a Coral Mermaid watching over the reef.
there's some debate about whether these actually count as mermaids, but other mermaids obviously think they do so everyone else's opinions don't really matter. they begin life looking and acting like any other non-sapient coral, but over the years they grow very large (like, 12 to 15 feet) and vaguely mermaid shaped (in some cases so vague that you only know what you're looking at if you catch them at a specific angle and suddenly you're swimming next to A Person).
they do not move or make audible sounds, but many are seen with "masks" tethered to their "heads" by thin flexible tendrils. this is the closest they get to emoting. the "masks" are often pieces of their own bodies that have molted or broken off, but they'll sometimes be spotted with an acceptably sized piece of driftwood or other chosen debris. reports of coral merms using human skeletons or entire sunken ships as "faces" make for good stories, but they probably are also just stories. there are cooler, more accessible skeletons just laying around and She was probably always a myth.
