#and theres a LOT of casual or indirect or even outright rejection of her needs as a merfolk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rxttenfish · 2 months

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honestly miranda's a lot more insecure than she will ever let anyone else know about or even mentally recognize and realize in herself - its just also in such specific and bizarre ways that no one ever picks up on it

#all the care guide says is 'biomass'#its because of the merkingdom. just. theres no mystery this is absolutely why this is #and also the conflict between #merfolk cultural standards and their norms and what the lands cultural standards and norms are like #honestly merfolk dont lose a lot of their neural plasticity when it comes to social behavior even as they age #because being able to keep up with and maintain bonds and match even small changes in their social groups #were large evolutionary pressures that allowed them to function as they do #that its a little like miranda never fully left the part of childhood where youre just a social sponge #which. again. normal for merfolk. normal for even very old merfolk to be constantly learning new social tricks #its just a problem when she comes up to land and the only other merfolk around is bellanda #and theres a LOT of casual or indirect or even outright rejection of her needs as a merfolk #she has all sorts of new body image issues that she never had before #because she got slapped into a situation where people keep treating her badly because of them #this is also why bellanda and aaravi end up being so important as a part of a stable miivt'ia with her #because that plasticity prioritizes by relationship hierarchy #so if ravi and bells are fine with something and even outright indignant about it #then miri will default more to them being the ''norm'' than anyone else #i just like how much merfolk approach socialization and social behavior from the non-mammalian perspective #of effectively just retaining a social learning curve instead of the way mammals will settle into an ''adult'' socialization #and merfolk having the opposite of most mammals #where theyre far more independent as children and way more social as adults #where the lopsided attachment in parent-child relationships actually has the parent being more attached #hmmmm #which now makes me think high neural plasticity would help them with their long lifespans (already helped by being large and coldblooded)#and staving off the effects of aging by keeping their brains healthier for longer #things to thinks upon

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