NESTE navy officer/merman AU (Patreon)

for mermay, because there's no universe where Naoki and Celeste don't get madly obsessed with each other at first glance 🫠

[about Naoki and Celeste], [about my original story Unlock]

While drawing this I've been thinking about bits of this AU... and one thing I'm sure of is that, even though in canon being talkative is Celeste's favorite way to manipulate humans and make them underestimate him, here he'd be almost completely silent. Merfolks would be seen as dangerous creatures who can't really talk but only parrot humans, to trick them and bring them to their deaths. Celeste would use this to his advantage as much as he uses his sharp tongue in canon. He would play dumb, pretend he doesn't understand a thing Naoki is saying, and would only repeat words rather than whole sentences. It's ok though, cuz my old man is smitten no matter what. But I think here he'd give in faster, since they wouldn't be fighting every 5 damn minutes—except for the one time Naoki unknowingly calls Celeste mermaid and gets shoved directly into the big blue sea.