related to that praise ask
Idk how to explain it I just think it's rlly important to miraak to be attractive. partly vanity, partly like, being appealing was a really key part of his life as a priest, because it was all about pleasing the dragons. and i think he like, loses some confidence in himself after apocrypha because of the daedric corruption marks, as well as how the times have moved on, and the markers of his masculinity and expressions of his role in society aren't always appropriate or similar to what it was before.
(laat definitely does at some point put him in a pretty pastel rig festooned with bows, his best dress, and makeup to accentuate his features, and gets him off in front of a mirror so he can see how pretty he still is to them. as a side note. soft dom laat with their surprisingly sensitive subby miraak is a thing.)
but I think it's something that miraak would really struggle with feeling on his own, which ties into like, his explorations of gender identity and what gender roles were like under the cult as opposed to how they are in modern Nordic culture, and reclaiming this desire to like , Feel Pretty and conceptualise his presentation around it. i think he leans pretty hard into experimenting with makeup as a method of reclaiming the look of his face, and coping with his species dysphoria and feelings of exposure as he transitions out of wearing his mask full time.
