#and exactly in the way you expect: the merkingdom

[rxttenfish]

merfolk in general are just. horrible horrible polyglots. their brains are already hardwired for language and quick language acquisition that remains active all their lives, further helped by retaining a high neural plasticity for their long lives, and especially enjoy complex language and language-based play and problem solving. but they also tend to have a lot of their society arranged where there's often multiple different languages at play within the same area, and only really stops being so once you get into especially small villages that have below the merfolk norm for outside contact. every merfolk alive today knows at least two languages, but most of them know far more than that, especially because one of those two will be the common-technical language. its been standardized and wide-scale implemented across the merkingdom after their dominance, to help bridge the gap between these different languages, basically as a successful version of esperanto. but its a trade language, and is mostly used for information you might want to reach as many people as possible, such as laws or business dealings or public announcements or the like. most merfolk don't view it as and don't treat it as a language proper, and its not what they prefer to converse in if they have another choice, usually finding it pretty limiting and restrictive, which is why its called common-technical.

miranda, being a royal who is regularly in contact with many different people around the merkingdom and regularly expected to be fully able to converse with them to do her job, knows just. so many languages. i might be changing exactly how many soon, but last time i counted it was in the low teens. like its just a perfect storm of her brain being wired for swift language acquisition and having a job that requires it and a position that means shes constantly around people from all around the merkingdom. not to mention having to know english too, which isn't just not her first language, it's not even her fourth language.

meanwhile, aaravi knows english and a little bit of hindi, less because of her mother and moreso because of her nana... its not that her mother never used it with her, but she was. less focused on using it or teaching aaravi, let's say. nana mishra uses it a lot more and is more interested in teaching aaravi when she asks her, especially in the intermittent period after her mom died and nana mishra was able to come back into her life to help aaravi pick up the pieces (though not after aaravi kind of. got left on her own. for an unfortunate amount of time). its just also fallen by the wayside with aaravi's whole Everything Else and kind of having a hard time accepting her nana's help and kind of being terrified of her (of no fault of her nana's, aaravi's just. she's just really traumatized after Everything, alright. having someone try to offer her help afterwards, especially when aaravi's scared of getting singled out as half human and half monster, is just. it's not something she can bring herself to trust.)

[rxttencaviar]

ngl, miri has a teeeeeeny preference for fucking virgins (classic definition, since miranda is also technically still a virgin in the eyes of the merkingdom...... despite the fact that she absolutely has an active sex life, standard for royals)

mostly she just likes the intimacy of it. she likes the excuse to roll out the red carpet and make it something fun and good, not necessarily out of any specific sanctity for the first time, but for the same reason you might have a watch party with snacks and get especially comfortable with a friend when you're showing them your favorite movie for the first time. you love it, it's great for you, and you want them to have a good time too, and a good introduction is part of how you help someone love something.

she likes being able to take it slow, to talk them through it. let her confidence show, for sure, but in the more passive way that she only really gets to show off when shes around friends, where she knows what she wants and isn't afraid of everything and is doing something that she's very familiar and self-assured in, that kind of thing.

it's intimate, it's cute, it gets them squirming and flustered and a little overwhelmed in the sweet way that gives you a thrill. she can get them situated on a comfortable bed or couch or other platform with cushions so that they can relax down into it and melt against her. especially she likes how quickly they go limp, exhausting themselves, how easily she can fuck them into sleep. she likes how little self-control they've learned yet, how loud or quiet they can be and to watch their own reactions to all these new sensations that they're discovering for the first time. she likes to especially show off at how good she is, demonstrating exactly what she can do with her tongue or her dick, for instance. partially, yes, because she retroactively likes to ruin all other later partners, who cannot do the exact same things as her and setting their expectations too high, and it really does stroke her ego, but also because of just how big the wow factor is when she can show off how good it can actually feel to do it with a partner.

it's also just adorable how cuddly and sappy they get with her afterwards, and she likes how much they cling to her, how they look at her afterwards, when they're too wobbly and out of it to hide their adoration.

[zeemczed]

MONPROM HOLIDAY HEADCANONS!

-Vicky: Celebrates Hanukkah, but gladly shows up to whatever parties are going around. You would not believe her sweater game. It is too strong. -Brian: Doesn't really celebrate anything personally, but is down for whatever his friends are doing. Goes for the Chinese buffet with Vicky Christmas afternoon. -Oz: Puts up way too much mistletoe, only gets smooched twice. Still considers it a victory. -Amira: Tries to make gifts. Emphasis on "tries". No offense girl but we all know that arts and crafts is not your strong suit. -Scott: Celebrates with his grandma. Makes ridiculously sugar-overload cookies. It is AMAZINGLY wholesome. -Polly: Can't sleep on Christmas eve, spends all day semi-sober until hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps later in the day. See last bit of Scott's entry. -Vera: Turns her brain off for the day and just relaxes with her sis and fam. Interrupting family time gets you a savage beating at BEST. -Miranda: Refuses to celebrate any holiday involving THE MERKINGDOM'S ETERNAL ENEMY, and instead celebrates Fishmas. Which is exactly the same. But with ritually beating those convicted of treason over the year with sacks full of oranges! -Liam: Buys everyone yaoi `zines that he submitted art to under a psuedonym. Gets mildly depressed when no one praises that one piece directly. -Damien: CATALAN STYLE CHRISTMAS. Expect drunkenness, property damage, and poop. -Calculester: Spends way too much on Steam holiday sales. Regrets nothing. Knits pot cozies for all his plants. -Zoe: Camps out near mistletoe hangings to see her ships sail. -The Coven: Celebrates the Winter Solstice seriously, and celebrates Christmas in the superficial Santa-and-Frosty way. Hope will get you nothing but will critique all your gifts, Faith will lecture you about why you shouldn't give puppies as Christmas gifts (unless you're adopting them from a shelter), and Joy just tries to keep her head above water because everyone else is making everything weird. -Aaravi: Tries and fails to gank Santa for his phat lewt. -Dahlia: The 24/7 Gym is still open. She's good. Also she will totally bring you all Cthulhu Caroling whether you want to or not. -Milo: Busy busy busy! Between lawn darts, schnapps-fueled car accidents, and some kid shooting his eye out, Milo's got STUFF to do. -Stu: Shares The Good Stuff. Wakes up New Year's day. -Noodles: REDACTED by order of the O5 Council.

Hit up my ask box and I will craft bespoke headcanons for you!

[royalreef]

(( Miranda’s current place of residence (other than her RV, in the case of her being at Camp Spooky) is a spare castle of the Vanderbilts’. It’s not technically within the border of the Merkingdom, though they do own it, since it was constructed almost solely for the purposes of being a base-of-operation as their royals spent more time getting to officially know the land and the landfolk upon it. 

As it is, it’s perfectly suited for the duality of tending to the new business of working with landfolk, and yet all of the associated needs of the merfolk royals who might be staying there. Before Miranda came to live in it, needing somewhere closer to Spooky High since the Royal Palace is in the middle and bottom of the ocean, it was unoccupied for several years, upkeep managed by a much smaller task of serfs. Now, it’s loosely referred to as the ‘ Schooltime Castle ’ - since that’s its primary purpose.

Privacy is, of course, a major requirement for any Merkingdom royal. The castle is located well outside of the city limits and far away from other houses or settlements, surrounded by a high forest that is, technically, also the property of the Vanderbilt Empire. There is a pretty strict policy on No Trespassing, but there’s no major fencing, only a brick wall that runs through the woods, until you get to the actual castle grounds. There is an access road that winds through those woods to the castle, which can be used to drive up to the front gate.

The castle grounds are surrounded by a thick, strong wall, made in multiple layers of several different materials, and topped with the kind of spikes that could pass for decoration if they weren’t so terrifying. Ever so intermittently there are guard towers, keeping a watch for intruders, though no guest to the grounds would be able to spot the guards inside of them. The main access road leads up to the front gate - which is already a very imposing feature, covered in the image of two leviathans, one flesh and blood and the other nothing but animated bones, wrapped around and over each other. The decoration itself is made out of rare metals, but below it, it’s just as reinforced as the walls themselves, if not moreso. Passage is only allowed in by visual confirmation by the guards and express permission from Princess Miranda herself.

Inside, the grounds themselves are vast and rolling, with plenty of decorative landscaping. From the main access road, a side road splits off, wrapping around a section of an outer wall, which leads down to a private beach, below the cliffs that the grounds are on top of. There’s plenty of statues, and carefully tended greenery, and all the quiet places one could expect to sit down and enjoy some truly fairytale-esque gardens. There are fountains and mer-made water features as well, including ponds and streams, though an astute observer would notice that they are made with saltwater, and not freshwater. The plants were bred and grown with bioluminescence in mind, and the statues are all of mer historical and mythological figures and beasts, and, closer to the castle itself, is a large, sandy area for sparring and fighting practice.

The air smells of the ocean, and truly none could miss of exactly how the castle is made into those oceanside cliffs as they come up upon it. It does tower up, like castles do, with tall turrets that observe the castle grounds and well out over the sea. But so too does it dip down and over the side of the cliff, made firmly into the old stone, and contrasting against it with crisp white and regal metallics. It has tall, proud windows that let in plenty of light, and a wide front entrance with a circular driveway around a large fountain featuring sea life. The front doors are heavy, dense, and feature a woodgrain with the Vanderbilt crest emblazoned on top in gold - a multi-chambered heart, based off of a merfolk’s heart, with tube worms poking out of the arteries and valves like it’s a deep-sea vent.

From there, the castle can almost be described like a maze. Even without exploring the section below ground floor, there are multiple floors and plenty of rooms for every conceivable purpose. The main kitchen is located on the floor right below ground floor, and on the ground floor itself is the medical wing of the Schooltime Castle. There are grand staircases, but there are also very roomy elevators, to make traversing the many floors all the easier. On the uppermost floors, there are impressive patios and porches, places to look out over the grounds or the ocean, and in one of the turrets, there’s even an observatory for the night sky. Everywhere is filled with aquariums, big and small, created to compliment the rest of the décor and housing all manner of sea life.

As you go down, into the sections of the castle made into the side of the cliff itself, there’s more focus put onto showcasing the views of the ocean. Even larger windows, reinforced to handle even the roughest of storms or waves, show off the views of the sea and the coral gardens below that. From here, landfolk visitors would first notice that the castle doesn’t stop, and in fact plunges straight into the waves themselves, with a switch in architecture style closer to something that the Merkingdom itself uses. Unfortunately for them, the underwater portion of the castle is almost entirely locked off them, save for a few specially-made rooms that are underwater, but are completely dry for landfolk visitors to enjoy.

More rooms are also properly sunk into the cliff, carved into the rock and stone that was just walked on top of. In an almost disarming way, it has even more floorspace than the ground floor and above, as it expands into the ground itself, even though it all looks and functions the same as the rooms above.

Miranda’s above-water bedroom is even built into the cliff in this area, though it’s assuredly hard to find for those who aren’t requested inside.

Which only leaves the below-water section of the Schooltime Castle and the coral gardens, and all of the associated secrets, but that’s a discussion for another day.

[royalreef]

@hellsking​ inquired:  "You know, even in my position I haven't come across many merfolk. They don't seem to mingle much with those of us on land." In his limited experience at least. They aren't exactly out in droves here, so even a lone one stands out like a sore thumb. "I can only assume that means YOU are the Miranda my Damien talks about, crown princess of the Merkingdom? It's a pleasure to finally put a face to the name."

      In stark contrast, it hardly takes the mention of Damien for Miranda to recognize a hellborn royal when she sees one. Dealings with Hell tend to be rarer than they used to be anymore, and she’s never been personally involved in such things, and even then she mostly just knows Damien’s dads through, well, Damien --- but, oh, how old habits kick in with a force to make gut instinct quiver in fear at such efficiency.

       Before she had noticed him, before he had spoken ( even with the worst of the differences accounted for, merfolk were nowhere near as reliant on vision as their land counterparts, and things could be easily missed if Miranda wasn’t looking for them ), Miranda was... well, just Miranda. The kind of passive, friendly body language that one might’ve suspected not only from what might’ve already been told about Miranda, but just from what was normal for a student at Spooky High. Fins happily switching position, up and down and forward and back, twitching their tips and listening to the world around her. A tail that swished even as she moved along, all heavy bones and dense muscle made to allow her to swim in the oceans she was made to call home. A smile on toying lips that could’ve spoken of mischief or excitement or play all, bright eyes with pupils that widened from slits into large, circular things, a gleam in them whenever something shiny caught the light nearby.

      But oh, with the voice, with the turn of her head to see Hell royalty, to understand abruptly that she was in the presence of another royal --- in an instant, she changed.

      Where there was the warmth of life and simple youth there came a rigidity. Back straightened with sudden shock like she was electrocuted, and fins that had never seemed to stay still now abruptly were. Held back and lifted in a friendly way, a strange pseudo-relaxation that implied confidence, but... was stiff and sudden, straightened like a board. To call every muscle in her equally as stiff wasn’t exactly right, she looked calm and in her element at first glance, but... Unnatural. Puppeteered, almost. Less like she was the one moving into that new body language, looking up at him with thinly slit eyes that betrayed nothing of thoughts that she had no problem showing mere seconds before, and more like she had been moved into position. Something so instant and sudden that even she hadn’t realized it. All the image of a predator at rest, calm and yet dangerous, a royal down to her bones, but watching it happen, watching the abruptness, watching the shift, was... uncanny. 

      The Merkingdom certainly wasn’t keen on sharing too much of what they were, and the existence of Miranda up here, on land, was the biggest outreach they had possibly ever done to show their existence - and in a moment, that alien unknown was all the more prominent. The Merkingdom did not show their hand. They did not walk beyond their own borders without careful consideration, without highest approval. They did not share what it was like, inside their borders, inside their cultures, inside their lives. Not if they could help it.

      And yet Miranda couldn’t help but show exactly how her kingdom’s royals were expected to behave.

      “Indeed, and it is a great pleasure to meet yourself. Do not worry much about only knowing a few of my people - we do like to mind ourselves first and foremost and see to our own. I am sure you can understand the need, and we do enjoy our privacy.” 

      A voice that might’ve laughed before, now came cold. Not the type of coldness that blew with bitter winds, but rather... The stark coldness, coming when there was no heat to be given, no sun to be shared, nothing to hold onto and give into motion. Defined by an absence. Her voice luted with an accent that was half-melody, twisting consonants and vowels into musical notes, but even that remained walked upon strict lines. Her face showing nothing, even when the edges of her lips lifted up in a smile. 

      Somewhere, even Miranda herself realized how those couldn’t be her words, coming from her own mouth, for sure she was saying them, but it wasn’t her. Like watching her own eyes through someone else’s, moving her own body like a ghost in her own home.

                                                 Perfectly trained, as always.

      “I have heard much of yourself from Prince Damien, though I do believe a proper introduction is still in order, if you would so kindly do the honors.”

[royalreef]

(( You know, considering everything, I think Miranda is pretty deceptive when it comes to shipping with her.

Like, I don’t mean it as in she’s being purposefully deceiving! But rather, she’s very easy to get into a ship with. She’s got a lot of charm, and she is a pink pretty princess, and she’s got the talent with flirting that someone can expect from a RO. Not to mention she’s a disaster pan! Someone cute enough looks at her, and she’ll swoon. It makes sense - she’s very much motivated by wanting to have affection and someone who she can trust, really being desperate for any kind of love when the Merkingdom works so hard to deprive her of it. It’s part of one of the ways she can be easy to manipulate - just give her the sweetness she desires, and she’ll have a horrible time breaking free of it.

But that’s kinda the deceptive part. She’s so eager to please! Looks so soft, and sweet, and seems to exist to be romanced!

However, she’s NOT an easy character to ship with.

Like, oh yeah, you can establish a relationship with her! She’s very open to dating and romance! But keeping that ship? That’s a much taller order than you might suspect.

Part of it could be how I view a ship forming as just the beginning of two characters’ journey, but getting Miranda to say yes is the easiest hurdle to overcome. Because, when you establish a relationship with Miranda, now you have to deal with her kingdom. Their attention is pretty much automatically going to turn to you the moment you enter into a relationship with her, and the more serious you get with Miranda, the MORE the Merkingdom is focusing on you. Which is where the real difficulty starts to kick in.

Because the Merkingdom is NOT there to be supportive of her relationships. Even those “approved” by the kingdom are cesspits of all the corruption it deals in. At first, it’s just going to be minor scuffles with the suitors. Then the bigger-name suitors get involved. Then the other royals start to get involved. They are here to do their absolute fucking best to make sure outsiders cannot get ANYWHERE CLOSE TO any princess of theirs.

Nor is it EASY to deal with. Like, to the other character, they begin to REALLY discover the absolute nightmare that the Merkingdom is, and all that they do that’s just, so fucked up. You’ll have to learn about their entire history, and getting into Miranda, you immediately start to deal with the negative effects it’s having on her too! That’s when you discover her really awful traumas, exactly how she’s been abused and the impact its all had on her, and you start seeing the uglier sides of Miranda. The sides she does her absolute best to hide, because they aren’t pretty, or fun, or anywhere near the pink Didney princess she WANTS to be. Plus, finally, you get to see exactly what Miranda’s roles are in the Merkingdom, and like. That’s not an easy thing for anyone to see. That’s not an easy thing to KNOW. Once you start to properly ship with Miranda, you get thrown into the fucking ringer of the sheer amount of bullshit she has to deal with, that the Merkingdom is imposing on her, that is pretty much A DIRECT THREAT TO BOTH YOURS AND HER OWN EXISTENCE, and if you go longterm with a ship! Then y/c is getting A LOT OF THAT RESPONSIBILITY TOO.

You even might think that super powerful or deities as muses would be immune to this, but. Nope! Actually, they have it ten times worse than a nobody! AND BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY. YEAH. THE MERKINGDOM CAN POSE A THREAT ON THAT, IF YOU DRAW THEIR ATTENTION STRONGLY ENOUGH.

There’s two phases when it comes to shipping with Miranda, and one is super easy and sweet, but then you get to the second one like hitting a brick wall. 

One way or another. Miranda ends up killing her loves, more often than not.    

[royalreef]

(( Miranda’s honestly? A LOT different in her rebel verse. Like it is just 5-ish more years in the future with her back in the Merkingdom, and even though she’s involved in the rebellion now, that would be around 2 years that she’s been in full Crown Princess training again, which would have ramped up to prepare her for. Ya’know, being queen, accepting her duties and handling them in a Merkingdom-approved way. 

Superficially, she seems the same - like I don’t exactly have many chances to show it off on this blog, but when Miranda’s in her kingdom and actively involved as a princess representing her kingdom, she comes off as... I’ve described it as a predator at rest, or even a siren. Like she will smile, and come off as impressive and beautiful, alluring to those below her and inspiring them to look up to her, but it’s silk barely concealing a bloody knife. She comes off as intimidating in beauty and in danger both, really giving off the idea that fighting against her is not something you want to do.

And ordinarily, Miranda doesn’t show this? In most situations that I write on this blog, anyhow. And when normal verse Miranda is deprived of that environment and cues, she’ll usually slip into the more playful Didney princess that everyone knows! And yeah, it took a WHILE for Miranda to get that comfortable, but not going back to the palace every night really helped her relax a little.

But in her Rebel verse, she spends MUCH more time in that mindset, even when she’s on land, and even when she’s in situations where her kingdom wouldn’t be watching her. It’s far more default now, to her.

That being said though, she DOES have a place where she can relax again, and that’s specifically involved in situations where she feels like she can trust someone, in closed spaces where she knows she's not being watched. Miranda is far closer to that kind of, relaxed, playful, indulgent princess that she normally is on this blog, but she’s not the SAME anymore.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but when Miranda’s around a particular kind of enabler friend, who she really trusts, like Bellanda or Damien? She can get VERY excitable and VERY much lose any respect or consideration for the crown and her title. It’s rare, so Bellanda’s really the only person who it truly happens around, and even Damien is a much smaller case, plus Bell’s the person who really ENCOURAGED it to form as a habit, being as she was always the black sheep of the family to stretch the rules and to give much less of a damn about regality. And now, with Miranda as having joined Bell’s rebellion, that side of her has only been encouraged to grow even moreso.

Plus, now she’s actively hanging out with others who are majorly involved in the rebellion, actually talking with her servants and serfs (there’s a difference, in the Merkingdom), and just? Generally being in situations where, when she relaxes, it’s around other rebels.

Which produces! A really weird effect together, whereas while Miranda still appears to live up to every expectation the crown has upon her for all the time she lets the world see her, when she’s around people she can trust, she becomes much more IMPROPER and crass, openly disrespecting the Merkingdom and talking about shit she would never talk about in her normal verse! It’s like she finally managed to remove the stick from her ass that she seems to have in her normal verse, even when she IS relaxed, and now can just be. Much more open with her emotions and thoughts? So long as she knows the people around her won’t sell her out for it, she’s SO much more giving with her feelings, and she’s finally figured out a much more healthy outlet for all her dissatisfaction and hurt that came from the Merkingdom.

TL;DR: Miranda can say fuck in her Rebel verse, and this fact shakes me to my core.    

[royalreef]

@preparetodie​ inquired:  "HEY UM. SO. I- I uh. I know you're not having the... *best* time with this holiday. B-but, if you wanted, I uh..." Aaravi finally managed to stick her courage to the sticking place when not surrounded by a crowd of students, before faltering and just holding out a box of Pocky and extremely avoiding eye contact.

      For a moment, Miranda blinks in the owlish half-confusion of not knowing why Aaravi pulled her aside. The fluttery sensation didn’t help either, nor how it manifested in her fins, ever so softly wiggling like little more than a pair of wings. Even the words don’t quite stick right, even as she hears them, though she doesn’t need to hear them for the dusting of red across her cheeks. Mentally double checking and triple checking that she had, indeed, heard them right.

      Miranda wished she could say that a panic didn’t wash over her, as the Pocky box was held out -- oh, oh THAT was why that box felt familiar, as if Miranda hadn’t already been seeing them all day. 

      It wasn’t exactly a topic she enjoyed speaking of, after all. In her kingdom it was an open secret. Something that you shouldn’t mention nor discuss, but was so blatantly obvious that total ignorance was impossible. After all, the throne had ultimate control over the media. If anything was phrased even slightly in a way that contested with their power, the destruction that would reign down was complete and total. But they had very limited control over what could be seen and immediately understood. And there was no hiding why exactly Miranda never ate in front of anyone else, why she was the way that she was.

      On land... The rules changed. Landfolk knew nothing about merfolk, and for most, Miranda would be the only mer they saw in all their lives. They didn’t know what healthy was for merfolk. They didn’t know the implications in what Miranda said. Even when they got an idea, they often just assumed it wasn’t an issue, that the Merkingdom had it covered.

      And they did. They were just letting it get worse, so long as it didn’t created unplanned problems.

      The same as the overwhelming love in her chest, her other... issue, was something that was better forgotten. If she didn’t address it, it wouldn’t become an issue. On land, she too could pretend that this was normal, this was expected and encouraged, that she didn’t need any reminders of what weakness lived in her heart. What would happen, after all, if the landfolk knew? If they figured it out? Their perception would change, it would change and tarnish, rot at its core. She couldn’t have that. Wouldn’t have that. This place, this home more than home, couldn’t have its paradise ripped from her hands and thrust back into the grinder of responsibility and threats and a life that had never been hers. A meat puppet who’s will was meant to scream at the back of her own head and nothing more.

      ....... She could lie, right? She could do this. If she accepted the Pocky -- and the thought alone of the game she had seen played made her knees go weak and her head sway, merely imagining how nice her lips would feel, how warm -- then she could pretend like... Like this wasn’t what it was. Miranda had done it once! With one person! She had been seen eating - though the idea of that alone made her throat ache, gills flexing on her throat, nerve-endings remembering a deeper hurt, expecting it to close up on itself. If she did it, then maybe, maybe even less people would notice.

      It was then that her mind turned further towards the idea of what the schoolyard game represented, outside of the obvious foodstuff. And the sweet hurt that she could never get enough of became her solace, from the rest of that acid-burn hell.

      “Oh,” escaped her lips, quiet, fins fluttering all the more. Blue light blinked on her cheeks to illuminate how her eyes glanced aside for but a moment, one hand rising to rub delicately at the scales around her gills. To try and soothe the more important connections, under the skin.

                             To say Miranda thought any further about it would be a lie.

     Down her hand trailed, from the delicate red frills, to take ahold of the Pocky box, and deftly slip one out. Her fingers trembled, just a little, as she lifted the breaded end to just in front of her mouth. Did Aaravi know the sheer amount of trust in Miranda’s eyes, as those blue slits turned back up to look at her? Miri didn’t know which answer scared her more.

               “I... I would make an exception for you, if you wanted to play? With me?”

[royalreef]

@candyredmuses​ || ℑ 𝔞𝔪 𝔞 𝔰𝔴𝔢𝔢𝔱 𝔱𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱. ℑ 𝔞𝔪 𝔞 𝔣𝔲𝔠𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔡𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱. (N)SFW CONTENT

 1.  Is your muse a romantic? Do they dream of love and marriage?

Yepppp!!! Miranda has a lot of fantasies when it comes to love and genuinely caring for someone - she is a RO for a reason, after all! She wants to both have someone she genuinely loves and who loves her in turn, to be appreciated and cared for in a sweet way. Just somewhere she can relax. For that reason, she doesn’t fantasize about marriage as much - the Merkingdom has already taught her more than enough about what her being married would mean and what would come of it, but she does have smaller fantasies, about ruling with someone she does love.

2.  Is your muse a deviant? Are they overly flirtatious or forward?

I MEAN... YEAH. She likes to flirt!! So much!! She LOVES flustering those she’s interested in even if she usually reasons it as just liking to flirt as a friendly thing, because she’s that deep in denial hell. Being sexually available, though... Not so much. She’s not shy exactly, but she doesn’t like to discuss openly posturing her partners for sex due to unfortunate connotations.

3.  Is your muse good at kissing? Are they experienced?

She’s uncannily good at kissing, especially in comparison to how she likes to come off as not even knowing what sex is! She’s similarly pretty experienced too, knowing how to really take someone’s breath away. Not to mention all the little noises she makes!

5.  Is your muse comfortable with public displays of affection?

YES. While it depends on the situation -- she doesn’t want to have sloppy make-outs while being seen by her kingdom or a fellow royal -- she LOVES being affectionate in public. She will sit on your lap during lunch. She will cozy up to you while taking a walk. She’s one of those people who will block the hallway because she wanted to make out with her S/O. 

9.  Is your muse attracted to any features in particular?

I HAVE... CONSIDERED THIS WITH DRI BEFORE. There are some things that are just generally seen as SUPER HOT to merfolk, namely: bright glowing patterns (especially in blue), predatory features, sharp claws and teeth, good vocalizations, and scales. They also tend to like... The best way I can explain it is a display around the face that is large and symmetrical. The example that was used was feathers on the head like a secretary bird’s, that when fanned out form a “circle” around the face, with the same also going for stuff like halos when they’re framed behind the head. The reason for this having to do with a mer’s fins, and that kind of display mimics how it looks when a mer fans their fins out. It’s for the same reason that I’ve considered that, in Miranda’s redesign, her crown would be more like a headband, with the spikes pushing outwards and framing the face. It adds an extra intimidation factor too - with a flare of the fins being associated with an angry mer trying to look even bigger.

On a more personal level... I have joked aplenty that Miranda’s two Types are garbage punks and angels. So. Feature by feature, I say... She enjoys thighs/hips, chests, and generally torsos? She likes to see how the body curves and the muscles underneath. Plus good places for her to bite into. Faces too, but that’s a given. Really if you have predatory traits and/or markings, she’s going to be focusing on those a lot. It can’t be helped!

12.  Is your muse easily flustered? Do they blush, swear, etc.?

MIRANDA IS A GLASS CANNON OF A FLIRTER. She can fluster someone to hell and back and hit HARD with her flirting but. If someone flirts with her, she just melts. Just, too blushy, too flustered, her fins will do a big poof and blush and she’ll make flustered squeaks. It’s cute.

13.  Where is your muse most sensitive?

Her most sensitive place of all is her gills! There’s a ton of blood vessels and nerve endings in that area, for very good reason. It’s bad enough that if you try to stick your fingers in her gills, if you aren't SUPER careful and have Miranda’s permission and guidance, it will be so sensitive that it hurts. Merfolk avoid touching each other’s gills at all for this reason, unless they’re getting down and dirty or fighting dirty. 

In a close second are her fins, with a lot of the same reasons. Lots of nerve endings, lots of blood vessels. They function as secondary gills for her, so you can expect a lot of similarities! However, they’re more acceptable to touch. Two mer that are really close, either in a platonic or romantic sense, might lightly kiss the very ends of each other’s fins, in a gesture of trust and deep caring. Basically, imagine forehead kisses.

That being said, the sensitivity on the fins increases as they get closer to the face. The “fluff” you see at the base of Miranda’s fins (when I draw them, at least) is really sensitive and delicate, and if you just really get your fingers in there to play with the fluff, Miranda will be a PURRING MESS. 

Honestly, you could get Miranda off by only touching her fins and gills and nothing else.

Other than those two - Miranda’s mouth/lips, her neck, and her inner thighs are good places! Due to her scales, she’s not super sensitive in general, except around her joints and such, but even then, it’s not a ton. 

21.  Would your muse ever send a sexual text message? Would they send pictures?

NOPE. She would not send sexual text messages, and she would only maybe send pictures. Honestly, she’d have to trust you a lot, and she’d have to know the line is secure and safe before sending anything. If those two are met, and she knows it won’t be seen by anyone else - then she does enjoy showing off and especially flustering those she’s fond of, including sending those pictures at the worst times because she likes distracting people.

22.  Does your muse read smut, own magazines, or watch p-rn?

Oddly? Not really. She just prefers to experience it on her own rather than see or read about someone else. She does have toys and will do it on her own, but I can’t see her as enjoying smut that much.

26.  Do they have sex frequently, occasionally, or rarely?

Depends! She’s used to sex being a means of controlling someone - either her controlling someone else or someone else controlling her, and while she does enjoy it, finding partners is risky as someone with such a powerful title, and that being her main two ways of seeing sex does taint her experiences with partners. She has sex a lot more often when she’s using it as a way to sway people under her control (basically think of like how in canon, she gets the player to unintentionally help her kill the water polo team through promises of going to prom with them), or as a means of risky behavior and self harm. 

Or when there’s the Coral Festival, but the Merkingdom in general sees a spike in those getting down and dirty, and I’m counting her own biology stepping in as cheating.

[royalreef]

@mindsmelded​ || ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔚𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔯

(( Relaxing is a harder question for Miranda than you might expect. Her title already is a stressor all on its own, and it’s in the interests of the Merkingdom to not easily allow its royals to destress. That’s viewed as a royal’s own problem, and the crown sees benefits from keeping its nobles wound up like a spring.

That is why most of her extant relaxation methods tend towards the... destructive, both in general and to Miranda herself.

But there are a few things she has that are soothing on their own.

The first is quite often the simplest. Getting out of the palace, out of the schooltime castle, away from the places of nobility, and quite often away from the Merkingdom itself. The palace itself is known for having unnerving architecture which is both threatening to visitors and draining upon the royal’s own psyche. It’s hard for them to relax within their own walls, by design. 

As a child, that meant how Miranda and Bellanda would sneak out of the palace walls, to explore the rest of the capital beyond. Even recently, Miranda has a habit of going to the palace gardens when she gets stressed and upset - not only as they holding plenty of hiding spaces, but also because it’s calming for her to watch the corals and the animals within.

In that same vein, comes Miranda playing with Sprinkles. Pets overall are good for helping people unwind, and though it’s not exactly common to have a freakishly giant blue-ringed octopus as a pet, the effect is all the same. Sprinkles’ intelligence also serves as a respite for Miri, as she feels like she has a friend to talk to and hug and play with, and even help look after her, without fearing for the repercussions of the Merkingdom.

When Miranda can, she’ll also seek out Bellanda, as her sister is experienced in helping with Miranda’s troubles. The other ROs are another good outlet in a similar way - she’s good friends with them, and she trusts them, even if Bellanda is especially trusted by Miranda in a completely unique way, that which can only come with having to stick up for each other for years.

And then... there are some other things.

Miranda loves toys. Plushies are one of her biggest open vices - while not very visible when visiting the castle, Miranda has a sizable plushie collection connected to her quarters, and she absolutely sleeps with several of them. She’s one of those people who can’t sleep without holding onto a motherfucker something.

But there are other toys too. Namely - some smaller, dangly toys and chew toys. I’ve mentioned it before, but with merfolk being so good at biting and tasting/smelling, they have a massive need for stimulation via biting things. Normal merfolk get it through a combination of food and some chew toys to get those kinds of urges out, but Miranda is notoriously bad when it comes to biting things, including things she shouldn’t. It’s why she can’t have longer necklaces, especially with shiny metal bits on them. Hence, Miranda has a sizable collection of heavy-duty chewy stim toys, that she will try to go to when the urges get really bad, and to prevent herself from chewing on things she could actually destroy. Even if she doesn’t always reliably go to them.

The dangly toys do require a partner or a complicated system, but when she can use them - their shine, noise, and movement stimulate her brain in the same way seeing a moving prey fish would, and she will absolutely chase them down.

The same thing happens with moving lights, especially when they’re blue in color, but not solely. So yes, you can get Miranda to chase after a laser pointer. She will lose her shit over the red dot.

In that same sense, when it comes to calming down, mer do tend to hang up lights around their beds that will slowly pulse in blue. Basically, it’s mimicking the way another mer’s lights would pulse if they were with the individual and felt extremely comfortable and relaxed around them. In their own prehistory, it was common to see one mer keeping watch over the others when they were sleeping, and thus if they were comfortable and relaxed, the other mer would feel safe and secure. It’s soothing to them and helps them drift off, and is recommended when merfolk suffer from insomnia. It’s particularly recommended when mer come to land, and they suddenly have to match their sleep cycles to day/night, and minimizing bad symptoms of that kinda shock to their system.

Hence, if Miranda really wants to chill out, she will turn that light system on in whichever castle bedroom she’s in, and let herself just unwind and calm down.

[royalreef]

@infernalpursuit​ inquired:  was your muse ever forced to do something they didn’t want to? why? did they like it, or do they regret?

(( What else are the expectations of the Throne, if not a list of things Miranda must do and be regardless of her own desires? Why else would they keep such a tight leash on their heir, other than to control her growth? To keep her pruned into the shape that is most useful to them? 

A princess that can freely become anything is too dangerous to keep around, with too much power in all the right places to undo what those currently in power ( and even further back, by sheer process of extrapolation ) have been working on and aiming towards. But a kingdom doesn’t run entirely on the back of one person, nor does its future when that person is gone, so allocation of positions of significant power is a necessity. Yet you must keep those closest to you happy enough to not grow displeased and attempt to topple you, as well as keeping them isolated enough to themselves that they will never bond together to try a similar attempt.

For Miranda, and for her sisters, and her mother, and her family before her, and their family before them, and so on and so forth - that is easiest to attain by simply refusing to let them be anything other than what the Throne wants them to be. You tie their personal happiness and all ideas of success to the maintenance of the crown, and you leave them associating questions and doubts to punishment and terror and failure. Force them to think of the kingdom as they would themselves, and any attack against the kingdom is personally injuring them and their own ego and happiness and security, and they’ll grow into adults who will do exactly what you need them to do. Which is to value the ways that be over anything else, even to their own detriment.

Even if something goes wrong and they fail - well, they’re already cut off from anyone other than you. There won’t be a support group for them to run to, and you can control them utterly.

In a way, Miranda’s entire life is a story of being forced to do things she didn’t want to. Even to the point of making it so she thinks she wants to do these things, regardless of what she actually feels on the subject - which is why, so often, Miranda will feel one thing, but say or do the exact opposite. 

People aren’t born violent, even merfolk. It has to be brought out of them. Give them a culture that rewards them behaving in that way, the choice between hurting or being hurt themselves, and a sense of identity that’s innately tied to trying to fulfill inherently unreasonable standards with the only other choice being seemingly total destruction of everything they’ve known and are - and only then will they become violent.

It’s part of why talking about what Miranda genuinely wants or what would be best for her is... Difficult. Because where she is right now is still only barely taking her first baby steps away from the Merkingdom and the gilded cage she had been kept in for all of her life. She’s having her doubts about things, but that’s just cracks of minor identity crisises leading up to when she can finally, actually question literally everything she’s been allowed to know about the world or herself up until that moment and start making more decisions based upon both who she wants to be and what she wants to do. 

Because Miranda, as she is currently, will sit in place and swear up and down that the kingdom’s wants and needs perfectly align with her own and how DARE you even possibly suggest otherwise. She would say to your face that she loves the Merkingdom and loves being Crown Princess, no matter how difficult, and that she wants to be Queen when the King dies and won’t hear anything to the contrary. Despite the fact that, in her heart, she doesn’t actually feel that way. She hardly feels the Merkingdom is special beyond what merfolk already are and would exist without the kingdom anyways, nor does she feel any particular love towards it beyond the fact that her entire identity has been connected to it.

But Miranda wholeheartedly believes in her own lies, no matter how obvious they might be as lies to everyone, including herself. It would just cost too much for her to even think that much. So she keeps doing what she’s been forced to do and has been forced to do her entire life, and she won’t even say to herself that she regrets any of it. If she did, then all this suffering would be for nothing. All that she is and was and will ever be is suddenly lost, and she’s alone in a world that is relentlessly cruel for her for no reason that she can understand anymore.

There’s a reason that I say, in any good timeline with Miranda, there will come a crisis point where everything just shatters at once, and she’ll need to be around her friends and Bellanda to get her through it. She’s been deeply traumatized, and healing hurts like a bitch.

[royalreef]

@aloveabledork​ continuation from this post 

Perhaps simultaneously the best and worst thing about this was the fact that Miranda didn’t see it coming.

True, she had a habit of both knowing exactly what was going on and having no clue at the same time, but usually she could play it off. It wasn’t hard to, she had to know how to play it cool in all manner of situations, and she had had lessons in the past on how to come across as unruffled no matter the situation. Never one to completely lose herself, she exactly how to come off to others- until she didn’t. 

She was hardly even paying attention that day, pleasantly warm in a way that didn’t push over into sweltering heat, the kind of day that encourages one to stay outside. Even with this warmth, it was fairly grey in the sky, resulting in something dim enough to where Liam could come outside without too much exposure, and resting under the current shade tree just further ensured that he wasn’t about to get hurt anytime soon.

Miranda could hardly remember much of what she was even talking about, making mindless conversation with someone who seemed hardly all the more interested. Looking back, it was probably something to do with her residence in the sea, how beautiful the merkingdoms were, how it felt to be deep enough in the ocean to where you can’t even see the surface- she talked about those a lot. Or, well... Just to those she particularly liked. She didn’t usually take the time to make this kind of sentimental idle talk, at least not with anyone, and with Liam there, she at least felt like he wasn’t going to care about it solely for the royal aspect. If anything, he could laugh about it and pick apart every little thing wrong with it, which Miranda enjoyed, since then she wouldn’t get overtly emotional thinking about it, as Liam’s blunt nature could lead to more interesting conversation than just soaking in nostalgia. Even if he didn’t add in anything, it was both the facts that he could sit through all this unruffled and that he didn’t really care that was able to keep her grounded in reality much easier than otherwise.

She heard him speak up a few seconds after he finished his last syllable, noticing it a little late. She perked her fins and went silent, blinking at Liam in expectation for him to continue the conversation, or cut it off in favor of something entirely different in topic.

That being said, she hardly expected this at all.

When his lips touched hers, she went still, silent, fins fanning out in surprise and her eyes widening before drifting closed. She was melting in his touch before she realized what she really was doing, and reciprocating the kiss came easy as pie to her, not that she realized it. In fact, the only reason she realized he was pulling away was the sudden desire for this to not be over that arose in her mind. Her eyes opened again just as he hid his face behind his phone again, going wide once more. She tried blinking a few times, but she couldn’t help her slack-jawed expression, nor the blush spreading across her face.

She stuttered a few pitiful words, half-snippets of sentences. That is, until her body acted before her mind did, and she was leaning forward again, a delicate, slim hand cupping Liam’s chin. Light aqua eyes stared into yellow, before a small, “You’re precious,” was stated, and she leaned in for another kiss, lips leaving little marks of cherry lipstick on his own.