How could you restrain a mermaid's tail with rope so that they couldn't swim away? Let's say that the tail is like a fish, and is roughly the size of a pair of human legs
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asked Sep 13, 2021 at 22:44
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2$\begingroup$ Tie up to something, or just tie up? $\endgroup$– AlexanderSep 13, 2021 at 23:00
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2$\begingroup$ You need to provide a picture with proportions for different parts of the tail. Given that ropes can be looped around the tails of most fish and used to not just stop them swimming but to hang them up out of the water, we need to know why a mermaid's tail makes this a non-trivial question $\endgroup$– KerrAvon2055Sep 13, 2021 at 23:00
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8$\begingroup$ Two ways: one, you tie up the human half of the mermaid, making sure the rope is attached to something else to keep her from swimming away. Two, you use loving ties to bind the mermaid's heart so she doesn't swim away from you. If that doesn't work, I don't know what will! (Nvm....just use chocolate....) $\endgroup$– AlendyiasSep 13, 2021 at 23:05
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1$\begingroup$ @Alendyias is right. Put a harness on the human half with a color around the neck and bindings below the armpits circling the back and chest. Then chain that harness to something immobile. $\endgroup$– Henry TaylorSep 13, 2021 at 23:08
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2$\begingroup$ @HenryTaylor: or, if transporation is why you caught the mermaid in the first place, you can always grab onto the harness and pray the mermaid will work with you....(This is where the 30 lbs of chocolate you should have come into play...) $\endgroup$– AlendyiasSep 13, 2021 at 23:10
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8 Answers
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Tie her hands to as far down on her tail as you can force her, so that she's doubled up.
Add a few more bindings in between tying her human body to the fish one.
Even if she can swim in this mode -- very badly -- she will have difficulty getting far when she can't see where she's going.
(This assumes, of course, that there's a reason you specified tying her up rather than tying her to something. But tying her to something would add to it.)
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Tie the base of the tail to something.
Just at base of the tail there's a narrow region where it's thicker on both sides. Wrap a rope around that, bend their tail up, and tie it their hands.
If you tie it to their hands, you can bunch up their tail so that they can't get much movement by twisting their body or moving their arms. It's a bit harder to lock down a mermaid than a human, because they can push any moving part of their body off water, so it would help to tie them to a rock as well, so it's harder for them to swim off.
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$\begingroup$ Just use the block of concrete the mob sometimes drops into the water. $\endgroup$ Sep 14, 2021 at 8:11
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2$\begingroup$ @Trioxidane as always, Gary Larson was ahead of us all. Embedded in styrofoam shoes, Carl is sent to "sleep with the humans". $\endgroup$ Sep 14, 2021 at 9:07
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Ask her to generate digits of pi. That will tie her up for at least a couple hours before she starts to think maybe you're just keeping her busy, at which point you thank her and ask her to start listing prime numbers for you. (The rope is used just as a fidget spinner... they like to fray things while doing mathematics in their heads.)
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7$\begingroup$ Makes as much sense as any other suggestion. Really, this is a trivial question. $\endgroup$ Sep 14, 2021 at 2:26
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$\begingroup$ @Current Mermaids love mathematical puzzles. $\endgroup$ Sep 14, 2021 at 2:52
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Fold the mermaid backwards into a U-shape. Use a rope with a noose at one end and a fishook at the other. Put the hook through the tail and tighten the noose around the neck and then taughten the rope until the mermaid can no longer move from that position
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1$\begingroup$ Plain and simple! This will work on anything or anyone. $\endgroup$ Sep 17, 2021 at 15:11
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Is this consensual?
If so, any symbolic tie will suffice, including the classic wedding-ring.
Are mermaids magical?
You better use an enchanted rope.
Is treatment towards mermaids cruelty free
Can't be done, see consensual above
Still reading?
If you really want to tie-up the tail instead of tie-to, recommend you abandon using a simple rope to tie up. You will need something more like a straight-jacket to guarantee (at least make very unlikely) swimming away. There is nothing like arms / legs that form the basis of the hog-tie and similar forms of constraint. A straight-jacket is much simpler that attempting some complicated and less reliable rope constraint.
Tie-to method - You could tie a straight-jacket to something. Or you could adopt the nose-ring equivalent.
Feeling particularly evil
Adopt the heart-plug solution adopted by Baron Harkonnen in the movie version of Dune
answered Sep 15, 2021 at 17:22
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I'd probably recommend some kind of weights. Specifics largely depends on what kind of merperson you're referring to.
I'd suggest finding something to tie them onto - which could be difficult in an underwater setting.
Maybe you tie the rope around the hands, and then have a very taut section leading to a knot around the tail. That way, if the mermaid tries to swim, it will be very difficult, as they can only bend it in one direction, which would make them mostly flail about.
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Add a splint.
Alternatively, hog tie.
answered Sep 14, 2021 at 3:47
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Since everyone knows that mermaids are magical, and can turn any human into a frog (half mammal, half fish), mermaids can never be restrained by a human. That is why we have never captured one. The question is moot.
answered Sep 15, 2021 at 1:56