Nice!

Thanks!

That's an original concept, for sure.

Thanks, hon! Blame he got me looking at seaslugs... I've always liked them ,but hadn't considered actually drawing them until now. They're fun to morph...

Cute!

... I hate the English language's lack of a good pronoun for a third gender. In an online story I read, the author didn't bother with any of the usual ones, called the character "ce" (rather than "he" or "she") and made the possessive form "cer" (rather than "his" or "hers"). I thought it was an interesting solution. I like it better than "shi" and "hir" because those two sound just like the female forms in my head. =/

Geeky ranting aside, nice pic. Very cute. Interesting concept. I like!

err... "cer" would replace "her"... so I guess "cers" was "hers." Don't remember, don't feel like looking it up. You get the point.

No worries! Glad you like my sea-sprite. I haven't come up with a good replacement for the mix-gender, or gender-neutral pronouns... Maybe I should work on that, since the concept is important in one of my story cycles... The A'ao in my Benevas tales have three genders that they have quite serviceable words for, but no real direct translation for the humans who try to learn about them... :)

I remember, which is why I thought I'd mention it. I don't recall it being awkward in what I read of your stuff, though. Heh, you could totally have your humans complain about the language problem. =P

*chortles* They DO... When they find out that they'd been using the wrong term for the Bridges for years, some linguistics professors practically had KITTENS in frustration... Then there are the respect-tenses... Almost separate languages for speaking to Elders, parents and intimates... That pretty much broke the rest. *giggle*

I guess it isn't awkward because I don't actually use "shi" or "hir". I use either the A'ao words for the three genders, or simply male, female, and bridge, which is the human version. The A'ao suggested them, actually, since "hermaphrodite" baffled them, as the "females" didn't actually have [i]two[i/] sets of genitalia, but one set; a vagina and a modified ovipositor that most humans mistook for a penis, since it seemed to work in much the same way. Humans are so confuzzled by the friendly aliens. Heh.

Hee hee hee. Those poor linguists! Sounds like fun. =P

*chuckle* I'm a freak: I'm actually working on putting the actual language together, too. At least enough of it to give people an idea of just why it makes people pull hairs so much. *evil grin* I have a rough pronunciation-guide, too. I'm waiting for the day when some poor nit actually asks how to properly say some of the phrases, and I'll break their brain by actually doing it!

I'm enough of a language geek that I want to see it when you get it put together.

Sure! Maybe it'll get posted here, though I doubt there'd be many who'd find it interesting enough to actually read it.

Well *I* would, at least. *grin*

Coolness! Haan'tii'yet to'osi, ma'asii. Khet'so'o naam, nga? (Thanking (polite mode) you, I. Fun words, yes?) *giggles*

Does the apostrophe have a pronunciation?

Sort of, it's a glottal stop, a sort of pause almost a click of the tongue at the back of the throat. Here, I'll try to give a rough pronunciation guide for the phrase (capitalized portions are stressed):

Haan (h is spoken almost like a back-of-the-throat 'ch', so- CHOWwin) ' (sharp pause) tii (tee-YEE) ' (sharp pause) yet (hyet) to'osi (tYOSHi- no pause from the apostrophe) , ma'asii (mYAYshi). Khet (ket) ' (sharp pause) so'o (SHYO) naam (nowwwm), nga (ih-GA- the 'g' is hard, like in 'ghost')?

Heh... My crazy language, yes? One rule that's stuck through all versions of the thing; personal pronouns are always at the end of the phrase... Still working on the formal and intimate tenses... The one I used was for friends and not-=so-close family.

Ah, okay. :)

*blushes* Maybe that was too much... Heh... <--- me. Waay too much nerd, me, hey? *grins* *giggle*

*giggle* I have my moments.

The English language sucks like that. There's also no gender neutral, however, I like xe/xem/xyr.

Hmm, I kind of like that one... Having personally known a couple of gender-ambiguous folk, our language really does need a gender-neutral, or third gender pronoun. The condition isn't as rare as many believe- something like one in ten to fifty-thousand will have gender-ambiguous genitals, all the way up to medically-described hermaphroditism. That's a LOT of people, when spread over millions... Chances are, most people have met or know someone with the condition. too many doctors in the past have arbitrarily "assigned" a gender to the poor kid in infancy. There are quite a few law-suits I've heard of over the last few years from these folks who have reached adulthood and are now finding out why it is they are so uncomfortable with their current "gender"...

Weird world.

Indeed.

Why can't folks just leave it alone, I wonder? Anything outside the "norm" gets summarily bent to fit the mold. Sad, really. So much wonderful and mysterious neatness is destroyed that way, and we continue on in our ignorance of it ever having been there, because we're never allowed to see or experience it.

Human nature. As a society we can't deal with things that are different. On the individual level we're rather accepting, but we all accept a different set of things, thus on the group level we can't deal with it.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understand that... It's mostly a rhetorical question, really. Heh. Humans can be so silly en masse.

Yup.

I've actually met one of them, in an online community (oddly enough, the community associated with the story I mentioned above). Z identifies as either one, and I'm not sure if "he" has a preference at all, but I know "he" was raised female-- "he" was in girl scouts. Later on, "he" figured out that "he" didn't have to be a "she," and I know "he" switches from one to the other, at times. "He" talks about "presenting" as male or female... I really wish I knew which "he" used for himself. I use "he" because I think that's what "he" prefers, but I could be wrong, and it's not entirely accurate anyway.

"He" writes beautiful poetry, and is seriously one of the coolest, smartest people I've ever met.

Coolness! I know someone on this site who is ambiguous. He usually refers to himself as male, but presents as female in many ways. I like him a lot- bright, funny, and just an all around nice person. He writes, too...

Oooh, where?

Met him here, actually, but he's requested that I not identify him. So I can't, sorry. *huggles* And if I tell you where his writing is, I end up identifying him... Poo.

That's fair, I understand. :)

Thanks, hon. I'm sure you'll find his writing eventually, though. *huggles*

I think it's a good take on mer-people... a very good take...

V.

Thanks, sweetie! Finally, I do something fairly original. I was beginning to despair... *drapes an emo paw over her eyes, then giggles* Actually, the alabaster seaslug is such a pretty critter, if "plain" in terms of colour. So many of it's bretheren are paid much more attention to, merely for the fact of baroque colouration or form... I liked the delicacy of this species, personally- it's elegant.

Oh my, I don't see why not! I would've jumped at the chance to own such a beautiful piece.

I admire the originality you put into it, Murra. It's nice to see a change from fishy-like mer-people every once in a while.

Yay! Maybe I can be able to bring hir to FC, but I hear that Artist's Alley is already full up. But I have a possible kind hearted soul who might be willing to share his table with me. I'll have to talk to the fellow first, and see what can be arranged. I'm considering having prints of hir made, since shi's so lovely. I'm quite happy with hir, too. If you want to see some truly gorgeous anthro sea-critters, check out 's page. He does some sweet sea-beasties.

Well, rest assured he'd going to be watched immediately.

Where do you find such amazing artists?! Are you all in some tight knit click, and refuse to tell us lesser artists about it? XD

Heck no! I just discover them by wandering around the site. Heh. I don't even know most of them personally. I play around with the browse function, too, and I also find neat artists through other folk's favourites pages. was the one who turned me on to Glaucer.

Wow its amazing!
I love the two little orange fish!

I thought they made the piece... That and "finding Nemo" is one of my favourite animated films. *grins*

I love that movie!

*giggles* Me too. Especially the seagulls: "mine! mine! mine!..." Their character was played so well- they really ARE that tenacious, too. I saw a pack of gulls in Santa Monica (on my first trip to visit KaniS) chasing one poor gull who'd found a largish tidbit. They chased this fellow in circles and swoops for over ten minutes before one after another, they all dropped away, tired of the chase. Me and KaniS both cheered on the underdog (gull?) and whooped when he managed to get away.

They would steal my dad's bait when he was fishing in florida. lol

*cackles* yup, they're pretty ballsy , those birds. Heh. i like 'em a lot... Hey, wonder if anyone's done a fursona of a seagull? Woo, could be neato...

That would be amazing. I would love somebody forever if they had a seagull fersona.

Cool... *is considering it* Think I would do a black gull... and be all emo and shit. Heh.

lolz do it >3

*giggles and doodles the first design ideas in her pad* Lessee, he needs that flip of hair (feathers) over one eye, mesh shirt with a pentagram on the front, Tripp pants with lotsa chains and buckles... Yeah...

That just kinda described my wardrobe. O.=.o Minus the mesh shirt and the hair.

*chortles* Yep- I actually own the mesh shirt... Heh.

Sexeh! I might get one...dunno yet >D

This is wonderful. Glaucer has one that seems to be a jellyfish in a similar body form.

Yours seems more humanoid though, and is not transparent, so it's easy to identify.

You did an excellent job! The ocean must be proud to have such good artists.

*blushes* Awwww... Thank you! I'm nowhere near as good as some artists I've found here. But I'm working hard at improving. A twelve-year depression kinda put a kink in my learning curve regarding the art...

Awesomely awesome!

Coolness! Thanks, hon! From an artist like you, that means quite a bit. I can only get better in my skills. Working on picking up some new techniques. Heh. *grins*

Meant to mention, my favorite gender neutral pronouns were id/ids/idre from a book I read years back. They just seemed very easy to remember and pronounce.

Cool- what was the book? Do you remember? I might enjoy reading it.

Wow, coolness. So original! I love the colors and the background!

Awww, shucks, my lady... Thank you! *wraps happy tentacles about the lady'pod* Dunno what sea-critter I'm gonna do next... Ideas are floating to the surface of my murky mind...

Great job! I like the background too!

Thank you! Backgrounds aren't my best skill, but I've been trying to improve them.

I know what you mean! I just plain suck at backgrounds.

*chuckles* Indeed! For the longest time, I'd have NO background at all, just blank space... I've been trying to fix that little problem. see, I'd usually get bored with an image pretty much before it was done, or I'd be doing mostly what amounted to portraits. I have a great deal of trouble sitting still long enough to finish a story-piece. If I couldn't do it in one go (I've been known to work for eight to ten hours straight on an image), it often didn't get finished. If I left a piece to finish later, it usally just gathered dust in my sketch-pad...

Some stuff there for me to improve on, I'd say...

My mer-person was one of the few I was able to take a day or two on...

I actually have the same problem. I still have a few things that I want to color and others that I need to finish. I find it easier to work in increments, do the sketch in one go then maybe ink it, and then go for the color. But even then I put it off for a while.

Procrastinators unite! *waves a clawed fist in the air with a giggle* Yup.That's the usual order- blue pencil, then inks, then colour, if I haven't gotten distracted by something shiny...

oh, nice, this is even better en color