells herself that as an aspiring composer, acceptance of criticism is an important skill, and yet tears form every time someone raises their voice at her.

The grand culmination of all this overthinking, pretentiousness, and perfectionism is a very high-strung student. Merana lets things get to her way too easily, and can lash out at the people around her when even something small happens. It's especially difficult to deal with when you're already attending a school that is currently contemplating the validity of a widely-accepted metaphysical law. Thus, Merana can come off as bossy, self-centered, and too invested in this group project like it's not big of a deal wth clam down

To wrap up, Merana's just a nervous kid who tries really hard to be cool. Although she puts on a disinterested front, she's quite emotional and more affected by things than she lets on. Part of her dreams big and part of her wonders why she bothers, when she might not even live to try. We can only hope she'll find the choice that makes her happy.

Human Form
Merana is an androgynous teenager of Chinese descent. They're taller than average with a light, warm complexion and a slightly darker dorsal side due to their aquatic heritage (predators will have this coloration pattern in order to camouflage themselves). They stand at 5'7" (170 cm), have somewhat broad shoulders that they occasionally showcase with posture that isn't terrible, and the god-given proportions of long legs.



Their build cannot be considered athletic at all, despite how much physical activity they do. No upper body strength! Merana has small, delicate hands that are soft and warm and perfect for someone to hold (too bad nobody dOES) and a habit of biting their fingernails. No boobs because fish aren't mammals.

Their face is rather round, retaining baby fat. When crying, respiring anaerobically, cold, or a mixture of all three, they get really rosy. Merana has a slightly flatter nose, average eyebrows, and lips that usually have some sort of balm on them due to their dryness. They have two small birthmarks dotted on their right cheek.

Merana has teeth problems galore! They had a lot of extra teeth when they were young (it's a shark-knock life), and needed to get them pulled out. Then there was the misaligned bite, which should be fixed but isn't whyyyyy. They haven't gotten their wisdom teeth removed yet so they're slightly antsy.
 * Also, currently Merana needs braces because their bite is misaligned again. They don't want braces, for a multitude of reasons.

Their eyes are orange, with bright, almost glowing highlights. Sometimes they dull to black with small flecks of orange instead. Upon close inspection the iris resembles a fishbowl filled with inky water sloshing about. They are large, often making Merana appear surprised, and framed with long dark lashes. Merana's eyes have very standout waterlines.

For pretty much all their life, Merana has had a short bob, with cute blunt bangs as a kid, later becoming an emo side part and a sloping trim. Recently though, they've cut it even shorter, trimming it into something fluffy and asymmetrical. They've also dyed it in a black to turquoise ombre, leaving natural roots. With a lot of hair care, their hair has fortunately stayed healthy.

Merana also has several piercings: the usual two lobes and an industrial on their right ear. They really enjoy finding nautical themed earrings and their favorite anchor industrial earring was specially commissioned as a reward for winning their destiny. In the future Merana will get a tattoo or two, and they've already started planning what they will be.

Merfolk Form

Currently, Merana does not have a set species that their appearance is inspired by.

Merana's human-merfolk transformation kind of exists on a slider, if that makes any sense. They are able to control it for the most part, meaning that they can decide on legs or tail. But oftentimes more otherworldly aspects will crop up in their human form and vice versa naturally. To this, they usually don't bother attempting to consciously change it since they see it as "it is what it is".

In their most humanoid form possible, they have gill scars on their neck and outlines of or actual scales here and there. These small changes can be affected by emotional states. As the slider moves up, fins appear on the Merana's forearms and calves, growing larger and more prominent. The legs-to-tail transformation is a binary however, otherwise it would be. very. unpractical. Further changes are functionality of gills, slightly glowy eyes with black-green irises, and a more prominent dorsal to ventral skin tone gradient.

Their fins are translucent black, darkening at the tips. The shape is a long and rather crumpled sort of affair, jagged but droopy, soft to the touch. You'd think they'd be a nuisance in the water but they're surprisingly hydrodynamic.

Their tail is about 7 feet, or 2 meters, not counting the tail fin, average for her age. The scales are glassy black with silver undertones, and in some lighting you can clearly see dappled areas of faint traces of emerald. The tail fin starts out as translucent silvery-green and ends majestically in translucent silvery-black, spanning about 3 feet in width and 2 feet in length.

Their skin takes on a slightly silver tint, black darkening her remaining limbs, and their teeth take on a shark-like aspect. Merana's eyes glow more luminously, and their movements are smoother. Silver green scales can be found here and there, around their arms and neck. They are able to do as they do on land in the water. Except, y'know. Walk. And everything associated with walking.

Music
Music is one of Merana's more recent interests, but it's quickly becoming her favorite. While she learned traditional merfolk instruments before, her delving into composing music didn't start until she entered Ever After High. She likes to play around with music production software, and also plays in the school's theatre productions. She's kind of bashful when it comes to singing, which is completely ironic. It's mostly due to her being untrained while most of the student population has had lessons since childhood. If someone just forced her into lessons, she could possibly get into the groove of doing it.

Fashion
Merana's interest in fashion begins when they see just how the rest of the Littles dress. As they felt severely out of place, they started putting more time into curating a new look in order to fit in with their new royal family. They genuinely enjoy customizing items to make them unique, especially if they were cheap in the first place. As a result, Merana has a good eye for when clothing can be changed into something more desirable. Recently, they haven't done much besides a few pieces. While none of the school's other royalty would probably notice/care, Merana would feel embarrassed about being dressed unsuavely, as they're royal by title. Therefore, a lot of the customizing they do now is to reassure themself that no one is judging them, rather than for their own enjoyment like before.

Cooking and Writing (About Food)
Lately, Merana's interest in her sirenic roots has also manifested in an interest in traditional food. (insert cool fantasy food ideas) this really just ties into the cooking thing but she likes writing about food. not even necessarily recipes, just about food. likes describing food. maybe put out a recipe book one day?

Dance
ballet!! because little mermaid ellen price. Mostly into energetic, acrobatic dances, not too much into slow stuff. Ex: swing and tap. only recently branch out and take interest. dance is an important piece of merfolk culture and she started it in a desperate attempt to reconnect with her roots more

Theatre
This interest isn't so much as being on stage herself as it is watching other people partake in it. From a young age, Merana has been mesmerized by theatre. After she received her destiny, her parents took her to every show they could in order to make her story more familiar to her. Thus with musicals, plays, operas, and ballets, Merana cultivated her love for theater.

While Merana has watched people on stage and secretly expressed a desire to be like them, she'd always been too shy to take to the stage herself. Perhaps this will change in the future, with the help of some surprising revelations. Merana's always been a good actor, after all.

Merfolk Derived
The most obvious ability of Merana possesses is being able to turn their legs into a tail. Despite the Rusalka role calling for a water nymph more than an actual mermaid, Merana's family had immigrated to the Chess Republic from Lullabina,

Merana heals slightly quicker than the average human, and their senses are heightened. They have unnaturally sharp eyesight, a more aware sense of touch, and can pick up more subtle scents. Their hearing however, is slightly impaired, since it isn't very utilized in the life of a merfolk. This means that they really struggle musically with perfect pitch, and oftentimes find it easier to communicate through text rather than speaking. Their sense of taste is also awful, in that they're extremely picky.

Speaking of merfolk life, Merana is fluent in the sirenic language, or at least the dialect in their area. Underwater, the language requires careful interpretation of vibrations from sound waves and signing as an accompaniment. It's neither efficient nor understandable on land, and so on calls to home they'll take them in a pool or just speak in the common tongue. For this reason many merfolk tend to be good at the common tongue. If not that, they have an understanding of the language and some broken Sirenglish.

Merana also has an odd way of crying, in which their tears are literally scales. No tear drops form, instead, their under eye area blossoms with silver scales. The scales require them to wipe at them to get rid of them, just like tears. They crumble into fine silver powder, disappearing after that.

This interesting phenomenon is actually the result of natural selection. Tears were not visible underwater, and so it was often hard to track distressed merchildren or wounded merfolk. Everyone was also emotionally constipated because of a cutthroat Darwinist culture. By being unable to physically see distress this way, contact with humans were awkward and negotiations were hard to pull through. Geneticists believe that this trait appeared due to spells placed on a single population, spreading through others naturally. These scale tears are often mentioned in local creation myths.

Miscellaneous
Merana expresses her concern for a recently discovered ability in the "magic touch" section of her infobox. It's the ability to make things die, put simply. Right now, it's very limited, only able to kill bugs (Raid who?) and make flowers wilt. It's tied to her destiny, where she will become a death spirit/will-o'-the-wisp and kill her prince.

Merana's curious as to why this magic is appearing now, since it's not supposed to come into action until during the story. It's most likely that the seals placed on the transformative magic were a little wonky and have started to crack. Thus, the magic that was implanted in her to help carry out the destiny started too early. This went on for about a year until her parents found out. Per her parents' request (she herself wasn't planning on doing anything about it), she went to a physician and was told not to worry about it. It hasn't gotten worse.

How The Story Goes
Rusalka

How Does Merana Fit Into it?
The previous Rusalka (who is she?? why don't i know??) disappeared after her story had ended, leaving behind no contact information, and more importantly, no heir. When the Fairytale Authorities finally found her, forcefully expelled her from the gloomy bog she was residing in, and reminded her of her duties as a legacy, she refused to cooperate, causing a massive magical implosion at the area.

Some common local gossip is that she renounced her title as Rusalka and as the princess and heir to the lake, discarding her magic. Others will argue "no no, that was intentionally spread by the authorities, using the controversial action of renouncing her title to corner her. They have her in custody- no they're still searching for her! She's still on the run! and they're utilizing their influence. If she doesn't cooperate she'll lose her title and inheritance and if she does- well, that's good for them, eh?" Still others will say "aw, come off it! She's definitely in custody, don't you know who was in the sect that met with her? They had these crazy rookies! Look, I heard one of 'em took out her right eye! And she's in that secret government-protected prison now and she's- aww she's a tough cookie she's not budgin'! No sirree, no torture could make her submit to the devil's will. And-"

Anyways, there was a more important matter at hand: a new Rusalka was needed.

...Well, perhaps the matter was not so important, seeing as how the situation was left unresolved for many years after that faithful encounter. It was only due to the urgings by one of the smaller branches of the White family that a new Rusalka was called for at all.

Enter: Merana, stage right. A resident of one of the smaller, quieter lakes of the Chess Republic. Possesses ability to have legs, currently undergoing an education on land. Born, and here's the kicker, to parents without destinies.

There was a relatively large ruckus made of the (then) current Rusalka disappearing. In the history of Ever After this event was not considered too prominent on the rebellion scene as it had a small public reaction, because of the insignificance of the story. Regardless of the substantial amount of news publicizing the issue, there were other concerns that greatly overshadowed it. In any case, any shock that was present was quickly replaced with excitement when the DCA was announced.

The Destiny Compatibility Assessment, or the DCA, was less of a standardized test and more of a competition. It was run by the Fairytale Authorities, and allowed parents to enroll their kids into a two week program where they would be evaluated on their compatibility with the Rusalka destiny. The children participating in the two week long test would need to prove their "destiny fitness", so to speak. Very little information was given out about the destiny itself, but really, it couldn't hurt to try. Sure beats paying a babysitter, right?

Long story short, Merana won. She went home with $200 in prize money and a very thick letter in her hand. The days following were filled with tears from all parties, arguments between the two adults, and some very pointed ignorance from the youngest of the family.

The representative from the Fairytale Authorities was quite pleasant. He came in, chatted with them, explained all the details carefully, and brought fancy delicacies as gifts. "From our organization," he smiled.

It's easy to get lost in the glamour of fairytales. They learned of the prestige that came with a destiny, no matter how small. They learned of honor, a sacrifice so that your story could be passed on to the next. It was an honor, the letter crooned, for their daughter to hold a title as important as Rusalka. To hold a destiny that could have fallen into oblivion, and raise it from the ashes. Your daughter will die bringing a story to life.

This little voice soothed and cooed and added gold to their coffers, butlers and maids to their manor, smiles to their neighbors' faces. It poured them wine, sharpened their suits, gave them something bigger, more substantial to brag about to their families. It showed them their dear daughter, o! how happy she was for this honor, how perfect she was for the role. And little by little, the little voice convinced them.

Parallels

 * Even though Merana's sirenic roots are not of those rooted in singing to seduce sailors, she still holds interest in music. Why? Because their story is an opera! Furthermore, their interest goes beyond singing and delves into composition and performance of music, seeing as operas have both of those components. Merana plays instruments that are generally used as accompaniments to a theater performance.
 * Merana's shyness and reluctance to be on stage or sing is ironic considering that her destiny involves both being on stage and singing. ...Or does it? Is her destiny to be the actress or to live out the life of Rusalka? How does she know it's an opera then? Could she technically go through with her destiny as an actress instead and bypass dying through this loophole?
 * Adding onto that, Merana's desire to act like a cool tough guy is well. Acting. Which is (kinda) part of the role she is destined for.
 * myehhhh

Viewpoint on Destiny
The older Merana gets, the more unsure she becomes of her destiny. In the beginning, she was thrilled to have been granted such a prestigious honor, happy to make her family proud. Young as she was and eager to prove herself, she jumped at the chance to elevate her family's social class and partake in a fate grander than herself. Now, Merana finds it harder and harder to hide her discomfort.

After the Legacy Day debacle, Merana's relationship with her family became a little more strained. Raven's rebellion was a catalyst, prompting her to reexamine the events of her childhood. She identifies as Neutral as she doesn't want any news of her unease reaching her family, but she thinks it feels wrong to align with Royals when she doesn't hold their beliefs.

Name
Merana was born Merana Shenqing Ci. She took on Little as a last name unofficially, as the Little Royal Family was one of the most prominent sponsors of the Rusalka DCA. And, since her new story was a TLM variant, it would do her well to have an easily recognizable name. In real life, she would be of Chinese descent, and so she has a Chinese name: 刺深清.Her middle name is just the romanization of her Chinese name 深清. Similarly, her last name is also the romanization of 刺. 刺深清 is spelled cì shēnqīng in Mandarin romanization. Remember that in China the last name appears first!

Merana is a name of Italian origin, meaning "woman of the waters". It was chosen for obvious reasons.

深 itself means "deep" and the character is used in conjunction with other characters to form phrases like "profound" and "dark", referencing the dark nature of the story. 清 means "clear" and can form phrases like "clean" and "quiet", referencing what water is often associated with being. These two meanings kind of contradict each other, since they're not typically thought to be on the same page.

The three dots on the left side of both characters is the water radical, again, chosen for obvious reasons. Without the water radical, 清 becomes 青, meaning "blue-green" or "black". 深 without the water radical is 罙, which is pronounced differently and apparently either has no meaning or also means deep??? This is relevant to Merana because it's a mess and Merana is also a mess.

刺 means many things, and is translated as "spine", "thorn", "sting", "prick", etc. However it's also used as a term for the very fine bones of a fish.

After her coronation as the new Rusalka, Merana took on the last name Little. However, she finds herself more and more uncomfortable with using it, and deeply wishes she could return to her original name. She's too scared to bring it up though, especially in the presence of the Little Kingdom.

They have a nickname, MerMer, that quite a few people know them by/call them by, though they prefer only their close friends to use it.

Freedom Year
During Freedom Year, Merana's classes are sorted into three categories: core classes, EAH specific classes, and electives. Core classes are kind of the Ever After equivalent to their real life counterparts, and include AP Bi-ogre-y, Honors Creative Storytelling I, Tale-gebra II, and Geografairy. The destiny specific class is Princessology I. Because it's Freedom Year, Merana is able to pick electives. They chose Princess Design and Introductory Muse-ic Theory.

Legacy Year
Second Year is Legacy Year, and that means no electives! Goodbye, Princess Design, hello Advanced Ballet! Rusalka actually has dance sections, and so Merana is suddenly corraled into dance. To their surprise, they like it! Their core classes this year are AP Chemythstry, Pre-Crownculus, AP Meropean Hi-story, and Honors Creative Storytelling II. Their destiny specific classes are Princessology II, Honors Magicology I, AP Muse-ic Theory, and Advanced Ballet.

Yearbook Year
Yearbook Year is interesting. After the whole Legacy Day fiasco happens, uncertainty is everywhere. Merana lets things happen to them, and after discussions with their parents, still has no idea what they'll do. Do they go forward with the destiny? Do they not? Thus, Merana takes on classes that are not necessarily needed. Kingdom Management's lessons can be applied to businesses right? Let's just skip ahead to Kingdom Management II and— PUCK!

Fourth Year
self-explanatory I don't want to write this anymore myehhhh

Drama Club
Ever since they were a wee fry, Merana has loved theatre. The actors and their art, the over exaggeration, the beautiful sets and the bright spotlight. Though they've never been brave enough to stand on the stage, Merana likes helping out with productions and seeing the show come to life. A big pet peeve of theirs is when the audience doesn't laugh at the funny parts. It's comedic genius, how could they not?!- Now, Merana reasons, their love of theatre is even more justified because their destiny is a theatre production.

They don't like to think about that, though.

Big Bad-minton Club
Although Merana enjoys playing big bad-minton, perhaps even more so than swimming, they don't exactly have the time for it. And, the team captain is intimidating, so they have all the more reason not to join. Thier skills have also gotten pretty rusty from lack of use, so the perfectionist within them is to embarrassed to start again now.

Swim Team
For obvious reasons, Merana likes swimming. They enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by water on all sides, hearing muffled, limbs weightless. Their favorite thing to do is sink to the bottom of the pool and lie there, looking at the lights dancing on the water's surface. It makes them feel at home again. The best part about being on the swim team is the exemption from Grimmnastics.

Trivia

 * Merana's birthday (June 21st) falls upon the summer solstice, the birthday of Ellen Price (who modeled the Little Mermaid statue), and marks the end of Rusalka Week (also known as Green Week) in Slavic countries.
 * This makes them born on the Gemini-Cancer cusp.
 * They're extremely paranoid about losing their eyesight. It stems from their general fear of the unknown. Pinata at a birthday party? Please no.
 * They're also incredibly easy to scare, particularly by loud noises and sudden movements, and any sort of grotesque, unnatural image. goya
 * Here's a description of Merana's voice:
 * When they speak, they often don't know how to word themselves correctly. Expect a lot of pauses and "the... that... thing."s and overemphasized hand gestures. And strange metaphors that end up muddling the explanation even more.
 * They're very fiddly in general, always playing with zippers or swinging water bottles about or bouncing their leg or tapping a table.
 * "Sorry, what?"s are common! Merana can't hear well.
 * Merana makes a lot of non-word noises. Whining is common, so are "myehhh"s (disinterest) and squawks (surprise). A soft scream in the back of the throat is very common, indicating frustration or alarm.
 * Handy dandy catchphrases:
 * "I would never!"
 * "How are you feeling?" *fingerguns* "I'm not."
 * Merana refers to Dvořák in interjections, e.g. "Thank Dvořák!" or "Dvořákforsaken mess".
 * Merana is sapphic! they proceed to laugh because sapphic? like, the color, sapphire? blue? like them!
 * A list of epithets they are commonly referred by:
 * dark-eyed/ember-eyed - dark isn't in a literal sense here; Merana is just frequently melancholic. Ember-eyed refers to the bright orange of her eyes, ironically bringing to mind fire, the absolute antithesis of what they are strongly associated with. Additionally, some deep sea fish are known for being bioluminescent, a trait their eyes echo.
 * stream-swift - Merana tends to be giddy when sufficiently rested, skittish when not.
 * a coiled spring - they have a habit of slouching or huddling up to themself, tucking their hands into their sleeves and bringing their knees up to their chest. Merana also generally keeps their worries bottled up, becoming tense and prone to lashing out.

Quotes
"This isn't what I came to Ever After High for. I came here to... well I don't particularly know, but I know it isn't to be miserable. I can be miserable later."

- o! to be young, where every cupid's arrow bursts ice-hot gold in your veins and eyes turn to the east as bodies journey to the west

"I know I've said it so many times— countless times! The stars in the sky could never compare! but I was mistaken—and I knew it at that time (I just could not say it): death will not be the end of me!"

- running a race, running my mouth, running out of time

"I would never!"

- a handy dandy catchphrase in response to most everything

"Yes, I see. **realization** Oh that's funny!"

- the (not very good) joke is "see" and "sea"

"I hate it. It's sick. How can so few make miserable so many?"

- Thank you for this incredible opportunity, Your Majesty. I won't let you down.