Meirami Mermaids

Appearance
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Squirt Mermaids aren't the biggest specie of mermaids. The general size of an adult specimen varies between 15' to 30' in length. They look like other mermaids, except their fish half is that of a spinner dolphin. Oddly enough, it only has the *shape* of a dolphin. Some possess scales, while others don't. Their color isn't fixed; it all depends on the individual. Most Squirt Mermaids are rather slim; it's rare to find a bulky one.

Anatomy
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Squirt Mermaids possess their gills in their lungs. They inhale water constantly; the water is pumped in their lungs, keeping only the oxygen. The water is then transported in a second stomach running all along their tail. This second stomach can only store water. This feature is where their names come from; they use the water in their hydro-stomach to squirt jets of water at anybody. If the stomach is filled while still underwater, they eject the surplus of water in the same fashion of urination. However, they can instead choose to send the excess of water in their main stomach found in the human half in case they are dehydrated, though that happens rarely. In addition, they can transfer water from the main stomach to the hydraulic stomach.

Their esophagus as well as their stomach and, to a certain extent, their mouth is very stretchy, but also very compact. This allows them to swallow tons of water in one go, or simply a human for smaller varieties and young ones. They squirt the stored water with tremendous precision, and can control the pressure, thanks to the compactness of their throat. This can turn the water in a potent weapon, or simply to pull pranks. If needed, they can fire the totality of their stored water in one, pressurized water bombshell. This is rather devastating, but they need to re-fill their stomach immediately if they want to fire again.

Their tail is quite strong; it allows them to make acrobatics by jumping out of the water, and is built for fast swimming. They can also use it to stand upright, almost completely out of water, and tread a bit while doing so. In addition, some Squirt Mermaids use it to belly flop on land, by helping themselves with their hands of course. This makes them mobile on land, but their speed is mediocre and they can't make sharp turns. Needless to say, this tends to throw people off balance to see them chase someone on land. But they can't survive long without water to keep themselves hydrated.

Their eyes possess good underwater vision, but they are mostly found at the upper and mid section underwater, they wouldn't last long at the bottom section. Their ears are pretty good to pick up sound waves underwater, or out of water.

Their vocal chords are interesting. They can use it like sonar, and make various noises similar to a dolphin. Their song is pretty alluring, but has a tropical upbeat to it, like that of a Hawaiian Party.

Behavior
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They are the most playful and friendly specie mermaids. They love putting on shows to humans by jumping and making acrobatics out of the water. They can be mischievous sometime. They sometime squirt people in the face, while others steal their lunch. Needless to say, this also makes Squirt Mermaids one of the most intelligent specie of mermaids. There is no telling what they will do to someone, this makes them pretty unpredictable. They also like to help shipwreck survivors, but this happens quite rarely.

Hunting Habits
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While Squirt Mermaids are usually friendly, this doesn't mean they won't eat a human from time to time, if they are big enough. They do this mostly as self defense, they rarely eat peaceful persons. Their diet consists mostly on anything that is small enough for them to swallow, except sentient and sapient creatures like other mermaids, or young Sea Nagas. They are quite voracious too. They also like food humans feed on too, especially fast food.

Society
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Squirt Mermaids are very social. They have no real natural predators, only non sentient creatures would prey on them, and there isn't many too. They tend to be talkative with other merfolks, and like to tell jokes. However, they are pretty weak underwater, so if one of them is injured, then every other merfolks will help her. While they tend to be independent, they love traveling with Leviathan Mermaids.

Habitat
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Most Squirt Mermaids are found in the Topazial Sea, though some were reported in the Jewel River and the Chordoni beach. Most of them prefer warm, tropical water over fresh water. They are usually found at the upper and middle section underwater. They tend to avoid the bottom as they stand no chance against the behemoths found there. They are quite common in Merfolk City.

Predators
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While they have no real predators, the few from the abyss that goes to the middle section of the sea pose an enormous threat to unprotected Squirt Mermaids. Orca Mermaids usually preys on them, but attacks from them are rare, and usually the result of an accident. Humans somehow pose a danger to them. Some poachers have the habit of hunting Squirt Mermaids, disembowel them once dead, and sell what is left of them as sea food. This act is considered illegal, and those poachers usually meet their demise to a Leviathan Mermaid, or to Leviathan himself in case of excessive hunting.

Reproduction
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Squirt Mermaids tends to mate around spring, when the warm currents return. They lay eggs that the female and male alternate to incubate. The incubation usually takes a few months before the hatchlings can come out of their eggs. New born hatchlings are not even the size of a thumb, and are constantly under the care of their parents. They feed on plankton until they grow big enough to feed on small fish. They usually leave their parents at a certain age, until then, they are under the care of them, a Leviathan Mermaid, or an Ichthy.

After much studying, it has been discovered Squirt Mermaids and Estuarine Mermaids are in fact cousing species, and why they go along so well together, even mating together in fact.




This is a specie of Mermaids I made a while back. I thought bringing it back here for a check up to make them more Felarya-ish wouldn't hurt. So, you can brainstorm your ideas on them here. Also, I made some slight modification to them, and I did get Zoekin's agreement to have both Squirt Mermaids and Estuarine Mermaids as cousin species.

Pretty good, seems you have a solid enough idea set that still leaves room to add on.

I'm still reading over it, but... if you don't mind a suggestion, you should really do something about the name. When I read "Squirt Mermaid", the first thing that jumped to my mind wasn't a high-pressure stream of water; I was thinking "Squirt" as in "Runt".

I do like the overall concept; I'm still going over it, but it looks pretty good. Not really sure about names, however; maybe Archer Mermaids or Tidae/Tidael/Tidal Mermaids, since the concept seems to be based on the Archerfish (Toxotidae)? Or even Torrent Mermaid? My apologies if the names aren't suitable, nothing else is really coming to mind at the moment.

I called them "Squirt" by the fact they shoot the water from their mouth, like they are squrirting water.

Sean Okotami wrote:

I called them "Squirt" by the fact they shoot the water from their mouth, like they are squrirting water.

Yes, but there's other ways to reference that same concept; Archerfish (or Archer Fish) do the exact same thing. Their scientific name (Toxotidae for the family, Toxotes for the genus) comes from the Greek word Toxotes, meaning "Archer" or "Bowman"; since the Archerfish shoots down its prey with a well-aimed stream of water, much like an archer hits a target.

It could just be a cultural thing, though; I am from the U.S., and there is a kind of soda called "Squirt", among the many other associations the word has. Calling someone a "Squirt" is also a diminuitive, like calling them "Runt" or "Shorty". Maybe that's why I'm having a problem with the species' name, even though I know what you mean.

I didn't had any ideas about a name at the time I made them.

Sean Okotami wrote:

I didn't had any ideas about a name at the time I made them.

I understand; I can't really think up any other names myself.

A significant amount of water moving at high speed or under pressure (such as if you squirted someone) could be called a "torrent" or "deluge", but really, I'm not coming up with much.

Maybe it's best to leave the name as-is, if you don't like the idea of changing it.

As for the Squirt Mermaids themselves, now that I've had a chance to read the entire post, I like the concept a lot. Especially since they're a twist on the typical mermaid; something like a less dangerous/malicious version of Anko. The fact that they're pretty playful and fun-loving and not necessarily always out to fill their stomach with food makes them interesting.

Edit: I also like that they're a small- to mid-size species, as opposed to being giants; Felarya could use much more of these!

Okay, for a new name. One that is original and not really have to do with any of their abilities.

Meridian Mermaids?

I also think the idea is nice and could make a good new species of mermaids, but the name could be better..

For words related to their abilities (you could derive a name out of one):

Deluge
Torrent
Torrential
Inundate
Flood
Stream (as in current, ie. Gulf Stream or jetstream, not stream as used for a small river)
Flow
Geyser
Sluice

There are also several words in other languages for the same things, that have the benefit of sounding more like names. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll suggest a few.

Otherwise, for words unrelated to their abilities:

... Um, pretty much any word not related to their abilities.

vegeta002 already suggested "Meridian", which works fine. It's unrelated in meaning, looks somewhat like an actual name, and alliterative. ^^

I'll probably update this post with more suggestions as I come up with them. For now, neeeeeeeeeeeeed coffee.

Merian Mermaids?

You said it didn't need to have anything to do with their abilities and 'Meridian' popped into my head at random. I can't remember exactly where I heard it before.

I thought it sounded better without a "D" sound.

Meridian = Real Name
Merian = Common Nickname or an alternate name

What about that?

Or, we could just use Merian. Or even... Okay, wordplay time!

Meridian -> Merian -> Marjoram -> Meirami -> Meira?

Meridian is the imaginary line that runs through the center of the Earth from North to South, perpendicular to the Equator.

Merian is "Meridian" without the 'id', and also the Norweigan word for "Marjoram".

Marjoram is an aromatic herb that happens to be a member of the family Lamiaceae, making it a close relative of mint and oregano.

Meirami is the Finnish name for Marjoram.

Meira has a few different meanings in different languages, two of which are "further" (or "beyond") and "urinate".

Either "Meirami Mermaid" or "Meira Mermaid" sound fine; the words have the benefit of actually looking like names, too!

Yes, I know I'm a geek. Wordplay is funner in different languages.

Any of those words could also be generic given names of members of the race.

Meirami sounds better.

Meirami? Sounds pretty, perfect for a mermaid (well, except the hideous Harry Potter type).

There you go, then.

Alright, changed their name to Meirami Mermaids.

I think it works very well. And I agree with this:

vegeta002 wrote:

Meirami? Sounds pretty, perfect for a mermaid

I just added them with some changes here and there.

I just checked it. Betty approves.

Betty: *Kirby dances around on water happily*

A nice race of mermaids, meirami mermaid sounds well, good job .(finally a race who has not the human directly in the menu, i was starting to despair)
Nice to know that not all the races are directly predators and that there are some ones with the possibility to "befriend" more easily.