Madness string 100535

Random mermaid
If you scare them and get them peeing down their leg, they submit. Yet if you project weakness, you draw aggression. That's how people get hurt. You see, fear causes hesitation... and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true. So it's simple. You project strength to avoid conflict. Peace through superior firepower.

How do you know if something can talk? What if it only talks under certain specific circumstances, like if you dance with it under the third full moon of a new century in the rain?