Uncle Coontail the Swampmaid

Artwork

"**Alright guys hear me out, If stupidity got us 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 this mess... then why cant it get us out?**"
—Uncle Coontail
"**MY LEG-**"
—Coontail upon getting accidently flung into a Wall along with Azure and a random troll after Azure says "MY NECK" and the goblin says "MY EYE" To which Coontail responds "MY LEG-" leaving Azure and the Troll with confused looks
"**Dammit I left my xbox in there**"
—Uncle Coontail after he leaves his "xbox" on the ark when him and the gang got shipwrecked for a while

**Uncle Coontail the Swampmaid** is an character designed by **Frostbite\_Carno.** Uncle Coontail resides in the Jonah's Mythical Ark universe, in an AU of Noah's Ark, where Noah has a twin brother who goes on to save the creatures no one else wants to, and that would be the fantasy creatures and mythical beasts you find in lore and fairytales, including Mermaids, Trolls, Sirens, dragons, unicorns and many more.

Uncle Coontail is Marshy's crazy uncle. He's a minor character, but a fun one.

## Biography

Coontail grew up in the Vallerian swamplands with his brother Cybress, and their parents. Cybress was more of the responsible and more mature one, while Coontail has always been the Goofy one, but they always did crazy stupid stuff together and got into trouble when young.

When he was in his early teen years, he met a female Swamp Siren, and they became great friends and eventually ended up dating for a few years, but her father didn't like Coontail, and he was also manipulative, and he had her break up with Coontail, he never found out why, just thinking that he must've done something wrong, and from his point of view, things didn't work out for unknown reasons. But his brother was there to help him through the breakup.

When Cybress met his wife Crescent and they became husband and wife, a few years later Coontail became an uncle to little Marshy, and him, Cybress, Crescent, Marshy, and 4 other swampmaids who were close friends of theirs were a family, traveling throughout the freshwaters of Valliera.

One day though, they were migrating through a large bit of open water, and his brother Cybress went up ahead to check for danger, Coontail insisted on coming but Cybress said he had it under control. his brother was eaten by a shark that day, and he lost his only sibling, and best friend on that day too. and he blames himself for what had happened.

Fast-forward and Now he's on Jonah's Ark, bunking with Crescent after she let Marshy have her own room to herself. They do love and care about each other, they are family after all, but they tend to get on each other's nerves a lot. Coontail has a little wooden box, and every day he will carve a tiny x onto it to count the days.

(I'll add more to his story and backstory as I think of stuff)

## Appearance

Coontail is a skinny and rather raggedy looking male Swampmaid with messy hair and rough skin. His neck is slightly longer then most swampmaids and he has a wide mouth full of long sharp, pointed teeth, some of which poking out between his lips when his mouth is closed, a long forked tongue, and he has a small tear on the left side of his tailfin. He possesses large fin-like appendages on either side of his head which look like ears, but are actually his gills, but like ears, they do move to show his mood, drooping when sad, perking up when happy, flaring when he’s mad, also these gills are a bit damaged and have a few holes in them, causing him to have a slightly raspy voice and causing him to cough.

He has light brown skin, dark green hair, and a long, light brown tail with reddish green fins at the end, along with the webbing between his fingers of the same colors. He has 3 big black blotches on his forehead and 3 more black blotches on his cheeks. he has three large blotches on his shoulders he also posses countershading, she is a much lighter a brown on his belly then his back. He has big eyes with yellow scleras, orange irises, and black slit pupils, and long black eyelashes on each eye. He has big black spots all over his body and his belly is spotted too.

he gets around the ark by dragging himself along the floor within a small, wooden tub of water.

Coontail doesn't wear any clothes, but he does have a coontail growing on his chin, making it look like he has a goatee, and he's always got his trusty spear at his side.

## Personality

Coontail is a bit of a kook and sporadic, he often says crazy things that don't make sense, and will usually just say whatever's on his mind regardless of what other people might think, he's one of those uncles at family reunions who occasionally says one of those "I'm just saying what we're all thinking"

Despite his demeaner, Coontail has a pretty grim outlook on life, he's got sort of a "Life sucks then you die" stance on it all, though it could just be viewed as another one of those ridiculous things he says that is what he thinks.

Some of his loves include music, singing, and entertaining, He also cares very much for his family and loves doing stuff with them and will do his best for them, and his best to cheer them up if something is wrong even if he doesn't know how, but he tries his best. for example there was a time the ark got shipwrecked and Lily (Marshy's pet frog) was nowhere to be seen, and presumed dead, but he got her a toad to help cheer her up and make up for Lily not being there, its the thought that counts suppose.

Though undeniably sweet, he is rather eccentric, often shown to be very excitable, in spite of serious situations. He can seem to be a bit depressed at times, but this is only for brief moments. Instead, he's usually optimistic and occasionally even helpful. He usually enjoys dancing ridiculously and making up odd words and phrases. Part of his absurdity and nonsensicalness is a coping mechanism from the fact that he feels somewhat responsible for his brother's death.

## Abilities

Natural Abilities:

* **Jaw Unhingment:** Coontail can unhinge his jaw like a snake
* Constriction: Like a lamia, he can squeeze the life outta things with his tail.
* Puffing: he can puff himself up like a pufferfish by filling his body with water or air until he is much larger and almost spherical in shape. While in this state he can use his larger mass to crush an opponent with a belly flop, or be used as a beachball.
* Stomach acid: Coontail can spit his stomach acid at a potential enemy in an attempt to use said stomach acid as a defense mechanism.
* Amphibious: He can breathe both air and water
* Expert Swimmer: Being a mermaid, he is an excellent swimmer.
* Ocular illumination: has the ability to project light from the eyes when in dimly lit areas.
* Prehensile tongue: Coontail has a long tongue that can pick up and manipulate small objects

Skillset:

* Woodcrafting: He is an expert woodcrafter
* Musical Talent: believe it or not, the guy is actually a fairly good singer!
* Weapon Proficiency: Coontail is skilled at using his large Spear to stab enemies
* Close Combat: Coontail is adept at close combat. He has the arm and tail strength to twist and snap an enemy’s neck, as well as strangling them or drowning them to death if there is water nearby

## Relationships

### Family

* Cybress: brother (Deceased)
* Crescent: Sister-in-law
* Marshy: Niece
* 4 unnamed swampmaids: close friends that live with them
* Lily: Marshy's pet frog and a way to get high

### Allies

* Cybress: brother (Deceased)
* Crescent: Sister-in-law
* Marshy: Niece
* 4 unnamed swampmaids: close friends that live with them
## Trivia

* Coontail was first mentioned on January 9th, 2022 as a throwaway joke, that haha Marshy has a crazy uncle, but I didn't decide to actually draw him and make him his own actual character until April 6th, 2022.

* I always like to imagine if my OC's had voice actors/actresses, and for Coontail, I think Jim Cummings would be a good fit.
* Coontail's design and colors were inspired by the American toad, and north American bowfin.
* If Coontail had his own theme music this would be it https://youtu.be/TYgOlqinH7A?t=13

I noticed there was no weaknesses thingy in the template and the rules say we can't add new ones so I'm just gonna do it in trivia

* Weaknesses:
	+ **Saltwater:** Swamp Mermaids/Sirens thrive in freshwater and brackish water, but they cant handle saltwater too well, if completely submerged in it, they will die in minutes
	+ **The cold:** being amphibians, Swamp sirens/mermaids probably become sleepy and sluggish when in cold weather for too long, which could leave them vulnerable.
	+ **Bucket Dependency:** Coontail usually doesn't leave his bucket when on land. Without it he can actually crawl around just fine, and is still very good at defending himself, but he cant get places significantly fast or far on foot…because he doesn't have any, he would need to be carried. In the water or in his bucket though, this usually isn't an issue, but on land without it, he isn't getting places very quickly.

## Gallery

an angered Coontail waiting in line to get breakfast on the ark but is getting held up by some lollygagging swamp sirens holding up the line