#where its forked at the front for multi-directional scenting

[rxttenfish]

one thing that i keep waffling back and forth on (because im still thinking about writing out the Symptoms Of A Merfolk Crush (Merfolk Has Crush On You) and its relevant) is the topic of merfolk social grooming, mostly in the form of licking each other

primarily this is because theyre. you know. marine animals. grooming is important to them yes but licking isnt really how its done and wouldnt do as much as it does on land - usually it would occur in the past more of removing sufficiently large enough objects with the hands or mouth and anything smaller usually getting taken care of by rubbing themselves on the sea floor or using found items to rub against, and primarily to dislodge parasites. and ofc nowadays they have the domestic cleaner wrasse colonies that handle it best of all.

theres not really... a reason that licking each other would help in removing anything from their bodies that wouldnt be handled otherwise. but also i really like them licking each other and an impulse to lick the other as a bonding thing is something that's stuck in my head and i cant get it out, so im figuring out other reasons that merfolk would do it

and primarily i think it just has to do with smell/taste again. both senses in merfolk are greatly heightened and sharp, and they already have an urge to try and make those theyre close to smell like themselves. they produce a slime layer over their skin that specially dries on land and helps seal in moisture, so usually when theyre doing that this is what is getting involved, as a vector for other scent-marking and communication proteins and All That. it might also tend to boost the health of merfolk that get marked in this way? as in, if their own slime layer isnt being produced as well or theyre already ill, the protective qualities from a healthy individual's slime layer can be shared with them and give them a little boost, but maybe theres also more complex underlying mechanisms, im not sure

which would also make merfolk licking more of a social grooming thing again, but licking as a contact exercise would also help to spread their own slime layer on the other merfolk, with the additional benefit of this also working on land (and maybe being something more basal to the group than i had been imagining), thus making them smell a little more like the groom-er.

but also because merfolk smell/taste is so important, merfolk also have this... sort of mental pressure to bond by examining and exploring other merfolk's bodies? which sounds weird when i say it like that, but its more comparable to wanting to play with someone you likes hair, or touch their legs and their arms, and otherwise just feel them and enjoying the experience of learning this sensory information about them. and because smell/taste is such a huge aspect of merfolk, this also includes putting other merfolk in their mouth, basically.

which is basically just an extension of playbiting in the first place? merfolk are very mouthy creatures and interact with a lot of their environment using their mouths, basically being a third hand for them. and they like to play with each other and bond with each other and cuddle with each other, so they also have a lot of different types of bites that say different things and have different emotional connotations. they have flirty bites, they have play bites, they have being an annoying pest for fun bites, they have "look at me" bites, they have "i just wanna chew on you without hurting you" bites, they have "i am bored and seeking sensory information" bites, they have "i want you carnally" bites, and they have all the aggressive and threatening bites you can imagine. they have a lot of bites and types of bites and ways of biting each other, its a whole thing.

so broadly i think licking each other would just kinda be an extension of that. a sort of calmer non-bite where they want to groom each other and make them smell like each other but also where theyre just genuinely examining each other and tasting each other as a more platonic attempt to learn about each other. and i feel happy enough with that, that works with me.