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Description
The Seabee is a creature that has one of those names that perfectly describes the critter as a whole. It is a species that looks like a bee and lives in the sea. While it indeed has the appearance of a bee, it is by no means a real one. It is an insect, but it is not in the same family as those little honey makers. The "wings" you see on its back are not used for flight, but are specialized gills that allow it to live its aquatic lifestyle. What also helps with survival is their heavy carapace, which features segmented plates for both mobility and defense. The abdomen is capable of bending and flexing, which it uses to propel itself like dolphin's tail would. To further help with swimming is its hindmost legs, which have broadened and flattened into paddle-like structures. The Seabee spends most of its life near the bottom of the ocean, skimming across the floor as it searches for prey. Their sharp mandibles and clawed front limbs help catch prey as they glide through the water. Their gills are capable of flapping and vibrating like wings would, but they are used to stir up sediment and scare hiding morsels from their homes. While swimming over rocks and coral, it will shake and rub its wings to startle hiding prey and force them to flee. That is when a mighty push of its tail will cause it to surge forward so it can grab the running meal. All in all, the Seabee is a rather simple creature that lives a nice, plain life, to the point where I originally though there wasn't much to write about this species. Doing some digging, though, as led me to discover something truly unusual about the Seabees. Well, more about how people see the Seabees. Ocean creatures and mysterious beasts of the deep do capture the imagination of sailors and fishermen, but the Seabee is something truly special. And that is that this simple species seems to have the ability to make people lose their freaking minds.

Now you may think that I am talking about some strange psionic power or mind control ability that the Seabee has, but no. What I am talking about is how sailors, fishermen and folk of the sea seem to go absolutely crazy when they encounter this creature. You think Ningen, Venom Dragons and Hydromancers would be the most terrifying things of the sea, but those all pale in comparison to the Seabee. The stories I have heard about these creatures is truly mind boggling, and I can't help but wonder if saltwater and sun poisoning are the true sources of these tales. At first I thought people were tugging my roots, but several colleagues have confirmed that such things are true. It starts when a Seabee is brought aboard a vessel, which can happen by either accidentally catching it in a net, or hanging close to shallow water and having it latch onto the side of the boat. When it climbs aboard or is hauled to the deck, the crew will take notice and that is when the madness begins. Apparently when sea-faring folk encounter this creature they go into a full blown, uncontrolled frenzy. This not your usual panicking due to an odd looking fish, this an absolute, frothing, mindless sweet-death-take-me-now unhinged state of madness and fear. When faced with a Seabee on the ship, people will: run around like mad men, scream uncontrollably, flail about in a shrieking fit, barricade themselves in the hold, throw themselves overboard, throw other people overboard, rush to the lifeboats then throw themselves overboard, cry out to the gods for mercy, scream to the gods in despair, throw fellow crew members at the flopping creature in hopes of saving their own skin, or (if all that isn't enough) set the whole freaking ship ablaze while everyone is still on it. I kid you not, this is totally a thing. I have not seen it myself, of course, and that is because I am not a fan of sailing. I only go out to sea if there are no other options, and when I do, I usually hide in the belly of the ship the whole time because saltwater does not do good things to plants. So far I have not dealt with this lunacy, but some of my colleagues have witnessed this. Even outside of their recollections, I have heard sailors talk about the one time they met a Seabee and they tell these stories with the same grim tone as one would use for war stories. One fellow told me how a Seabee climbed aboard their ship once, and the crew decided that the only course of action was to ram the vessel into a reef. The crew spent the next two weeks barely surviving on that spit of land, but to this day, the man seems adamant that they did the right thing. For some odd reason, Seabees are feared more than sea serpents and Hydromancers, and I have no clue why. They are not too adept at land-based movement, so they either flop about or scuttle awkwardly across the ground. They will flutter their gills rapidly, creating a weird hissing/buzzing sound as they do it. They also pose very little danger, save for a nip from their claws and mandibles. However, such a statement would be considered false in the eyes of these sea men, as the Seabee, to them, is a truly deadly creature. It is not the claws and mandibles one has to fear, it is their cursed stinger and the horrors it brings.

Much like the bees they are compared to, Seabees possess a stinger at the end of their abdomen. This is a defensive structure that is used to ward off predators and keep attackers from nipping at their tails. The venom in this stinger only causes a brief burning pain, which is meant to buy time for the Seabee to escape. It is by no means fatal, or really that damaging. It is just a painful sting that will go away after a few hours. No big deal, or so you would think. To the seafaring community (and a surprising amount of other folk as well) the sting of a Seabee is a cursed thing. It is referred to as the Mark of the Seabee, and it is something truly horrifying. Those who are stung by the Seabee are forever damned by the ocean itself. To bear the mark and be in the presence of the sea is to bring death and destruction upon you and anyone nearby. In some cases, being anywhere near water is enough to trigger the foul curse that the mark brings. What this supposed thing does is quite vague, as they just claim that the Mark of the Seabee shall bring ruin to you and all those that are nearby. Most of the tellings I have heard have just ended with storms hitting the ships and the bearer winds up being swept out to sea or being thrown overboard by their fearful crew. Honestly, I kind of find it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get stung and your fellow sailors start panicking with the thought that your mark will spell their doom, so they chuck you overboard and you drown. Then people start saying that the mark is s symbol of death, despite the fact that they are the ones who do most of the killing. It is crazy, and that's not the end of it. Those who get stung and bear the mark will go into self-imposed exile, fleeing the ocean and all water bodies. They fear that the water will trigger the mark, so they run to arid places to hide. In the end, it does not matter if they flee or not, as the mark may still claim them. One story talks of a sailor who fell down a well and drowned just mere months after being stung. Another fled to the wilds, but wound up dying from a gut disease due to drinking from a foul pond. One tale tells of a man who died of a heart attack hours after drinking water, and there is an even more chilling one that is about a fellow who swore off drinking water forever but then still died anyway! Oooooo! Scary! Cripes, I can't even believe I am writing half of this stuff. How so many people can be afraid of the Seabee to such a ludicrous degree is a mystery for the ages. Maybe I am in the wrong and there is something to all this, but I feel that this is all some serious overreacting. If a Seabee winds up on your boat, how about you just toss it back into the ocean?

Chlora Myron

Dryad Historian

-----------------------------------------

Though it technically isn't a mermaid and it wasn't drawn for Mer-May, I figured why not?

Description
The Seabee is a creature that has one of those names that perfectly describes the critter as a whole. It is a species that looks like a bee and lives in the sea. While it indeed has the appearance of a bee, it is by no means a real one. It is an insect, but it is not in the same family as those little honey makers. The "wings" you see on its back are not used for flight, but are specialized gills that allow it to live its aquatic lifestyle. What also helps with survival is their heavy carapace, which features segmented plates for both mobility and defense. The abdomen is capable of bending and flexing, which it uses to propel itself like dolphin's tail would. To further help with swimming is its hindmost legs, which have broadened and flattened into paddle-like structures. The Seabee spends most of its life near the bottom of the ocean, skimming across the floor as it searches for prey. Their sharp mandibles and clawed front limbs help catch prey as they glide through the water. Their gills are capable of flapping and vibrating like wings would, but they are used to stir up sediment and scare hiding morsels from their homes. While swimming over rocks and coral, it will shake and rub its wings to startle hiding prey and force them to flee. That is when a mighty push of its tail will cause it to surge forward so it can grab the running meal. All in all, the Seabee is a rather simple creature that lives a nice, plain life, to the point where I originally though there wasn't much to write about this species. Doing some digging, though, as led me to discover something truly unusual about the Seabees. Well, more about how people see the Seabees. Ocean creatures and mysterious beasts of the deep do capture the imagination of sailors and fishermen, but the Seabee is something truly special. And that is that this simple species seems to have the ability to make people lose their freaking minds.

Now you may think that I am talking about some strange psionic power or mind control ability that the Seabee has, but no. What I am talking about is how sailors, fishermen and folk of the sea seem to go absolutely crazy when they encounter this creature. You think Ningen, Venom Dragons and Hydromancers would be the most terrifying things of the sea, but those all pale in comparison to the Seabee. The stories I have heard about these creatures is truly mind boggling, and I can't help but wonder if saltwater and sun poisoning are the true sources of these tales. At first I thought people were tugging my roots, but several colleagues have confirmed that such things are true. It starts when a Seabee is brought aboard a vessel, which can happen by either accidentally catching it in a net, or hanging close to shallow water and having it latch onto the side of the boat. When it climbs aboard or is hauled to the deck, the crew will take notice and that is when the madness begins. Apparently when sea-faring folk encounter this creature they go into a full blown, uncontrolled frenzy. This not your usual panicking due to an odd looking fish, this an absolute, frothing, mindless sweet-death-take-me-now unhinged state of madness and fear. When faced with a Seabee on the ship, people will: run around like mad men, scream uncontrollably, flail about in a shrieking fit, barricade themselves in the hold, throw themselves overboard, throw other people overboard, rush to the lifeboats then throw themselves overboard, cry out to the gods for mercy, scream to the gods in despair, throw fellow crew members at the flopping creature in hopes of saving their own skin, or (if all that isn't enough) set the whole freaking ship ablaze while everyone is still on it. I kid you not, this is totally a thing. I have not seen it myself, of course, and that is because I am not a fan of sailing. I only go out to sea if there are no other options, and when I do, I usually hide in the belly of the ship the whole time because saltwater does not do good things to plants. So far I have not dealt with this lunacy, but some of my colleagues have witnessed this. Even outside of their recollections, I have heard sailors talk about the one time they met a Seabee and they tell these stories with the same grim tone as one would use for war stories. One fellow told me how a Seabee climbed aboard their ship once, and the crew decided that the only course of action was to ram the vessel into a reef. The crew spent the next two weeks barely surviving on that spit of land, but to this day, the man seems adamant that they did the right thing. For some odd reason, Seabees are feared more than sea serpents and Hydromancers, and I have no clue why. They are not too adept at land-based movement, so they either flop about or scuttle awkwardly across the ground. They will flutter their gills rapidly, creating a weird hissing/buzzing sound as they do it. They also pose very little danger, save for a nip from their claws and mandibles. However, such a statement would be considered false in the eyes of these sea men, as the Seabee, to them, is a truly deadly creature. It is not the claws and mandibles one has to fear, it is their cursed stinger and the horrors it brings.

Much like the bees they are compared to, Seabees possess a stinger at the end of their abdomen. This is a defensive structure that is used to ward off predators and keep attackers from nipping at their tails. The venom in this stinger only causes a brief burning pain, which is meant to buy time for the Seabee to escape. It is by no means fatal, or really that damaging. It is just a painful sting that will go away after a few hours. No big deal, or so you would think. To the seafaring community (and a surprising amount of other folk as well) the sting of a Seabee is a cursed thing. It is referred to as the Mark of the Seabee, and it is something truly horrifying. Those who are stung by the Seabee are forever damned by the ocean itself. To bear the mark and be in the presence of the sea is to bring death and destruction upon you and anyone nearby. In some cases, being anywhere near water is enough to trigger the foul curse that the mark brings. What this supposed thing does is quite vague, as they just claim that the Mark of the Seabee shall bring ruin to you and all those that are nearby. Most of the tellings I have heard have just ended with storms hitting the ships and the bearer winds up being swept out to sea or being thrown overboard by their fearful crew. Honestly, I kind of find it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get stung and your fellow sailors start panicking with the thought that your mark will spell their doom, so they chuck you overboard and you drown. Then people start saying that the mark is s symbol of death, despite the fact that they are the ones who do most of the killing. It is crazy, and that's not the end of it. Those who get stung and bear the mark will go into self-imposed exile, fleeing the ocean and all water bodies. They fear that the water will trigger the mark, so they run to arid places to hide. In the end, it does not matter if they flee or not, as the mark may still claim them. One story talks of a sailor who fell down a well and drowned just mere months after being stung. Another fled to the wilds, but wound up dying from a gut disease due to drinking from a foul pond. One tale tells of a man who died of a heart attack hours after drinking water, and there is an even more chilling one that is about a fellow who swore off drinking water forever but then still died anyway! Oooooo! Scary! Cripes, I can't even believe I am writing half of this stuff. How so many people can be afraid of the Seabee to such a ludicrous degree is a mystery for the ages. Maybe I am in the wrong and there is something to all this, but I feel that this is all some serious overreacting. If a Seabee winds up on your boat, how about you just toss it back into the ocean?

Chlora Myron

Dryad Historian

-----------------------------------------

Though it technically isn't a mermaid and it wasn't drawn for Mer-May, I figured why not?