Writing Help: Mermaids on Land?

[Malificent]

Hey all! I'm interested in writing about merfolk in regards to what they get up to on land. Coastal villages where mers chill part of the day, along with mer pilgrims who like to visit far inland places.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this! I would like some advice and to talk it out.


Setting note: I'm focusing on the middle ages, and am trying to stop jumping to, "because magic." (Still a healthy last resort, though)



Mermaid Locomotion
When possible, moving about in a wheel chair or something similar would be best. (Sidesaddle mermaids...? Why do I like that so much!?) I'm interested in how mermaids could move about when that isn't available.

Crawling
I've had some brief attempts at moving about with my legs together, and I was not very successful. Other have probably done a much better job that I did. My picture of it was that merfolk could crawl similarly to seals, but with more of a shuffling motion from the tail (almost slithering?). Mers should have very strong tails, strong arms, and be light, so they can hopefully move faster than a seal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b55fGRJ1-aY). Mermaids should also be able to inchworm a bit (https://youtu.be/kcil5nLEzeM?t=59s), or maybe even bounce (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2drHjqrrA). Finally, I have seen some mermaids drawn with neat little waist fins that might be helpful for crawling, like this (http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/052/664/44a.jpg).

As an example of what the crawling might look like, I was thinking of that horror movie Killer Mermaid from Serbia.

Upright Movement
While crawling would be faster, I feel like a mer could move about while sitting upright, just by using his/her tail. This would not be fast, but would work for taking small "steps" or adjusting yourself (I couldn't accomplish this myself, though :$). One example I grew up with which I really liked was from a game called Tactics Ogre (https://youtu.be/4hUycN4_t_w?t=2m49s). I also liked how mermaids were fierce warriors in that game.

Springing and Rolling
While not the most useful, I think Mermaids might be able to spring up with a powerful jump. They should be able to roll :rollover: if necessary, and I don't see why a mer couldn't learn to roll forwards.


Those are the thoughts I've built up so far. I was tempted to talk about ideas for warrior mermaids! Sorry, I tend to gab. Hope this was an interesting read for you.

[malinghi]

In addition to the ways merfolk could accommodate life on land, I like the idea of life on land being modified to accommodate merfolk. Though it depends on what kind of world you want to make, like if mermaids keep their existence a secret. The first idea that comes to mind is shallow canals designed to work as streets for merfolk that let them travel through a city or further inland. Many cities are built on natural rivers, so there's that too. Also, there could be humans that work jobs to help merfolk get around, perhaps by driving carriages for them. Like a whole industry of taxis for merfolk. I'm imagining wealthy merfolk sitting in carriages that have glass tanks so they can be underwater as the coachman takes them to their destination.

[Malificent]

Yeah, those are great ideas! I was also thinking that a large mermaid town would start hiring human experts and other peoples to help out. In particular, there might be services for mer pilgrims to help them reach all the hotspots (maybe paid for privately, or maybe paid by the state). Canals for travel is a great idea. If the mermaids don't react well to fresh water, they could wear a "salt-suit" or waterproof suit, I expect. They could also double as bodyguards.

[TritonsGuard]

One other thing to think about is how they are going to carry any items or luggage. At first I thought only about carrying them going inland, but after thinking it through, I mean "how do they carry stuff around at all?" Assuming a merperson is somewhere very close to neutrally buoyant so they can swim freely without having to fight being pulled up or down, any kind of weight would throw that off. If you have ever used a diving brick, you know what I mean. The other problem is the hydrodynamics. Swimming with a sack on your back, even if it didn't have to worry about what I already mentioned, would not be easy.

Starting with inland through canals, I suggest either tiny boats, or inflated animal hides, with a leash. Since they will be swimming in shallow water, I think using something that floats on the surface would work well since it is easier to pull something on top of the water then through it, and would take up less water space in the canal.

As for going out to sea, I have a few ideas. The first is the expensive option. The mer pays a ship to take the stuff out to a certain spot over where he/she wants it, and they pick it up there. The next is they tow whatever they used to carry the stuff out themselves, then swamp or deflate the device. This would leave them fairly vulnerable however since ocean predators often hunt from below their prey, and in tough surf may not be feasible. Another is to use an inflated skin attached to a net and weighed down with the items or rocks to the point it can be towed more easily through the water near the bottom. One last one is having a pack on their back that they can inflate slightly so it won't weigh them down.

What's funny is that when I watched The Little Mermaid series as a kid, I always thought it was ridiculous that they had ramps, fences, and other things around their architecture. Just figuring out right now how they could move things and keep them there, it makes more sense then I thought.

[Merman Storm]

Large snakes, boas and pythons, have two ways of moving that are not well known to most. One way is called rectilinear motion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ7BLcqYU_I

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ7BLcqYU_I)All the motion is done via contraction and relaxing of the belly mussels. We humans wearing tails cannot imitate it due to not having the needed mussels, and because under the tail we do not have ribs and a spine (like a fish or a snake) but leg bones.

Presumably, a mer moving this way on land would keep their human part upright, leaving their rear half flat on the ground. Working the mussels between the ribs in their tail, they would slowly move along like a snake doing rectilinear motion.

The second method is Concertinamotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9y-C7LDpq0

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9y-C7LDpq0)The top two snakes in the above video are doing Concertina motion. The snake braces its rear, then extends its front. Then it braces the front, and draws up the rear. We humans are doing a imitation of this when we "butt crawl" while wearing a tail.

I think Jaba the Hut is shown doing Concertina motion in the re-release of Star Wars, A Hew Hope. That might be a good place to look to see how a mer could move on land.

[Malificent]

One other thing to think about is how they are going to carry any items or luggage. At first I thought only about carrying them going inland, but after thinking it through, I mean "how do they carry stuff around at all?" Assuming a merperson is somewhere very close to neutrally buoyant so they can swim freely without having to fight being pulled up or down, any kind of weight would throw that off. If you have ever used a diving brick, you know what I mean. The other problem is the hydrodynamics. Swimming with a sack on your back, even if it didn't have to worry about what I already mentioned, would not be easy.

Starting with inland through canals, I suggest either tiny boats, or inflated animal hides, with a leash. Since they will be swimming in shallow water, I think using something that floats on the surface would work well since it is easier to pull something on top of the water then through it, and would take up less water space in the canal.

As for going out to sea, I have a few ideas. The first is the expensive option. The mer pays a ship to take the stuff out to a certain spot over where he/she wants it, and they pick it up there. The next is they tow whatever they used to carry the stuff out themselves, then swamp or deflate the device. This would leave them fairly vulnerable however since ocean predators often hunt from below their prey, and in tough surf may not be feasible. Another is to use an inflated skin attached to a net and weighed down with the items or rocks to the point it can be towed more easily through the water near the bottom. One last one is having a pack on their back that they can inflate slightly so it won't weigh them down.

What's funny is that when I watched The Little Mermaid series as a kid, I always thought it was ridiculous that they had ramps, fences, and other things around their architecture. Just figuring out right now how they could move things and keep them there, it makes more sense then I thought.

A backpack, maybe? I thought that was how scuba divers did it. You could also have a towline, but you would have to be prepared to get struck if you came to a sudden stop. What you describe sounds perfect.

Buoyancy is a tricky thing. You could give mermaids swim bladders, or oily livers, or just have them go to the surface and take in air like other mammals. I have this gut feeling that some combination of these factors might be good to have for mermaids. I like the thought of mermaids having a swim bladder, where if they need to ascend too rapidly it will empty the air into their stomach, and they'll feel sick afterwards. Those sorts of biological quirks makes them feel more human, I guess :p.



Large snakes, boas and pythons, have two ways of moving that are not well known to most. One way is called rectilinear motion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ7BLcqYU_I

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ7BLcqYU_I)All the motion is done via contraction and relaxing of the belly mussels. We humans wearing tails cannot imitate it due to not having the needed mussels, and because under the tail we do not have ribs and a spine (like a fish or a snake) but leg bones.

Presumably, a mer moving this way on land would keep their human part upright, leaving their rear half flat on the ground. Working the mussels between the ribs in their tail, they would slowly move along like a snake doing rectilinear motion.

The second method is Concertinamotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9y-C7LDpq0

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9y-C7LDpq0)The top two snakes in the above video are doing Concertina motion. The snake braces its rear, then extends its front. Then it braces the front, and draws up the rear. We humans are doing a imitation of this when we "butt crawl" while wearing a tail.

I think Jaba the Hut is shown doing Concertina motion in the re-release of Star Wars, A Hew Hope. That might be a good place to look to see how a mer could move on land.

Those are some great examples, too! Based off the sea lions, it should be possible for mermaids to accomplish some of that (I liked the bouncing best).

Come to think of it, a mermaid might be able to sidewind (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3NbPUTD5qA) a little. Surely a lot less than the snakes do.

[Asvel]

Exotic performer background: I haven't tried ass-walking in a tail yet, but that's the first thing I thought of. Takes lots of core strength to go very far, but that's one thing you need for tail swimming anyway. Isn't the fastest, though I imagine nothing is, with a tail. The other thing I thought of was similar to the sidewinder video.

Please say Venice will be involved in the work!

Re: luggage, underwater you can mess with buoyancy. Especially if you have something like mers capturing air on the surface and trapping it below, then you can counterweight items and remain neutrally buoyant as long as a reasonably constant depth is maintained. But even if you don't, remember, warm water is more buoyant than cold, saltwater is more buoyant than fresh, and oil more than both, and etc. Lots of options for counterweighting to a limited extent. Think hot air balloons or helium balloons.

[Merman Storm]

Actually, I think you have fresh water and salt water swapped. Fresh water is more buoyant. It weighs about 62.5 pounds per cubic foot, where ocean water is 64 pounds per cubic foot. This means you would need 1 cubic foot of water to lift just 1.5 pounds.

Glass fishing floats are buoyant, and strong enough to not implode even at great depths. An oceanographer once told me that lost fishing floats will gradually get covered in barnacles, and sink to the bottom. There, the barnacles die and fall off, and the float returns to the surface, where it starts the cycle all over again.

Then there is wood, at least before it gets water logged. Wood covered with paint or wax will stay buoyant for awhile.

[Asvel]

mm? Okay then. That's a very interesting thing about fishing floats!

Also I was just thinking, what's stopping a mer from using walking aids? Crutches or some such.

[Malificent]

Exotic performer background: I haven't tried ass-walking in a tail yet, but that's the first thing I thought of. Takes lots of core strength to go very far, but that's one thing you need for tail swimming anyway. Isn't the fastest, though I imagine nothing is, with a tail. The other thing I thought of was similar to the sidewinder video.

Please say Venice will be involved in the work!

Re: luggage, underwater you can mess with buoyancy. Especially if you have something like mers capturing air on the surface and trapping it below, then you can counterweight items and remain neutrally buoyant as long as a reasonably constant depth is maintained. But even if you don't, remember, warm water is more buoyant than cold, saltwater is more buoyant than fresh, and oil more than both, and etc. Lots of options for counterweighting to a limited extent. Think hot air balloons or helium balloons. Mermaid Venice? YES please! There are so many ways you could play that... including, "In retrospect, a city filled with waterways was not conductive to its occupants, in the great mermaid war."

I think I could do sidewinding, at least a bit. The crawl really hurts my knees.

Right, buoyancy requires quite a bit of thought, and no doubt mers would be THE experts on the subject. I can probably hook up with some divers to work out designs for a mermaid satchel of some kind.


Actually, I think you have fresh water and salt water swapped. Fresh water is more buoyant. It weighs about 62.5 pounds per cubic foot, where ocean water is 64 pounds per cubic foot. This means you would need 1 cubic foot of water to lift just 1.5 pounds.

Glass fishing floats are buoyant, and strong enough to not implode even at great depths. An oceanographer once told me that lost fishing floats will gradually get covered in barnacles, and sink to the bottom. There, the barnacles die and fall off, and the float returns to the surface, where it starts the cycle all over again.

Then there is wood, at least before it gets water logged. Wood covered with paint or wax will stay buoyant for awhile. Wow, hadn't known that about floats. Almost seems like you could use that system to make some kind of calendar, but it probably isn't accurate enough.


mm? Okay then. That's a very interesting thing about fishing floats!

Also I was just thinking, what's stopping a mer from using walking aids? Crutches or some such. Oh yeah, crutches should work fine. The mer could combine it with sizeable hops, using the crutches more for balance. I was actually trying to think of some kind of short crutches a mermaid could use in a crawling motion, so that he/she doesn't have to have her/his chin on the ground while crawling.

Hmm... yeah, that should work. The mers would still want to be close to the ground (something like arms length, like you've just done a push-up) so their tail can get full contact with it. Using short crutches, maybe even with some kind of hooks or barbs for greater grip, they could move along just like normal crawling, saving their chest, arms and hands from having to slide across the ground.

Those hooks might be good for self-defence, too.


I'd like to ask you guys a question, about mermaid flexibility. I was thinking their tails and the joint between their tails and upper body would be really flexible, like they could touch the top of their head with their tail, from the front or from the back, like a pro gymnast. This would give them a lot of freedom in their posture. Does this seem right to you?

[Merman Storm]

As far a flexibility goes, you have alot of freedom to define it the way that works for your story. I think a mer would have a tail much like a fish or dolphin, with the spine and vertebrae extending all the way to the front of the fluke, where the body is the narrowest. That does allow for a great deal of flexibility. We only have 3 joints in that area (hips, knees, ankles). A mer would have over a dozen.

As far as using crutches: A mer doing so would most likely wear something to protect their tail from damage while being dragged along the ground. I could see their human half being about upright, with the tail half horizontal on the ground. I keep having this vision of a centaur, only with a fish lower half and no legs.

[Asvel]

Over a dozen joints, yes, but not all joints have equal flexibility. If you actually check out pro gymnasts, you'll notice that most of the bending takes place in the spine, upper half. Amy Hazel, ladies and gentlemen. (https://amyhazel92.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_5661.jpeg) (Told you, exotic dance background.) No reason not to believe that that level of bendiness wouldn't continue to the tail spine. Ergo, you can train to be like the underwater Amy Hazel, but most mers wouldn't be able to touch their heads with their tails.

On dragging yourself along the ground, though, you are right that there would be quite a lot of damage. Hence dollies and wheelchairs, or sleds if wheels aren't a commonly available commodity in that time period. My comment on crutches was from watching people with them: there's a walking style which involves placing both crutches, then hopping yourself along on your good foot, and repeat. Replace foot with tail.

[Malificent]

As far a flexibility goes, you have alot of freedom to define it the way that works for your story. I think a mer would have a tail much like a fish or dolphin, with the spine and vertebrae extending all the way to the front of the fluke, where the body is the narrowest. That does allow for a great deal of flexibility. We only have 3 joints in that area (hips, knees, ankles). A mer would have over a dozen.

As far as using crutches: A mer doing so would most likely wear something to protect their tail from damage while being dragged along the ground. I could see their human half being about upright, with the tail half horizontal on the ground. I keep having this vision of a centaur, only with a fish lower half and no legs. Yeah. I was thinking mermaids might need some kind of flexible leather or protective garment to prevent their tails getting chafed when moving about on land, especially rough ground. It does depend on how tough their scales are, I guess. I know reptiles have really tough scales, but I don't know how protective fish scales are.



Over a dozen joints, yes, but not all joints have equal flexibility. If you actually check out pro gymnasts, you'll notice that most of the bending takes place in the spine, upper half. Amy Hazel, ladies and gentlemen. (https://amyhazel92.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_5661.jpeg) (Told you, exotic dance background.) No reason not to believe that that level of bendiness wouldn't continue to the tail spine. Ergo, you can train to be like the underwater Amy Hazel, but most mers wouldn't be able to touch their heads with their tails.

On dragging yourself along the ground, though, you are right that there would be quite a lot of damage. Hence dollies and wheelchairs, or sleds if wheels aren't a commonly available commodity in that time period. My comment on crutches was from watching people with them: there's a walking style which involves placing both crutches, then hopping yourself along on your good foot, and repeat. Replace foot with tail.

Oh. I thought I'd seen dolphins somewhere able to touch their nose with their tail, and thought that could be possible for mermaids. But as you point out, if may require practice. Any mermaids hanging out on land would probably train this flexibility, if they hadn't already for swimming.

After seeing the bouncing seals, I feel like there's some kind bounce-powered locomotion device the mermaids could have. Something like a multi pogo stick, but more elegant, so the up and down motion of the mer and his/her tail lets them almost swim along the land. Though if that was possible, you would probably wouldn't see it before the internet, with how complicated it sounds to engineer.


I know this is off topic, but does anyone have thoughts on how sirens would be different from mermaids?

[Takahao]

Maybe a glorified wheelbarrow or unicycle, with a pair of crutches to walk forward? Not as unwieldy as a wheelbarrow or cart, and no slithering required.