Heh so here’s what is technically a mer for MerMay 2025, mostly because I completely forgot to get a pic for it otherwise, but also a species I’ve been slowly developing and refining over the years.

Kyauta here, or Kya as she prefers, is what’s known as a Built A Mate Artificial Servant, B.A.M for short, or Bamas as they’ve come to collectively call themselves. Having been developed on the tropical pleasure planet of Cesura (my world’s version of Risa), the B.A.Ms are a semi-artificial servitor race specifically bred and mentally programmed to act as servants to the countless tourists who visit and reside on Cesura, with Cesura being a previously non-aligned world (though as of the 2020s and current story line have started to align with the NATO like Alliance). The Bamas traditionally start as a multitude of smaller species, but upon reaching an artificially accelerated age of maturity, where their aging then stops entirely, are compelled to give up their frail bodies in favor of artificially created ones chosen by their eventual masters.
Their heads or brains (depending on the program they enter into), after being given cybernetic enhancements for faster programmed learning, are sent out to various centers across the planet, where later masters, be them residents here for years or tourists here for a few days, can then select them and build them full bodies using a variety of standardized parts to suit their every need. The parts start off white (sans head), but are easily adapted to whatever fur color the head is, and can just as easily be removed and swapped out again later.

Kya here was bought by an older but loving Carbine Starfleet Academy professor who came to the planet for his early retirement due to a severe injury, and was custom built by him to suit his preferred species traits and assist him with his love for swimming. With the base head of a wolf-like canine, she was given strong arms, a firm frame with B cup breasts, a dolphin-like tail, and horse-like hooves. He also took the time to teach her xenolinguistics, with Kya’s cybernetically enhanced mind easily picking up dozens of different languages. It quickly became clear to him that she didn’t belong in his service anymore, and that she belonged out there in the stars helping explore the galaxy. So, after letting her pick out and build her replacement, he signed her over to his best friend from the academy, and the Chief Medical Officer on board the Terran flagship UFS Yorktown, Vala, a Cetian.
Now Kya gladly serves on board the Yorktown as their civilian Chief of Linguistics, still under the technical ownership of Vala, but with her in the process of being emancipated. She is still fully modular, and more often than not can be seen with her detached head attached directly to a console in order to better translate alien texts with the speed of a computer, but the finesse of an organic.
She can also still be seen using her marine features and no legs in aquatic settings, acting like a true mer.

While just a sketch, I do have a few other pics in the works of her.

Drawn by  michael345 a few years ago.