The Beast Fears Fire - Liminal Merrow

Liminal Merrow [Want 3]
Impulse - To Take You Away

There is a hypothesis, something admittedly difficult to test and with very little strong evidence, that the Other is what Water tried creating as an afterworld for humanity, something that went utterly wrong somewhere, either after humanity rejected the water as a place to rest or during its creation, which led to it being rejected. There are only three points of evidence that lead to this hypothesis. The first is that the pre-Murrenic peoples of the region seemed to think that their spirits were destined for a watery afterlife and were terrified of the dead and the notion of an afterlife, learning spiritual techniques that were meant to hasten their dissolution and return. The second is the fact that the Other transmits through and destroys knowledge, which we associate in a hundred stronger and better proven ways, with Water. The last is the merrow.

Liminal Merrow are slight, waifish folks with pale skin (often tinged yellow-green to blue) and long black hair with with strong green or blue tones above the waist and very impressive greenish or bluish fish below. Most of the time. The are attractive, so much so that it's hard to tell where their features depart humanity; maybe their eyes are too big, their proportions kind of off. It's hard to tell when they are peaking through the wall. Liminal merrow don't swim in the ocean, or any other natural water. They swim in the spaces between, neither here nor there. Within the walls, at crossroads, in hallways between more important rooms. Here they have access to our world from the limitless twilight ocean that separates our world from the Other. They want company.

Harm 1/Peril [Charmed/Drowning] Liminal merrow don't interact with humans in the same way that most denizens of the Other do. The most enduring explanation left by someone who has had experience with them is that interacting with them is like petting a strange cat. They can be extremely friendly, but at some point, they are going to turn over and maul you. In this case, liminal merrow have charm and the ocean between the worlds instead of claws.

Liminal merrow are fairly knowledgeable, can and do like to converse (though they do not like to talk about the Other, understanding what danger that puts the listeners in, assuming the merrow doesn't drown the listeners first.); they are extremely charismatic as well, and can back that charisma up with empathic projection and pheromones to get you to go back to their place for coffee drowning.

Memorized by the Sirens
When you are talking or interacting with a liminal merrow, face Want
On a Hit, things go well, you can continue the conversation, but the merrow might try to pull you in again if the Moderator makes a Soft Move.
On a Hard Hit, the conversation continues and ends without another thought to drowning you.
On a Miss, you notice that you are surrounded by water and in the embrace of a merrow or two, or seven. Suffer Harm as stated.

Someone who has been pulled into the liminal waters has to Act Under Fire to swim free. Alternately, someone else can do the same to try and haul a victim back into the world. On a Miss for the victim, it's trip to Death's Door. A Miss for the rescuer puts them in their intended rescued's same position. It's possible for Misses to also land those who rolled them on the frozen beaches of the Other, which, really, isn't always a lot better than Death's door.

You don't belong to that part of the sea
Liminal Merrow don't seem quite as much a part of the Other as the other denizens we discussed. Accurate accounts of them do degrade, accurate knowledge of them places you in danger, but the Crick Sea People have all sorts of stories of merfolk living in the ocean that cause no harm at all (and, as far as we know, no non-Otherworldy merrow exist).

Crick Sea Folk have a means of compounding liminal merrow scales into cosmetics that greatly improve a wearer's appearance (treat as a D10 piece of Gear for anything social). The cosmetic presents less danger to the wearer than most anything else from the Other does, but it's still probably a bad idea to have the stuff on every day. Also, the cosmetics are traditionally stored in ghostwood, so take notice.

Liminal merrow can change their shape into an entirely human (or at least humanoid, if beautifully alien) form. They have been with human lovers. There are children, that, while rare are the most common (and least squicky) form of Other-child. Stories about these relationships, as long as they are free of most Otherworldly details, are safe for listeners. Also, universally tragic.