Merana Little

"Everything I want to do is exactly what I'll never be able to."

- toss me to sea and let me sink

Merana Little [they/them or she/her] is a 2015-introduced original character, avid saxophone enthusiast, and aspiring author. They are destined to be the next Rusalka from the opera of the same name by Antonín Leopold Dvořák. They currently attend Ever After High.

Growing up with Death's presence at their shoulder, and worse, the guarantee that Death was indeed there, Merana holds a twisted view of their purpose in life. They hesitate to let go of a self-concieved notion of their inferiority, however obviously detrimental it may be. 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 both hopelessly idealistic with self-standards, and distrustful of what the future will bring.

Even though Merana holds worries for each new day, most notably, issues with their identity and their future, they hold themself nonchalantly, preferring to cry into their covers in private. For the time being, they grace themselves with a cover of mirthful light and sharp wit, dryly jovial yet credible, 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.

MerMer or Fishbone seems to be a common nickname. Their Chinese name is 深 青 tbc something with ci (fish bone haha) something something why

Please don't edit unless you are the owner!

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. Amongst dozens of other fated-to-die water-themed teens, she feels as if the concept of fate and taking on a legacy has caused her to change greatly from who she was, and who she wants to be. Most notably, she sees her skills as useless, and her purpose obsolete. However, a substantial fear of failure still seems real enough apparently. Merana has a slight obsession with self-improvement, and desires success, whatever that may entail, before death.

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 has made Merana fall in love with a persona she has built to fit herself into. The prodigy distant from everyone else, the cynic, the snark, pulling badassery out of their perfectly written and edited character arcs, someone who she should aspire to be. Her romanticizing 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 wryly and dryly humorous, remarking on daily incidents with oh-so-seemingly blasé comments, handling everything life throws at them with cheek, dramatic flair, and morbid humor. She should excel 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, as is standard, 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 imitate what she admires. And though being true to herself and having people genuinely admire her is somewhat of a goal, Merana enjoys the feeling of being superior, she enjoys this passive-aggressiveness because she doesn't know how to express discontent otherwise. As you would expect, the harshness of this persona has seeped into Merana and found a home.

Merana, when she is not trying to embody a TV Tropes page, is expressive to a large degree. She's easily excitable at the mention of say, instruments or cooking, easily frustrated when she is disrupted, and all too easily nervous when faced with just about anything. And it's important to mention, she lets that show! Through smiles and narrowed eyes and movement and energy and irritated huffs, Merana lets herself crack open a cold bottled emotion, long-coveted and long-delayed.

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. This is an especially difficult mindset to deal with when you attend a school that is currently contemplating the validity of a then widely-accepted metaphysical law. No biggie. Stress tends to multiply in situations like these.

Merana, being brought up in a competitive atmosphere, glamorizes the idea of high standards and hard work much too fervently. 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 an idea 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. As a perfectionist, and also as someone who longs to be effortlessly talented, this is torture. And speaking of wanting to be effortlessly talented, Merana has bouts of laziness where she's so exhausted that she gives up on doing anything until she guilts herself into working again..

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 aspri\iring composer. acceptance of criticism is an important skill, and yet tears form every time someone raises their voice at her.

Speaking of egos, Merana has a habit that is rapidly growing in popularity: self deprecation in order for others to intervene and contradict. The basis of this habit is: 1) Do something that is quite awesome. 2) Pretend either a) "It's not that good" or b) "It was pretty easy!" 3) Attention and awe!! 4) hooray. There have been many points in time where Merana deliberately manipulates other people into supplying validation.

To wrap up, Merana's kind of a nervous wreck that manages to keep everything under wraps by distracting people with spontaneous wordplay and self-deprecative humor. She wishes she could be naturally talented, and teeters between working really hard and wasting hours daydreaming about who she could be. She has a lot of aspirations, and a lot of fear too. We can only hope she'll find what makes her happy before her death, whether it be a few years or a few decades down the road.

Appearance
In their more humanoid form, Merana seems to be a taller than average teenager of Eastern Asian descent. They have a more feminine appearance, though their style is rather androgynous. In terms of skin color, they have a medium to light complexion with a neutral tone and a naturally darker dorsal side due to their aquatic heritage. Keratosis pilaris comes in the form of harmless little bumps near her shoulders.

Merana stands at 5'7" (170 cm) without heels, a fact they are very proud of. They have somewhat broad shoulders that they occasionally showcase with posture that isn't terrible and the god-given proportions of long legs. While they enjoy athletic activities, their build rarely strays from "kinda toned but not really". Any muscle that they do have is hidden underneath a soft stomach and squishy thighs. Sometimes they wear a binder and sometimes they don't! It really depends on the day.

Their face is rather round and still chubby, retaining baby fat. When crying, respiring anaerobically, cold, or a mixture of all three, rosiness takes home in their cheeks. Merana has a slightly flatter nose, unplucked (but not thick) eyebrows, and lips that usually have some sort of balm on them due to their dryness.

Their eyes seem to be black but they're actually very dark brown with flecks of orange here and there. Upon close inspection the iris resembles a fishbowl filled with inky water sloshing about. They are framed with long dark lashes.

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 shorter on one side, not shaving it down but trimming it much more. They've also dyed it in a black to turquoise ombre, leaving natural roots. While expecting destroyed hair (their reluctance to dye it in the first place), it has surprisingly remained pretty healthy!

Merana's human-mermaid 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. 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.

Her 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.

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

Interests
to be expanded on

Music- production, composition, and playing. Plays the erhu and multiple saxophones.

Abilities
weird way of crying

Merana has unnaturally sharp 20/10 eyesight. If you're not familiar with what that means, it just means they can see something sharply from 20 feet, whereas a person with 20/20 vision could only see it from 10 feet. They have a fear of losing their eyesight, or being visually impaired in general. Their vision is fine, however laying off the electronics would not hurt.

being a fish kid

pretty much it

How The Story Goes
The full story is here: RUSALKA!

But basically, this Rusalka chick falls in love with this prince guy. Her dad is all like "no you shouldn't" but she doesn't listen because plot. She gets a potion from a witch, which (heh) you know, is always a good idea, but she can't talk. And if the prince betrays her, they'll both get sent to some sort of eternal damnation. A regular jokester, this one. Prince guy likes the mermaid chick but he's also infidel. Likes this foreign princess. Foreign princess gets all jelly and curses the couple. Prince guy leaves Rusalka, and poor Rusalka goes back to the lake. The princess wins the prince's affection and now scorns it.

Rusalka asks the witch for a solution to all her woes(lol so drama many sad) and is told if she kills the prince guy, she will be saved. But nope, she rejects it, though it's a perfectly good offer. She becomes a bludička, basically a spirit of death. The nearest translation is a will o'the wisp, only her kiss means death and damnation, which makes her a much cooler will o'the wisp.

The prince finds Rusalka since he's heartbroken by the foreign princess. And they kiss even though he knows her kiss means death. He dies, and the story concludes

How Does Merana Fit Into it?
TBA

Previous Rusalka disappeared and the story was forgone to streamline the variations down to a few, since the story was too similar to The Little Mermaid. Then the tale was rediscovered and from a pool (heh) of competitors for the spot, Merana was chosen.

Parallels
TBA

Viewpoint on Destiny
TBA

Family
unfortunate

Friends
Desi - teetering on that friend/crush tightrope Cop- are you ever just really gay for your friend

Dami - goth nerds unite

Clerval- tba

Acquaintances
Dery- ooh time for juxtaposition

tba

Enemies
hum de dum

Pets
Mererid- During the Animal Calling lesson, Merana received a magical ship figurehead she named Mererid. Mererid is a magical creature as it is an enchanted piece of sea treasure.

Romance
"I hope I'll find someone, but it's really in the same vein as apples. I'd like some, but I think I could survive without it." For a siren, she's actually quite useless at romance.

Oufits
some sort of futch goth disaster, im sure {| class="article-table" ! !

TBA

Basic
Merana wears a tailored charcoal waistcoat with gray pinstripes that is buttoned in the front with three small silver anchors. The waistcoat's collar is white with a black lace overlay patterned with ocean waves. There is a thin panel on either side of the waistcoat that is the same black lace pattern. Underneath this she wears a white blouse with oversized flowy sleeves that are tied at the wrist with a string of black pearls. A gradient of white to blue-green patterned with seafoam occurs from the shoulders to the wrists. The blouse has a ruffled collar tied with a long blue-green ribbon; the edges of the ribbon are rounded and resemble ocean waves in general.
 * Mermerlegacy.png
 * Mermerlegacy.png

Legacy Day
Merana wears one of her mother's human gowns, but with her own twist. It is an off-the-shoulder turquoise dress with a sweetheart bodice. The straps are actually a piece of fishnet that loops around the shoulders, and is pinned to the waist. Her skirt is fairly normal until it reaches to just above her knee, where it separates into many layers of waves and ruffles, ranging from gradients: turquoise-cerulean, turquoise-emerald, turquoise- light blue, etc. creating an ocean illusion at the bottom. The bottom of the dress comes to around her shin and the back tapers behind to drag slightly on the ground.

Her belt is gold and encrusted like a mosaic with all the richest sapphires and turquoises and other blue jewels that fell into sea. She wears a tiara with matching earrings. It is also a heirloom accessory, along with her usual ring. However, the tiara has strings of black pearls that twist into her hair, which is in a fancy hairdo, half-up half-down. She wears a string of black pearls that winds itself around her left shoulder and neck for a necklace. Her shoes are gold high-heel sandals, with strings of pearls that lace up her calves and also drip on the floor. The heels are actually sculpted to form seahorses. For her cape, it is also ocean-patterned, and its tapered end is trimmed with white frills.

She wears only waterproof mascara but with a small hint of subtle clear lip gloss.

Getting Fairest
Merana wears a

Mirror Beach
Merana's shoes are old beat-up flip-flps that have no heel. Black and white stripes pattern it, with teal straps. She wears a black racing suit that has a pattern akin to splashes of paint on it, colored turquoise and teal. When not in the water, Merana dons a towel around her shoulders to dry off. The towel is a fluffy white with translucent turquoise bubbles patterning it.

Merana's hair is wet and pulled back from her face with water so she can see what she's doing. The shaggy bangs and layers in the back of her head are flattened. White goggles with turquoise tinted lenses are pushed up on her face. She carries a white, beat-up volleyball under her arm. When in siren form the racing suit just molds into her tail.
 * TBA
 * TBA

Hat-tastic Tea Party
Merana wears a black blazer with the sleeves rolled up. One silver button engraved with a heart, spade, club, and diamond holding it together. Her fins are not visible. The collar is white, with turquoise detailing that looks like the suites of a card. The blazer tapers back into two coat-tails, the inside has the same pattern. The lining of the pockets are white, and the buttons on the sleeves are also white. Underneath the blazer is a white top with a sweetheart neckline, with small frills on the neckline. Merana wears a cobalt satin belt encrusted with black pearls on her top, under her blazer. She also wears an asymmetrical turquoise peplum attached to the belt. The peplum is shaped like this one, except the longer side only reachers to her knee. Small quantities of shimmering silver threads weave in and out of the peplum, to make it look like swirling silver waves are patterned on it. Under the peplum, she wears a very short flouncy skirt with a gradient that goes from black to teal. The design of the skirt is flowy enough that it looks like poured tea. She wears mismatched stockings underneath, they reach to just below her mid-thigh. One is colored black with a white clubs and spades pattern. The other is wine-colored with white diamonds and hearts. They are attached using black garters.

Her hair is streaked with cobalt slashes. Accessories include ocean-gradient gloves with white lacy ruffles, and her slightly shimmering turquoise stiletto heels are decorated with a bow made out of a card on each toe. However, the bow is colored black, white, and wine instead. Placed on top of the card bow is a silver casino chip. She wears the same bow as a bowtie around her neck, secured by a cobalt choker. She also carries a dramatic fan made of four cards, all aces. Each of them are white with one of the suite types printed on them. Wine for diamonds and hearts, black for clubs and spades. Merana wears on top of her head a wide-brimmed black sunhat with a matching cobalt satin band. A peacock feather recolored wine is attached to the brim, along with two cards with a wine and white pattern. A teabag-shaped tote is slung across her shoulder, the straps silver and the material of the tote is cream and paper-like. Patterning of the suites are done on the tote in wine.

She has dramatic shimmery silver eyeshadow on, along with matching silver lip gloss. Her eyelids are dusted with a wine red, but the silver eyeshadow goes beyond that. TBA

Thronecoming
This, hopefully, will be coming soon.
 * TBA
 * TBA

Spring Unsprung
Ack, redoing af but I shall save this because ayy it's a nice design

Merana wears a Siren's Song inspired outfit. She wears a top that is cyan with a few emerald-colored bubbles and studded with black pearls on the top and bottom. One side has short sleeves, the other is strapless. A spiral of the infamous flowers curls around the bodice. She has a matching cyan bubble peplum/skirt, with a pattern of watercolor on water. She wears on top of the peplum a row of striped, polka-dotted, and crazy ties that . For tights she wears dark blue-greenish blue gradient ones. Merana also wears some cyan mid-calf high strapped sandals. Small sea lilies dot the sandals, almost blooming on her legs.

For accessories, a wreath of Siren's Songs sit on her head, with tendrils of ivy that hang in her newly gold streaked hair. A belt of gold-touched flowers and ivy snarls sit at her waist. A fishnet open sleeve necklace with a draping of black pearls sit on her neck. Two green leaf earrings dangle from her ears. A gold braided ivy bracelet and a flower ring complete the look.

She wears a subtle touch of blush pink lipstick and blue smoky eyeshadow.
 * TBA
 * TBA

Through the Woods
Merana's attire for Through the Woods is more medium/dark blue-based than her usual turquoise palette. Her hair is put in a side fishtail braid. Small strands of seaweed are braided along in her hair. She wears a turquoise gauze hooded cloak like Cerise's. It is held together with a black pearl clasp. There are emerald seaweed patterns on the cloak, along with cobalt blue gauze on the inside.

Under the cloak is a cobalt three-quarters sleeved fitted top decorated with leaf motifs. This particular motif consists of thin stripes of black going vertically on the top, with emerald leafs sprouting from the sides of the stripes. She also has a pair of black denim shorts with silver studs on the cobalt rolled-up bottoms and the belt loops. Black suspenders go over her shoulders, connected to the shorts. An emerald tie is threaded through the belt loops instead of a belt, tying together one one side. Some shimmery turquoise tights with black swirls and these hiking boots only thigh-high and cobalt-colored with small black pearls instead of the studs and silver laces complete the outfit.

She carries a navy blue lantern and a gold signal flare encrusted with black pearls.
 * TBA
 * TBA

Enchanted Picnic
Probably will change this

Merana wears a cerulean and white gingham-patterned bubble dress. Tiny gold starfish are patterned on it. There is a trim of green gauze on the hem and on the waistline. Her hair is shorter than usual, and comes to halfway above her elbows. It is also curlier than usual. She wears black leather ankle booties with green seaweed laces.

She also has a black pearl headband with three gold starfish. Her picnic basket is shaped like a cobalt-scaled fish with silver lining and the mouth as the opening.
 * She
 * She

Sugar Coated
Definitely redoing this nightmare

TBA
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 * TBA

Fairest On Ice
some ideas! not many but still
 * TBA
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Way too Wonderland
A corset-ish top made of cards?

TBA

Date Night
???
 * TBA
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Royally Ever After
TBA
 * TBA
 * TBA

Book Party
TBA

Something with this peplum
 * TBA
 * TBA

TriCastleon
swimmm
 * TBA
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Dragon Games
ooooh armor designs
 * TBA
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Epic Winter
TBA
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Birthday Ball
TBA
 * }

Themes
It's like impossible to find songs for them.

TBA

Trivia

 * Merana is sapphic! they proceed to laugh because sapphic? like, the color, sapphire? blue? like them!
 * Gender is. confusion. Fairymerica eggsplain.
 * Their favorite food would probably some sort of dessert.

Quotes
"What is there to want when you have pistachio ice-cream?"

- how drama

"I was once told by someone that I would regret coming to Ever After High. And I mean, I kind of do? But I'd rather prove them wrong."

- "told by someone" as opposed to being told by no one

"I'm not just afraid of being left behind, I'm afraid I'm already behind and I can't do anything about it."

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

"There would be a lot less frustration if any one of us could shut up for more than five seconds."

- sadly, we are one and the same

"I would never!"

- a handy dandy catchphrase

"Yeah, I can see. **realization** *nice*"

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

Gallery
If anyone wants to draw her, feel free to! owo

Art
References