#I can get away with this because merfolk have long livespans!!!

[panic-flavored]

since you’ve been drawing young robotnik lately I had an idea for the merman au: what if he saw/briefly met a merperson as a kid? I imagine no one would’ve believed him at the time (I could also see the other kids bullying him for “making it up”) which caused him to be stubborn abt it for decades and led to his current-day study of them.

It was a rare day where the kids at Ivo's orphanage were awarded a beach day. No one ever bothered to teach Ivo how to swim, however, so he wasn't planning on getting too close to the water until his towel got taken away by the wind. What he saw that day by the water's edge changed him forever, though, instilling in him a life-long interest in marine biology.

Bonus:

(Be warned I will take ANY OPPORTUNITY to insert the 'forgotten first meeting' trope, no exceptions)