#merb biology

[coockie8]

The eggs and the Merdol is done, so have some Merb eggs

and Stork in his adorably horrifying Merdol form lol

Merbling, Merblet, and adult Merb forms to follow haha

[far-side-skies]

I based merb biology on several things over the years, but the main ones are otters, hyenas and salamanders. Short, waterproof fur like otters, social structures and teeth similar to hyenas, a few amphibious similarities to salamanders. Very weird semi-mammalian creatures that reproduce via eggs.

Putting it like that...

They're basically the platypus of my lore.

The thing is, the raptors called Stork a frog as an insults because the terradon scientist are frogs (as seen by them ribbeting and their vocal sacts inflating) so, what do you guys think merbs are based on?

I thought maybe Stork is half merb half terradon because his skin is darker and greener than the other merbs we saw but-

[lexiconjure]

embramblate

v. [with obj.]

1 chiefly [BIOLOGY] remove the structures of (a flower, organ, or organ): a muscle being embramblated in the sky.

2 (often as adj. embrambled) make (someone) feel very bad: a minimum of embrambled story.

embrambler n.

early 17th century: from Latin embrambere, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out’ + merpa ‘while merking’ (from merb ‘mind’).

@samrolken

[coockie8]

Okay but like now I would like some depth on what you said about the eggs demanding fertilization. Like, do Merbs go through heats or experience seasonal horniness? I'd love to hear your take on Merb biology. Like, I know you says Ace has a high enough libido to bring in back up but does Stork? You think he's ever needed Finn and Repton at the same time?

Merbs absolutely go through seasonal horniness, but it's relatively individualized, as most Merbs won't lay more eggs if there are still babies in the river; so once every 8 years or so. (This is also the most amount of parenting an adult Merb does once the eggs hatch, as the babies are very much on their own once out of the incubation pond; basically a little trench near the river they dig to lay their eggs in. Mainly because Merdols will 100% eat each other and their parents if food is scarce.)

Merb breeding is a whole thing; they need things to be particularly wet for their eggs to keep, so they're typically only down for breeding during very specific times of year, usually the Hurricane Season, and since baby Merbs are voracious swarm predators for the first 8 years of their lives, Merbs typically don't breed if they know there are Merblets in the river, since Merdols will absolutely eat them.

Breeding too often would mean Merbs would never reach adulthood.

Some Merbs don't leave the water until like 12, but those runts usually don't make it. On a Terra constantly bombarded by natural disasters, it's very much survival of the fittest.

Egg production can be stimulated manually with body squeezing and cloaca rubbing, but they produce naturally when it gets particularly rainy on Terra Merb, regardless of where on Atmos an individual Merb is; their body can sense their home's Hurricane Season.

And while Stork isn't so horny Finn would need backup, having more than one person fertilizing a batch of eggs is ideal in the sense there will be more help in caring for Stork while he's brooding, since brooding Merbs won't leave their eggs even to feed themselves, but they also won't let anyone but the people who fertilized the eggs anywhere near the incubation pond.

I do have a Finn/Stork fic in the works that explores Merb breeding a little more in-debth, but it'll probably be a while before I start posting it haha

[coockie8]

Just because the concept amuses me deeply, I've decided that Merbs in their tadpole stage are, pound for pound, one of the deadliest creatures on Atmos.

They'll eat literally anything that enters the water with them, including their siblings, and a swarm of 20 is capable of picking a fully grown human clean to the bone in under a minute, Hollywood Piranha style lol

[coockie8]

I know you're not really doing much with Storm Hawks at the moment but I had an idea for a fic I have been playing around with and just wanted to hear your thoughts since we had similar ideas about Merb biology.

So the basic idea was, years in the future (everyone's an adult) Finn & Stork have been in a relationship for a while and Stork starts to get ill. Being himself, he panics and recruits Piper to run a whole battery of tests. She gets the results back, he's convinced he's got brain parasites and is dedicating his will. Piper has to interrupt to tell him he's not dying, he's just gravid. Neither of them are sure if it's much better. At least with brain worms, they'd know what to do. What are they supposed to do with an egg and how are they supposed to tell the others?

It's definitely something I'd read lol And I certainly have thoughts about how they could solve their problems, but I lack necessary info and also it kinda pertains to my own fic lol