Some sketches.

When I started on the sirens, I wanted to combine their monster form and human forms together. The idea I ended up going with is a giant rattlesnake serpent, mixing Western and nautical themes, with frontal arms (I tried referencing the serpent from Genesis). Maple pointed out common Native folktales of monster serpents that live in lakes too. I made their human forms a sort of complex organ at the ends of their tongues (the sirens’ brains are in their snake heads, the human “body” is really just a very precise hand-puppet). When looking at them in insolation, the human body’s meant to look like a mermaid. They work like an angler fish’s lure, tempting unsuspecting, hexed victims into their jaws. Often times, they’ll lay their tongue baits along lakeshores as injured women to lure people closer and snap them up. They also act like a moray eel’s second jaw, grabbing and pulling their prey down their throats. When “inactive,” the human body simply lays inside the snake’s throat. When they speak, you’ll catch glimpses of glowing eyes in the back of their throats. I originally drew them bare-chested, but ended up giving them some modesty since the AU’s theming is family friendly and this is also still MLP. If sexual temptation doesn’t work, they’ll resort to psychological torment and manipulation to weaken their enemy (as you’ll see with Sunset).

They preside in lakes and ponds near small towns. The villagers speak of a hauntingly beautiful wailing from the “dragon’s lair.” And every night a song is heard, a cow or villager disappears.

I’m probably gonna draw some more poses and explorations with the Sirens, I have a lot of fun and creative ideas of how their human organs interact with their snake body.