How would the Hard Ones possibly be able to keep secret from the Soft Ones that they were the same species, and more importantly, why?
Wouldn't that be like if all the wrinkly 80+ year olds of our world tried for whatever reason to keep secret the fact that they were the same species as their grandkids?Even assuming that the Hard Ones have a good reason to keep this secret, surely there would be at least one pervert who decided to peek through a window to watch their neighbors merge, thereby seeing a Hard One form and thus learning the horrible(?) truth. Or barring that, the other Soft Ones in the neighborhood would wake up the next morning and wonder where that triad had gone, and why there was now a Hard One living in their house.
- Asking questions is sort of discouraged in the para-universe, but still, that would be hard. Worse, it's stated that Rationals need to figure this out by themselves after they've fathered a full triad of offspring, which potentially means if they work it out too soon, they can't turn into Hard ones. Somehow.
