Okay, two twins, Finley and Gillain, discover that their mother is a mermaid. Due to having a human father (don't as about the mechanics, please) they were born unable to live in water, with no gills and legs instead of a tail. So their mother gave them to a passing couple who found her on a beach giving birth, who raised them. Now they're seven and developing the ability to switch between merfolk and human forms and then their bio mum comes for them... Also Fin and Gill have a very close friend called Maria, who wants to become a mermaid to escape an abusive mother. Basically I want to deconstruct the "Discover your supernatural family" plot. Or as tvtropes calls it a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChangelingFantasy
Hi, You haven't really asked a question, but I guess it's rate my plot. Firstly; I love tvtropes.com too! Brilliant place, but perhaps following in the footsteps of others isn't the best way to go. What does the mermaid part of the story mean metaphorically? Why would Maria want to join? Sounds more like a gang than a family (remember that choosing your blood is a difficult thing to do). The finding your roots - is all about realising who you are, so what does being a mermaid really mean to the characters? I'm not sure - you'll have to point me in the right direction for what you want to know.
TV tropes does list subversions in other media, and the best way to learn is from others. Get watching/reading
The question is what screwy and suspect implications of this kind of story. And one way of deconstructing it I think is to have parts of it told from the adoptive parents point of view. Imagine it, you've taken care of and loved a child since the day it was born, and one day the woman who gave birth to it comes and spirits it away. And if the kid's dissapeared and never came back wouldn't everyone think the parents murdered the kids? And any ways the merfolk society could seem shiny and fun to a seven year old?
So would it make for an interesting society if all merbabies couldn't survive in water at birth and needed to be raised by a surrogate family until they begin changeing?
It would be an interesting twist if by the end of the story you reveal the mermaids have been using humans like this for hundreds of years or longer. That's sort of Lovecraftian though. Millions of kids disappear every year. They gotta go somewhere.
The original stories of mermaids (so far as I know) was that they would lure men into the water and would then drown them after raping them. Kinda like a female praying mantis. It's only in the past few decades that people have started exploring the idea of mermaids and making "merpeople". I mean, originally (again, SFAIK), there was no male alternative. You mean A Shadow Over Hackdirt, right? </OblivionReference> I believe the OP specified that the mother comes for them after they begin changing forms.
Also by the way I am the OP, and usaully neither the adoptive parents or the kid's know of their heritage. So how could merpeople get their children into human hands.
Oh, right. I completely overlooked that. :S Awkwaaaard. xD Didn't you (or someone) say that the adoptive parents were walking along a beach while the mermother was giving birth? Perhaps when these kids realise what's happening, they're at the seaside, pulled by their heritage and blood into changing or some such because they recognise it's their home, much in the way that salmon always migrate to their birthplace?
Well I'm tryng to figure out how most mermaids do it. If they retain the ability to grow legs it could be a matter of dumping the child at a hospital. And any possible symptoms of a mer child about to change?
These seem to be questions you need to answer for yourself. You need to find things that YOU'LL be comfortable with and be comfortable writing.
I know. I was just talking about a story that Lovecraft wrote about a race that lived deep in the oceans. They would come to the surface, mate with a human female, and then leave. The offspring would be born, live a normal life of a human until they started to change. Slowly their features would become more like the underwater race until they went off to join them under the sea. I think they were called Deep Ones. You coud handle this any number of ways. Maybe the children feel a 'pull' towards the ocean. Or maybe they have a dream of their mermom telling them to come join her in the ocean.
Anyone have any thougts on some popular tropes about adoptive parents that really need to be averted?
Yea, having the relatives/adoptive/foster parents being evil. It's been done enough already, and Harry Potter took it to such an extreme it got ridiculous.
Yeah I mean people who'd take in two newborns given to them by a mermaid on a beach surely have a lot of love to give. And would it make sense for mer children to be really socially awkrawd?
Look at the socially awkward people around you. Figure out why they're socially awkward. It's not because they're different. It's just because of the way they were raised. I know two people who were homeschooled until high school. There were the two most socially awkward people I ever met. They were also Jehovah's Witnesses and their parents wouldn't let them watch anything with a rating higher than G.
Would it be interesting if the twin's adoptive parents did move a bit inland? The urge to return to their birthplace and the sea makes them run away.
Well, they eat kelp, so they should be suckers for Japanese food Unless they're fish-eaters, in which case they'll only eat Sushi
