Nora Lane

Nora Eileen Lane

35

She/Her

Exotic Pet Veterinarian

Merfolk [Siren]

April 19th

Sarah Gadon

5 FT 3 IN (1.6 M)

Small and slender

Bright, light blue eyes

Light blonde hair that goes lighter or darker depending on the season and the sun

Naturally what is known as "beach waves", that sort of effortlessly tousled, wavy look.

Her style is known for being old fashioned, her favorite being the 1940s or 1950s, with the curled hair perfectly in place, the old fashioned dresses, the short kitten heel or the sturdy mary janes. That's only on her days off, though. She is firmly in the modern world when working at the vet's office, either in the business professional of the office or the scrubs and lab coat when working with the animals.

Nora has always been a bit more bold than appearance would have you believe. She is sweet, and gentle, and caring, and kind, but she is also the first to push for adventure and mischief and has been the ringleader of many a harmless prank or daring escapade. She likes to have fun, as long as everyone else is having fun and no one gets hurt in the process.

When a twinkle gets in her eye and her hair goes up into a ponytail, you know it's go time.

Because of her complicated history with her species and her magic, Nora actually dislikes other Merfolk and usually tries to avoid them. She also struggles in general with people who would use their magic on Humans. Her anger is more icy and cold than raging and hot, and it stays frosty for a very, very long time.

Nora was in love with her best friend Vincent Davis for a very long time. Since they were six years old. Her parents tolerated their friendship until they realized it was love, and then they forced her apart from him. While her parents no longer have any power over her, Vincent has never held the same interest in her that she's held in him. It's been devastating, and it's a blow she struggles to move past.

Nora has been almost a serial dater since she was 14, as a result. Lots of dates, usually no more than five, and very few ever earned the exclusivity of being boyfriend. And the ones who did would only have a few months before she called it quits for someone new.

Both of her parents are Merfolk, and they no longer live in Snow Haven, much to Nora's immense relief. She is not very close to them, especially her father. She was an only child.

April 19th

Meet Nora! She is a native to Snow Haven, going out of state for her veterinarian degree then returned home around three years ago. She is mostly a large animal and exotic pet vet, although she also deals with mundane animals like dogs and cats. She does house calls to ranches and farms and her vet's office works with a lot of the pet shops and shelters in the area.

Although the Lanes had lived human lives for two generations by the time Nora came along, they were not at all happy with how… Human, their daughter turned out to be. Nora was a beautiful child, with a strong brine magic, a knack for the Ocean's Song, and the siren for her natural form, and yet Nora… just wanted to live like a Human child. She had no interest in her magic or in what makes a Merfolk a Merfolk, much to her parents' dismay.

To this end, she became fast friends with the boy next door, the same age, in her class, and also a Human. Her parents approved, if reluctantly, because what harm could a 6 year old get up to? And Nora adored Vincent's parents and they adored her, so there was no harm there. Little knowing that the little mermaid had a crush on the boy.

Nora vastly preferred time at the Davis' house over her own, and she spent almost all of her time there, to avoid her parents who were strict and cold in comparison. Her parents wanted her to practice her magic all the time, and spent days and night out at the river forcing Nora to swim. She had the whole rest of her life to swim, why did they want her to transform so much? It was annoying and the only way she could avoid it was spending time with Vincent.

Nora, as crafty as she was, maneuvered Vincent into a marriage pact when they were still in elementary school. That way she and Vincent could be best friends and stay in the same family forever, and she would never have to go home. Plus, he was so lucky - who wouldn't want to be with the prettiest little mermaid? But she knew even then if her parents found out there would be trouble - her parents hated humans. Looked down on them as being… well, food. They would sneer about Vincent's parents when they thought Nora wasn't around, and they talked often about how Humans were food, not friends.

Her father would often tell her she needed to not be so attached, because she'd be eating people someday. Nora never wanted to eat a Human, not ever! She would be different. She'd be Human, like Vincent, and live with him and his family and forget all about brine magic or the Ocean's Song her parents seemed to think she was so good at.

All was fine until middle school, and puberty. When a marriage pact started to sound less like a way to stay friends and more like a way to be lovers. Neither of the kids were aware that Vincent's mother shipped them together, nor that she would make such a big deal of when Nora would again craftily suggest they should renew their 'marriage' vows, when Nora thought Vincent was getting cold feet.

They both could have died from embarrassment when his mother insisted on making a production of it, but secretly Nora couldn't have been happier. They really wanted her as part of the family. And if nothing else, as puberty hit them both, Nora's crush on the boy next door had only deepened further from puppy love into… well, real feelings.

The summer before high school started was pure bliss. The last real freedom she would have for many years. And there was Vincent, her constant shadow and companion, complaining about how he'd never even kissed a girl. As if she had! She wouldn't kiss anyone other than Vincent himself. But always the bold one - and having prepared via magazines and tips from the Internet - Nora told him she'd show him. As if she had any more idea than he did. But she was always bolder than him. And it meant he would get to have her first kiss.

It was just like the movies and books had said it would be. A true love's kiss. And his blush when they finished had been so cute.

But dark times were soon to follow. Because Vincent's mother, as lovely and excitable as she was, was careless making their 'vow renewal' such a huge deal. All the kids in class knew, then their parents, and finally… Nora's parents. Who now realized their 14-year-old daughter was in love with the Human boy.

They fought, bitterly, but there was nothing she could do. She was forbidden from seeing him outside school, from going over to his house, for no Merfolk daughter of theirs would be fraternizing like that with Humans. Instead she was shoved into the activities she had so skillfully managed to avoid by spending as much time at the Davis' as she could, like swim team and choir, and the only friends she could spend time with were the fellow Merfolk and Selkies at school.

Nora and Vincent drifted apart. She was just so busy now with all the stuff her parents forced her into and maintaining a secret friendship was so hard. Plus when, out of desperation to stop getting hounded about the marriage pact by her parents, she started dating a Junior Merfolk boy, that seemed to spell the end with Vincent. They disliked each other, and though Nora didn't stay with him for long, Vincent started dating Heather not long after and Nora reluctantly let him go. Marriage pacts were silly, anyway. They were only kids. What did they know, anyway?

She was 16 when her parents made her eat her first corpse. She didn't want to, but with the threat of being forced by the Ocean's Song over her head if she didn't, Nora did it. They would make her eat 5 more people before she turned 18 and left for college. None of her Merfolk boyfriends understood her aversion. And she had many over the years.

Nora chose a college out of state, just to get away from her parents, and decided to go to school to become a veterinarian. All the time she had spent around the Davis' house and their rescue had an impact on her. She went no contact on her parents for the first few years, choosing instead to rekindle her relationship with Mrs. Davis, who had always been like a second mother to her. She found out from her when her parents moved from Snow Haven 'for an extended vacation' - and Nora knew that to mean they had returned to the ocean. It wasn't until that happened that she felt safe enough to get back in contact with them, now that they could no longer influence her life among the Humans.

So she moved back home to Snow Haven once her degree was finished, to take up work with the local veterinarian's office. Nora was disappointed to learn Vincent, who had also gone to school out of town, chose to work in Georgia rather than come back home. But she still got to spend time with Mr. and Mrs. Davis, who still saw her as their daughter, and that was good enough for her. And she was devastated when Mr. Davis died.

With her parents finally out of the picture Nora was able to talk with Vincent when he came home for the funeral - the first time they had spoken in years. But it was too late for her to make anything of their relationship together. Vincent was married to Heather, with a child and another on the way, happy and thriving and living a Human life Nora could only ever dream of. He returned home to Georgia and she to her life in their hometown, quietly broken-hearted over something that could never be.

She's not quite sure what she wants to do with herself, yet. She has Mrs. Davis, her practice, and her patients - but the past few years have been nothing but draining and lonely.

Nora is a typical Mermaid, who uses her Ocean's Song mostly on the animals she works with. She has eaten people before but only at the insistence of her parents, who aspired to keep her young and beautiful from the moment she came of age. It makes her sick and she refuses to do so otherwise unless injured or desperate.

Nora has a complicated relationship with being a Merfolk. She came from a family where Humans were food, not friends, and yet she was in love with the Human world. She would give nothing more than to give up her natural form and her brine magic and stay a Human forever. She hates the fact Merfolk eat people and is disgusted and appalled by it, especially because she was forced to consume corpses herself.

Similar to their supernatural cousins the Selkies, Merfolk possess the ability to access an ancient source of magic called Brine Magic. It is a branch of magic very similar to that of a Selkie's sea magic, but brine magic comes from deeper, darker waters.

Thanks to their brine magic, Merfolk primarily have the power of water elemental magic and weather manipulation. The level and power of their brine magic differs from Merfolk to Merfolk, but all Merfolk can wield this type of magic.

Ocean's Song

Also a part of their brine magic is the ability known as the Ocean's Song. When a Merfolk sings, their voice becomes hypnotic and they are able to impose their will on Humans. This is mostly used when luring Humans for food. Though it is primarily used through singing, a Merfolk can also use this ability when whistling, talking in a sing-song voice, humming, or otherwise doing something other than plain speech.

All Merfolk gain access to this immediately, but the level they can impose their will and control a Human depends on age and differs from person to person. The Human has no memory of the event and is left confused and disoriented after the use of the Ocean's Song.

Other supernatural creatures can also be affected by the Ocean's Song, but to what extent is determined by both the person in question and the Merfolk's power. Some may be more susceptible to the song than others.

Granting Wishes

Another ability Merfolk can perform due to their brine magic is granting wishes. Who gets wishes is determined by both the Merfolk in question, and more broadly by the brine magic.

Each person, regardless of species, can have three wishes total granted by a Merfolk over the course of their lifetime. A different Merfolk can each grant one wish, or one Merfolk can grant them all, but a person can never receive more than three wishes from the Merfolk as a whole.

The rules that govern the brine magic's wish granting is unknown. What is known is there are no restrictions on what can be wished for, as long as it is not impossible. The wish can't break the laws of reality or physics, and it can't turn Supernatural creatures into something different, or turn them Human. But it seems as though the wish can be granted if it is anything else.

However as with all magic of this type, there is a catch: the wisher must be careful what they wish for, because what they receive might not be exactly what they intended when they wished for it. Merfolk grant wishes at their discretion and the brine magic can choose to interpret the wish differently if the wisher isn't careful.

Merfolk can bring people back from the dead as a wish. These people are brought back as Ghouls following the rules of reanimation found in the Ghouls thread.

Her natural form is that of a siren, and it changes little from her human appearance. Her golden hair and bright blue eyes remain, though her hair is much longer and streaked in seaweed and seashells as if hair ornaments. Her tail is a typical mermaid's tail of a deep, shimmering blue, however the scales travel up from her hips and create intricate patterns across her belly and lower back. Her neck, arms, and chest remain bare, with smooth, almost pearly iridescent skin.

Merfolk can transform between their Natural form and their Human form at will, and can go on land whenever they want. However, there is a limit on how long they can be out of the water.

Ocean's Call

Merfolk 'dry out' the longer they're on land, and must return to the water and their Natural form to rejuvenate themselves. This need to return to the water is referred to as the Ocean's Call.

How long each Merfolk can remain on land without needing to return to the water differs from person to person. Some might need to return more often than others. However all Merfolk must obey the Ocean's Call and return to the water at least once a month on the full moon, following the lunar cycle and the tides.

Any Merfolk who is unable or prevented from doing this risk severe complications and death until they are able to return to the water. They will die if they do not return by the second Ocean's Call.

Merfolk can return to any body of water large enough to fully submerge themselves in. They must remain in the water for a minimum of 12 hours, which usually coincides with dawn of the following day, though it is better and healthier for them to remain for a full 24 hours.

Once that time has passed the Merfolk is allowed to return to land in their Human form for however long they wish.