The Serpent

The Serpent is a creature in the shape of a human girl in her twenties, with eel-like features.

Appearance

algae green, scaleless skin with darker stripes on thighs and upper arms. It is smooth and very slippery, like the skin of an eel. On her neck there are six gill slits, pulsating rhytmically every time she takes a breath underwater. Her eyes are big and round, circled by pinkish-red skin and with bright yellow irises that glow in the darkness: their unnerving glare is the first and often the only part of her that can be seen in murky waters. They are wide open most of the time to capture as much light as possibile in her dark environment, leading to a constant, unflinching stare. Her nose is small and upturned, her lips fleshy and pale pink. Her look is almost always blank, her face inexpressive due to underdeveloped facial muscles. The teeth are sharp and jagged, roughly triangular in shape, useful for holding and tearing apart The Serpent's prey; they are not well visible if she doesn't open her mouth wide. She has a flowing mane of black hair reaching down her back, trailing behind her like a veil in the dark waters. She has a lithe build, streamlined for fast swimming and long limbs for reaching into holes and caves. She has modest but firm curves and is equipped with normal female genitalia. Her hands and feet are webbed, with elongated fingers ending in short, pointy, rock-hard nails. Being a ovoviviparous creature, she lacks a navel. She is 1,75 meters tall without the tail: her tail accounts for another 2 meters, being longer than her body. It's muscular and powerful, primarily used to propel The Serpent through the water with sinuous movements. It has a membranous fin running down the last third of it. Being a wild creature, she wears no clothes and has no concept of modesty.

Personality

The Serpent is curious and inquisitive in the water, confident in her speed, manouverability and natural weapons. She will inspect any unfamiliar object in the water, slowly circling around it before coming closer to inspect - often with a quick bite. She will not back down when threatened, unless in a situation where she is too tired to generate a shock against a much larger opponent. In these conditions she will retreat to shallower waters, find a hole to hide in, or even climb on land. On dry land she is the opposite: skittish, nervous and prone to diving back to safety at the slightest sign of danger. Food is a central priority: The Serpent standard response to the unknown is a taste test. She loves a gift of food and being fed, and gets frantic if she can't find something to eat when hungry. She doesn't like the taste of human flesh, and is especially disgusted by clothing and how it gets stuck in her mouth and throat. She is very possessive over food and displays aggression when eating. The one thing that terrifies her in the water are large predatory cetaceans that hunt in pods, such as orcas and pilot whales, since they are too big to be effectively electrocuted, can keep up with her speed and attack in numbers. Capabilities: obviously a naturally excellent swimmer. She is fast and can turn quickly, with accelleration that allow her to swim blisteringly fast for short distances, while also capable of anchoring herself to the seafloor and keep completely still in ambush. Her skeleton has a high percentage of cartilage, allowing her to bend her elbows and spine backwards more than 90 degrees, along with other extreme feats of flexibility. Her intellect is human level, but she is incapable of speaking human language due to lacking vocal chords: she instead expresses herself via hand gestures and swimming patterns that convey her state of mind. While she can't talk, she can make sounds such as clicks, growls, chirps and vibrating hums. She could potentially learn non-verbal methods of communications, such as drawing, writing or sign language. She can also learn to understand human languages with enough time. She has strong regenerative abilities and will recover from injuries quickly: even deep wounds heal in a matter of days. Her teeth grow back in roughly a day if she loses them (which happens fairly often when fighting struggling prey). She can live in both saltwater and freshwater. She also has lungs to breathe air, but they are less efficient than her gills so she is often short of breath. She walks slowly with uneven steps, hunched over or crawling on all fours when tired, dragging her tail behind her due to its weight. The Serpent is capable of electrogenesis, the generation of an electrical field via biological means. Her electrical organs are modified muscles that run down the entire lenght of her tail. She can use this ability in two ways: Electrolocation: The Serpent can generate a low-intensity electrical field to sense animals and objects in a 360 degree radius around her with perfect accuracy by detecting the disturbances. This weak electrical field is not tiring to use, so she can do it freely. It cannot be used on dry land since currents don't propagate through the air. Electrocution: she can also generate powerful electric shocks to stun or kill sizable prey or deter predators. Her shocks are strong enough to paralyze an adult man (which tipically results in drowning) or outright kill them, and drive away large animals such as sharks. Generating electrical shocks is taxing on her body, and she needs to eat and rest after doing so. She can shock at full power two times at most before becoming exhausted. In the water she can shock up to one meter away: the closer she is, the more powerful the shock. Out of water, she needs to physically touch the target to electrocute. Behaviour: The Serpent usually frequents coastal areas and freshwater systems, but occasionally pushes out farther at sea to hunt when food is scarce, though she is not comfortable in the open ocean. She loves to curl up in underwater caves to sleep. The Serpent preys on small to moderately sized aquatic animals. She is a versatile hunter, adept at ambushing by hiding in holes between rocks or aquatic vegetation but also chasing her prey down with superior speed. She will snap up smaller animals with her hands and teeth and maul larger prey by latching on and biting chunks out of them, electrocuting them into submission if they fight back. She can be active during day and night, but will not go on land during the day since the sun quickly dries her skin. Similarly, she avoids fire and other source of heat. The Serpent does not instinctually use facial expressions for communications like humans do, but will try and mimic human faces if she spends time with someone. Unlike mammalians, tail movements are not part of her body language. She is territorial over hunting grounds and will chase away potential competitors, needing to eat often due to a fast metabolism (her food intake increases even further after generating strong shocks). Her relationship with humans is one of wary, teasing curiosity: she stalks small boats and divers, sometimes pranking them by splashing water when their back are turned, tripping them into the water, giving them light electrical zaps and generally giving them a scare. She does not normally target humans as prey, but will charge, bite or painfully shock perceived threats. She particularly dislikes speargun fishers in her hunting grounds. On land she will try to avoid humans and will retreat in case of encounter. The Serpent is not a social creature and will be quite confused by friendly contact, but could become approachable with peaceful intentions in a comfortable environment. The Serpent is ovoviviparous, so her eggs will hatch inside her womb before she gives live birth to one or two offsprings after around 8 months. Eggs can be also fertilized by human sperm. She has never reproduced before.