Hello again!! More asks for your wonderful mer au. So, you mentioned at 5 years is when they go off completely on their own, so how many years passed before moon or sun met each other? Have you thought of a plot on how y/n eventually meets them? Also, yes I would gladly like to learn about the mating habits. Oh is it more typically common for a lunamer to be with another lunamer and solamer to be with another solamer rather than the two combined? I understand that they are the same species just different details and that no hybrids happen. Lunamer like to come out earlier mornings and afternoons, do they have a little eye sensitivity to the sun (moons red eyes made me wonder) and can they see in the dark? Do Sun & Moon each have a favorite food? Hmm..how do they feel about human children? Do they like them or usually just stay away from any/all types of humans? That question came from if they like seen children playing in water would they want to interact or just not show interest and leave them be? Anyways, thanks for sharing your mer au 😊
Yay!
So, you mentioned at 5 years is when they go off completely on their own, so how many years passed before moon or sun met each other?
So Sun found a pretty nice territory not too longer after leaving his pod - a big deep lake large enough to sustain a few mers, plenty of food and such. Prime real estate lol, and he's the only one there.
In this AU, and this is relevant, because of how dangerous adult mers can be towards humans, there are active measures taken to keep them out of recreational waters. Lakes that are just that, lakes, are generally mer free and therefor safe for swimming in. The lake Sun found is like that as well even though it empties out into the ocean through a river of maybe half a mile long. The river mouth is blocked off with a reinforced fence of sorts to keep mers out. People do live around this lake.
Luckily for Sun, there was a gap in the fence he could squeeze through.
Unluckily for him he wasn't the only one who found out about this: Moon, also on the lookout for a territory to claim, found the same lake not long after Sun settled there, and they did NOT get along at first.
Have you thought of a plot on how y/n eventually meets them?
I have a few ideas in mind but the one I mostly want to work on and has the most story is actually from Sun's POV. Not really a y/n in that one, the plots that do have a y/n aren't that fleshed out yet.
Also, yes I would gladly like to learn about the mating habits.
Under the read more, answered last~
Oh is it more typically common for a lunamer to be with another lunamer and solamer to be with another solamer rather than the two combined?
Not really, solamer and lunamer don't really see each other as different species, it doesn't really make a difference to them.
Lunamer like to come out earlier mornings and afternoons, do they have a little eye sensitivity to the sun (moons red eyes made me wonder) and can they see in the dark?
Yeah they do, it's the main reason why lunamer tend to move to deeper waters during the day, though they can see fine during sunlight hours. It just makes them squinty and cranky XD
Both species can see in the dark, they have a nicitating membrane (third eyelid) and a tapetum lucidum (special membrane behind the retina that reflects light), this causes their pupils to glow in the dark and helps with night vision (laser eyes!). Greenish/yellow in solamers, reddish/orange in lunamers.
Do Sun & Moon each have a favorite food?
Moon prefers shellfish, he likes the crunchiness. The thicker the shell, the better to gnaw on.
Sun will eat anything you put in front of his face.
Hmm..how do they feel about human children? Do they like them or usually just stay away from any/all types of humans? That question came from if they like seen children playing in water would they want to interact or just not show interest and leave them be?
Moon feels about human children the same way any adult mer does: easy prey.
Sun is the outlier here in that he's actually quite friendly and curious towards humans and shows no aggression towards them (unless in self defense and even then he'd rather flee). He never really lost the playful curious side that's normally only seen in guppies and young podlings.
And lastly, lil' mating snippit~
Solamers and lunamers are fully compatible and mate for life. Heat cycles happen once a year, followed by a pregnancy of approx five months.
Both species are hermaphrodites, equipped with an oviposter (cock) and a brood pouch (womb).
Mated pairs have been observed having sex outside of heat cycles, leading marine biologists to believe that it's something they also do for recreational purposes and to keep their bond strong.
During an actual mating, one mer (the sire) will knot into the other (the dam), locking them together and allowing them to release a clutch of up to 20 golf-sized eggs into the dam's brood pouch, where they're fertilized. The dam's own eggs are reabsorbed back into their body for nutrients. Who sires and who dams differs per mated pair: some switch it up each year, others stick to the same role over and over.
Even though mers are considered an egg-laying species they do give birth to life young. Mer eggs are gelatinous and grow within the brood pouch, but most eggs don't actually get this far and whither away over time, leaving a healthy clutch of 5 to 7 eggs on average the size of small melons. Near the end of the pregnancy these hatch internally, followed by a live birth. Both sire and dam share parenting duties.
