#(( tbf merfolk are effectively fertile all year long but some nonetheless need that spike

[ravenouswreckage]

What is the Coral Festival?

(( In short — some species of merfolk experience a spike in gregariousness, sociability, fertility/virility, and attraction around the high tide and full moon of either late October or early November. This typically happens with the more spread out species, guaranteeing that they begin to gather together into a single place in larger numbers, and thus helping to improve genetic diversity.

In short, it's basically a heat or estrous cycle. That's all you really need to know.

There's more, too, since these aren't mammals we're talking about, and merfolk experience it differently than you might be typically used to, but that's the gist of it.

Since this is merfolk, and they're a sapient species with their own history and culture, and they all experience this at the same time, they usually make an event of it. Hence, Coral Festival, since merfolk especially connect it to the time when the coral spawns as well. The full name is Habp'll pl'qe ane'jhe Oikahj, which is what Miranda tends to call it, though I default to Coral Festival and Coral Season ( and sometimes Coral Madness, when Miranda especially feels frustrated and wants to complain about her own body, though this is much less "official" ). Miranda actually has a pretty good time of it, having a larger party at her castle for the entire duration, inviting the local High Royals and some of their friends, since she has good reason not to want her fellow Low Royals to be involved. There's food, good company, music, beds, and just about everything you could need for a nocturnal orgy every night for a week.

Every so often I've had her bring along other muses as guests, either being invited or wanting to come themselves, though Miranda tends not to just bring it up on a whim to her friends. Least of all because she's usually pretty distracted, mentally, although she's more "be friendly and sociable and just really want to bond with her friends and be friends with everyone" than how your typical "heat" might be written. There's also the factor of how the entire celebration is in the underwater portions of her castle, and typically solely remains there, which means her land friends need to figure out some way to breathe water to join. However, it also presents some unique lore, and represents one of the few chances other muses have to talk to just normal merfolk, who aren't a part of the royal courts and at most have control of a town or two.