#trait: Mollusk

[digi-lov]

Yao Quinglan BT19-082, Sangomon BT19-017, Shellmon BT19-019, MarineBullmon BT19-024, and Ryugumon BT19-027 by poroze from BT-19 Booster Xros Evolution (BT18-19: Special Booster Ver.2.0)

[beefy-the-stronk]

OC'S???? OC'S!!!!!!!111!!!

Note: all these are actually au's of some pre-existing oc's (belonging to me and @jellazticious ). So if any characters have traits similar to other characters then that's a coincidence lol (for example, Jace being a rocker predates this game, so he's not ripping off Xaria or anything). Glad to clear that up lol

Edit: I forgot to add this bellow, oops

Jace Calloway and Alejandro(Al for short)

Class: The Rocker

Jace is a large, boisterous and annoying dunderhead of a man, but he as a good heart. He's like a cross between a jock and a band kid, so he's physically strong as well as musically skilled, complete with dated lingo and humor.

Al is a living guitar- once a scrawny, dvd store employee, he now inhabits Jace's guitar. He has trouble communicating, but he's very much sentient with his old whimsical personality intact. Al is a bit of a trickster, and he relished in pranking or teasing people. Careful if you happen see a seemingly normal guitar on the floor of the apartment- it just may trip you with a cord as you walk by. And if you keep your ears open, you just may hear it chitter and giggle to itself.

Al's anatomy is similar to that of a mollusk, main body being a slithery mass of flesh with hundreds of teeth, and electrifying-wire-aux-cord tendrills. He uses the outer guitar as a sort of protective "shell", even embedding it with calcium during the mutation so it became hardened. It makes for a brutal mace, as well as keeping Jace safe from being electrocuted (which isn't to say the idiot hasn't somehow gotten stung a few times). It cosily sleeps in Jace's velvety guitar case every night.

Lore:

Jace overslept during the visitor's descent, missing his job for the better lol. While that kept him safe- unfortunately the same can't be said for his roommate Alejandro. When he unknowingly looked outside, holding Jace's electric guitar on hand, his body horrifically melted and fused into it.

Despite his predicament, he's pretty chill and sane, and that was enough to keep his buddy Jace from leaving him behind. He now carries his Pal around, using him as a blunt or special weapon during combat.

(Funfact about Al, his original source was that he was a fae that could poof into different objects or animals, including a magical guitar. So this is a rlly rlly terrible depressing version of that 😭)

[mayfly0678]

Monster Hunter Wilds got me wanting to make Monster taxonomy diagrams again, so I decided to start off with the newest (natural) monster class, Cephalopods! This tree was relatively simple, as unlike with other groups, most of the members had very clear real life analogs. I decided to place Escunites as Nautiloids rather than Ammonoids due to the hood over their head and their eyes being more akin to those of nautilus. Nu Udra is an octopodiform, that one's easy, and the Rise/Sunbreak squids are decapodiforms. Interestingly enough, some cephalopods in MH seem adapted to freshwater (with no irl cephalopod displaying this trait for multiple reasons). In the case of the two cuttlefish, the Goliath Squid and Nakarkos, I like the idea of them sharing an euryhaline (that is, an animal capable of surviving in both salt and freshwater) ancestor within sepiida, with Nakarkos retaining this adaptation while the Goliath Squid fully adapted to freshwater in the waterways of the Eastlands.

Then there's Xu Wu. It's got a whole array of weird anatomical quirks that make it quite hard to classify. I placed it into the fictional order Paraoctopodiformes, which I've depicted here as an early divergent Coleoid group. The placement is uncertain, however, which is why I made the line discontinuous. In truth, we don't know enough about Xu Wu to fully ascertain what Paraoctopodiformes actually are. Cephalopods? Some other type of mollusk? An entirely different phylum of animals? Anyway, that'd be all so far. I'll post more diagrams in the future for each group. Feedback will be appreciated.

[mleprae]

Finished ref sheet for Champion 😌

(The wording on the border is "Lux Perpetua luceat eis" if you can't read it! :D

Lore and a bit of backstory for him, (Gore + Nudity CW)

He was found being craddled by his mother, a sheep, red and wet having been just born, the shepherd took his birth as a sign of God. He was taken to the local village church, where he was raised by the holy men and sisters.

The little thing was not born knowing violence, but it was taught that, he was given the name Champion for his prowess in combats in duels and fights. His long sword, the only thing to his name, was an extension of himself; a weapon used to control and quell rebellions and silence any who opposed his masters.

But by far, his most unique trait was his immortality, after a week of a stillness and cold, he resurrects, no matter the injury or death cause. This ability was taken advantage of many times, lamb sacrifices, suicidal missions or combats and in desesperates causes; Champion could provide enough meat to sustain a family.

He met his "end" at a peasant revolt, a crowd too big to be tamed, and with the rebels aware of his antics, stuffed him into an iron coffin and dropped him in the sea. Champion drowned, awakes again, in that dark claustrophobic space, only to shortly gasp for air and die again, he remained in a loop of reviving and dying for millions of years until his prison degraded and the waves guided him to land.

The land burns with neglect, the air is heavy with fire and brimstone, the sky is gone and unveils the red blood sun and the void of space. Humans and civilization is long gone but life has still remained in the form of flesh abominations, giant insects and mollusks, fungal guardians and sky-piercing parasite colonies. At first, Champion doesn't know if he is in Hell or still dreaming, he was taken in by one of the Godlings who gave him shelter, ichor and food, he thanks her and wanders off into the shadows beyond, going to God knows where.

Nude vers + Headshot of when he came out of the water, probably

[amerricanartwork]

RW Headcanon: Know the Difference! | An Overview of Quetzalli's Slugcats

Here’s a headcanon I’ve wanted to elaborate on for a while, and today I finally felt compelled to make it real! Also, just a disclaimer I am not a huge biology nerd nor have I studied it that heavily, so I apologize if something here doesn’t make sense or if I get something wrong. I just like fantasy worldbuilding from time to time, and I always like trying to make sense of things I’m interested in!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Basically, I’m in the crowd that interprets slugcats as mustelids rather than literal slugs. When I say this, however I don’t mean that slugcats would necessarily be classified in the actual mustelidae family, seeing as Rain World’s world is most-likely not Earth and therefore our taxonomic classifications and phylogenetic relations can’t necessarily apply. Thus, when I call them “mustelids”, I really just mean that I imagine them as some kind of weasel with all the necessary physical traits to earn that general label. 

The first half of the name “slugcat”, in my headcanon, is thus not referring to any literal connection to slugs or other mollusks, but is instead derived simply from their appearance. Due to their long ears and thick tail, and because their fur and fat often squishes together in such a way that it makes their features blend together and their bodies appear more smooth (it’s the same physics as that whole “cats are liquid” idea), the general silhouette of a slugcat can easily be likened to that of a literal slug. The second half of their name is also not literal, and instead refers to their jumping and acrobatic abilities and their skill in hunting and pouncing on small prey, which is very similar to that of small cats.

Species Overview

Now to give a little more detail on slugcats themselves as a species! I headcanon them as small to medium-sized mammals most similar to Earth weasels in both their biology and their ecological niche, who originally served as cute low-maintenance pets for the Ancients and as hunters of small pests in facilities on the ground. They’re clever by nature and good at fitting through tight spaces, and later on they evolved greater jumping abilities to pounce on prey. They’re also very social creatures, who’ve taken to forming medium to large colonies primarily in and around the massive trees that thrive between the cracks in iterators’ rainstorm areas (like the one Gourmand, Survivor, and Monk’s colony lives in). Due to this social nature they also generally travel in groups of at least two, both for company and protection against tougher animals. Travel partners are usually siblings or good friends, and sometimes even whole families will journey out together to find food and other resources for the rest of the colony.

Despite being a small prey animal, slugcats have managed to get by not only due to their intelligence — the evolution of which would be seen as a rather unexpected twist of events if you asked their creators, for the Ancients found them cute but rather simple — but because of their impressive adaptability. It’s similar to that of real life red foxes and pigeons, and it allows them to survive decently well even in less ideal environments; a trait especially necessary for a world as industrialized as this one, even if its people are gone and most of the machinery is inactive. As such not all colonies live in trees; some find homes in the abandoned facilities, large underground hollows, and a few bold colonies have even claimed territories high up in iterator cities alongside scavengers. Slugcats are opportunists and masters at making the best of their surroundings, yet even beyond that they carry a certain other, “special” ability of their own that makes them as diverse as they are clever. But that’s a headcanon for another day…

Reasoning

Now for some out-of-universe explanation for this classification choice. I’ve always seen slugcats as some kind of small scurrying mammal (kind of a bias on my part, I just like mammals honestly, and they’re most familiar to me), mainly due to the way they look and move when on all fours, and their place in the game’s food chain. Originally though I saw them as rodents and compared them to mice and rats, which I still sometimes use for anatomy reference for these creatures. But one day a friend of mine saw me drawing slugcats and thought they were weird ferrets, and the more I thought about it and the more I developed personal speculative biology headcanons for slugcats, the more that label seemed the most fitting for them. It was also solidified when I did a bit more research and realized the main characteristic of rodents is their buck teeth, which just didn’t seem to fit with how I perceived slugcats. Not to mention rodents aren’t really predator animals, and slugcats’ implied natural diet and the gameplay itself does strongly imply if not confirm they have some instinctive hunting ability. 

Thus, it seemed “weasel” was the best classification for these creatures, and I quite like it so far! Once again it satisfies my mammal preference, but I also just think it’s a fun idea that neither part of the “slugcat” name is literal, similar to a lot of real-life creatures named after completely different animals, including fellow weasel, the polecat. Plus, I realized recently it’s kind of ironic with how I perceive the messenger slugcats, Hunter and Spearmaster, as being like hunting or guard dogs for their creators, when weasels are exactly the kind of animal humans with their dogs would normally hunt for! It’s cute, it’s familiar, it’s fun, yet I think it still has just as much potential for some interesting speculative biology ideas as the literal slug slugcat interpretations!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I'm so glad to finally get this out! I like seeing specbio slugcat headcanons in the RW fandom, yet I haven't seen many more in-depth takes from artists who don't take the "slugcats are literal slugs/mollusks/primarily mollusk-based" angle. Not that that's a bad headcanon of course; do what you think feels right! But once again I personally prefer slugcats being mammals, and I always look for fan-content that's as close to my personal preferences as possible. And when I can't find enough of it, I make it myself!

So hopefully this serves as a bit more of that kind of representation for the mustelid slugcat interpretation. It at least helped me develop my own idea of the species a bit more; much of that stuff in the overview part was ideas I came up with while typing this whole headcanon out!

As always, I hope you enjoy this headcanon of mine! I've still got so many ideas to develop and share, and even more coming as I continue to ponder these characters and their stories, so as long as you guys still like these Rain World headcanons of mine, they'll keep coming!

[giulliadella]

Speculative Biology of Euclydeans (and Bill Cipher) part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, UPDATE

I have never in my life imagined that I will continue this series, but I am doing it, thanks to some of my insane fans who asked for this. In this part I will talk about developmental biology of Euclydeans which is probably the biggest challenge so far.

As always, this analysis is based on two assumptions:

Before Bill Cipher became a demigod, he was a biological, living organism and so were the rest of his species.

Even after Bill Cipher became a demigod, he still retained some physical characteristics of his biological form.

And a fair content warning: This contains anatomy illustrations. This isn't anything gory, but there are people who are squeamish, so you've been warned.

Click on the images to get better quality!

And without further ado, let's begin.

Euclydean Body Plan

A body plan (also called Bauplan) is a morphological quality of an animal which can tell us clearly to which phylum it belongs. An arthropod will have a very distinct body plan from a vertebrate for example. Body plans are coded by Hox genes in animals and they determine the way an animal's body is going to develop from embryonic stages to adulthood. Euclydeans are aliens, so they don't have Hox genes, but they probably have something similar. Even if they don't have DNA (and they most likely don't), they still have some way of passing their traits to their offspring, which is essential for every living organism. Since I don't have any other option, I will call them genes and genomes.

The body plan of a Euclydean is relatively simple. They are bilaterally symmetrical, shelled, invertebrate organisms. The shell can take three distinct shapes: a triangle, a trapezoid and a rhombus (or a square, but remember, squares are rhombuses that have all four angles at 90 degrees). I haven't found mentions of any other polygons anywhere, but if you did, please tell me.

The shape of the shell was a status symbol within Euclydean society, with triangles being the lowest and squares the highest class. I was thinking about why that would be and after spending an insane amount of researching, I think I found a plausible (although most likely not true) answer: Polyploidy.

Polyploidy is a phenomenon in which the entire genome duplicates. It's very common and often encouraged in plants, since it makes fruits larger or fruiting period longer. Wheat, tomatoes, strawberries, corn and many more plants that we grow are polyploid. In most animals, poliploidy is lethal. It is lethal in humans. But some species or annelids, mollusks, insects, fish and amphibians can be polyploid. My favorite example of polyploidy is in green toads (Bufotes spp.) where polyploidy forms a species complex.

I won't go too far into toad genetics here, but in central Asia, there is a species of green toad that is diploid (like humans - it has one copy of its genome from the father and one from the mother) and one that is polyploid (4n - tetraploid - has two genome copies from each parent). When these two hybridize they create a third species which can be either, but it often has characteristics that place it "in between" the two other species. This hybrid species is fertile and can mate with the other two and that's how you get a species complex.

I believe that Euclydeans are a similar species complex. Triangles would be diploid in that case and rhombuses would be 4n tetraploid. (Because a rhombus basically is two triangles stuck to each other. Duplication of an entire genome could result in something like that easily.) Trapezoids would be a hybrid between the two.

So, triangles are 2n diploid, rhombuses are 4n polyploid and trapezoids are 3n hybrids. Each of these can mate with any other, but the offspring will be different, depending on the pairing. Two triangles will always have a triangle child. Two rhombuses will always have a rhombus child. A triangle and a rhombus will always have a hybrid trapezoid child. Two trapezoids, however, will have a trapezoid child in 50% of cases, whilst 25% will be triangles and 25% rhombuses. A trapezoid and a triangle have a 50-50% chance of having a child trapezoid or a triangle. A trapezoid and a rhombus will have 50-50% chance of their child being either a trapezoid or a rhombus. I made you a graphic, so you can understand easier:

What this essentially means, is that whenever someone mates with a triangle, their ploidy (the numbers of genome copies they have) will lessen, whilst mating with a rhombus will cause it to increase. Since Euclydean society valued more symmetrical and more polygonal rhombuses, this was probably the reason why triangles were the second class citizens. Trapezoids have only 25% chance of having a triangle child, so their marriage might be scrutinized and policed if that was the case (maybe that's what Bill's erotic novel was about?)

Embryonic Development

This was requested by one of my fans (all of them credited below) and it was honestly the biggest challenge ever put in front of me, but I don't give up easily!

One thing that we certainly know about Euclydeans is that they are bilaterally symmetrical. This means that they have a left and a right side. Since this is the case, their ancestors were probably like this as well. But, Euclydean shells also have radial symmetry (which means that you can draw symmetry lines from one tip of the angle to the other, or to the base of other side from every angle). Luckily for us, Earth has something like that too: Echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and some other groups).

Echinoderms are almost all radially symmetrical, but they have evolved from a bilaterally symmetrical ancestors. This is further proven by their larvae being bilaterally symmetrical too. I believe that Euclydean embryos probably look more like a bilaterally symmetrical organisms, similar to bipinnaria larvae of sea stars. But, as the embryo further develops, they become more "shaped" and gain the radial symmetry as well.

As we all know now, Euclydeans reproduce sexually. Their embryos develop inside a uterus of a parent (which could be both a male and a female, since many people pointed out to me that they are very likely hermaphrodites, which absolutely checks out). Since Bill claimed several times that both Ford and Mabel should have eaten their twins in the uterus, I proposed the idea of oophagy (or adelphophagy) as the means by which Euclydeans feed their offspring in utero. This is further proven by that silly image from thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com where Bill drew himself as a baby in uterus, but he had a bottle of milk in one hand. He obviously doesn't know much about humans and placental mammals, but since he was older than 16 when his dimension was destroyed, it's very likely that he had sex education in school, so he knows how Euclydean babies feed in uterus.

Oophagy simply means that the mother produces many yolk rich eggs that her baby will be able to consume as it grows. If some of those eggs are fertilized, besides the one that will become a baby, then we're talking about adelphophagy where one, strongest embryo hunts down other embryos as food. Sharks are probably most famous for this, but several species of wasps and marine snails also practice it. Bill might have had a slight advantage over his other siblings because his eye (and consequentially his mouth) were larger due to his unusual mutation.

Euclydeans are shelled, but their shell does not develop fully inside the mother. Similarly to some species of oysters, young that grows inside the mother begins to develop shells (in oysters, this stage is referred to as "veliger larva"), but they are expelled out before the shell fully hardens. This is in order to protect the mother's insides. Unlike oysters, Euclydeans have just one (or maybe very rarely two) children at a time, so their baby is large. Judging from the size of the vaginal slit, it's probably around a third of their parent's size. That's very big (average human baby is just about 6% of the mother's weight), but Euclydean babies are born fully developed, with the exception of the shell. The shell fully develops when they begin to molt and so it hardens, looking more triangular (or any other shape, I don't know how to say that in English).

Here's the anatomy of the embryo and fetus in various stages of development. I don't know the specifics of anatomy of any Euclydean besides Bill Cipher, so it's him depicted here. Who asked for baby Bill's organs? Nobody, but you have them now:

So, this was everything I have proof of. But, in my shitty fanfiction "Bad Triangles Go to Therapy", I proposed that Euclydeans could have periods. I did this as a joke, but they could. Probably.

Since adelphophagy is extremely taxing for the mother, she would have a baby only every few years. But, if she somehow skipped this fertile period, she would have to expel all of the eggs that her body formed. This could be, or feel like, a menstruation, but they wouldn't shed uterine lining, just the eggs. Alternatively, a mother could simply reabsorb the eggs. This way, she would keep all of her nutrients inside her body and recover faster for the next fertile period. This is completely up to interpretation, because I have no idea.

@aroacejedi was the one who asked for embryonic development of Euclydeans, whilst @equilateralbill was the person with whom I discussed the logistics of Euclydean reproduction in more detail. They are the ones you should thank for this bullshit.

As always, anyone is free to use this for anything, just link to the post, or any other part of this series. Have fun, love ya!

[b17ten]

i just spent an entire car ride thinking about the canonical gender and anatomy system in exorian society. nobody asked for this but here it is!

Pronouns: Pronouns are unaffiliated with physical traits, sex, or gender identification. Pronouns are a personal choice, or what your caretakers referred to you as. Changing these are not a big deal, and it isn't uncommon for Exorians to cycle through theirs or use multiple.

Anatomy: "Bite nobody asked for this" TOO BAD. Exorians are like any other mer -- reproductive anatomy varies depending on a multitude of factors, largely the aquatic characteristics. Some Exorians are more mammalian, while some are more aquatic in reproductive processes. HOWEVER. Exorian sex traits don't always align "properly." Exorians can be born with a variety of genitilia -- some for carrying young, some for giving young, some for both, some for neither. Some Exorians are born with the internal organs for reproduction but not the aligned external ones. (For example, born with a uterus but not the associated genitilia) Intersex (for lack of a better term) and infertile Exorians aren't uncommon and there isn't a prejudice one way or another against them.

Across Aquatic Species: Exorians, and I imagine other mer, can't reproduce with Exorians with entirely different aquatic species. If a fish and dolphin mer tried to reproduce, for example, it wouldn't work. Same with mammalian and mollusk, etc. That doesn't mean they can't be mates or companions, just that they're physically incapable of making more Exorians.

Mates vs. Companions: The companion system has always been loosely defined intentionally, because... that's how it works. Exorians don't have a concept of sexuality or love the way other merfolk do simply because it's not that easy for them anatomically or culturally. Companions are the selected individual (or individuals) an Exorian has deemed worthy to be by the side of. Every companionship is different: some may do physical affection, intimacy, or even become mates. Not all companions are mates. Mates are specifically there for reproductive or emotional purposes. Not all mates are companions, but they usually are. Some types of mer among Exorians have courting customs with their mates (fun fact, mer!Bite's family does mating bites!), but there's not a one universal one. Mates don't have to be of the same type of aquatic creature but usually are.

Gender and Sex: Don't really exist the way they do in human or overworld terms. There are too many different factors in the biological make up of Exorians and too many varients to make a list of gender identities or sexes. Some grow facial hair, breasts, etc., but it doesn't really correlate to whatever is in their pants lol.

Sexuality: Same as above. Your value as a good companion or mate is determined on how impressive of an Exorian you are. Sure, some folks have a type, but it's not based on gender or sex lol.

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Actinopterygii - Hiodontiformes

(Sources - 1, 2)

Order: Hiodontiformes

Common Name: “mooneyes”

Families: 1 - Hiodontidae

2 Living Species: Goldeye (Hiodon alosoides) (image 1) and Mooneye (Hiodon tergisus) (image 2 and gif below)

Anatomy: silvery cycloid scales; large, metallic-shining eyes; forked tails; two abdominal and pelvic fins as well as a dorsal on their back and an anal fin on their underside, positioned opposite to each other; blunt round snout; teeth present on the tongue, roof of the mouth, and along the jaws

Diet: insects, crustaceans, small fish, and mollusks

Habitat/Range: clear lakes, ponds, and rivers of North America

Evolved in: Early Eocene

(source)

Propaganda under the cut:

The Goldeye (Hiodon alosoides) is so called for its conspicuous golden irises.

Goldeye eggs are about 4 millimetres (0.16 in) in size and are semi-buoyant (a rare trait in freshwater fish, but more common in marine fish). Their eggs are suspended in the water and drift downstream or to quiet waters.

Goldeyes average less than 450 g (1 lb) and 12 in (30 cm) in length, but can be found up to 910 g (2 lb) or 52 cm (20 in) in some lakes.

The Goldeye is considered a good fly-fishing fish, but not popular with most anglers because of its small size. Its fresh flesh is also considered soft and unappealing, so it was only taken randomly in gillnets and (in the past) sold for dogfood. They are now consumed smoked in oak or apple wood and marinated in a brine of salt, sugar, and spices, mainly in Canada.

The Mooneye (Hiodon tergisus) is listed as threatened in New York, North Carolina, and Michigan. Although Mooneyes inhabit much of eastern North America, many of their habitats are isolated or broken off, so if an isolated population goes extinct or begins to go extinct, no migration of outside Mooneyes can take their place or boost their population. Preferring clean, clear water, the development of agricultural and industrial practices has also led to low water quality, threatening the Mooneyes. Dams also block the migration routes of Mooneyes, and other species.

[fishenjoyer1]

Fish of the Day

Today's fish of the day is the redside shiner!

The redside shiner, scientific name Richardsonius balteatus, is a common minnow fish in the Western North America! Also called the Bonneville redside shiner, red-sided bream, Richardson's minnow, and silver shiner. Found in schools based around species, this fish has two currently named subspecies, those being R. b. hydrophylox and R. b. bealeatus, although recent data implies that this may not be the case, showing there may be three subspecies instead. However there isn't enough current knowledge to say for certain. These fish can be found across the Western North America, in Southern British Columbia, Alberta, and then across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Western Montana and Wyoming. Primarily found in the Columbia and Colorado river systems, in slow or still moving waters. These fish are native in Washington, Oregon, and Utah, but are invasive species harming salmonid populations in other locations. Common in lakes, mid-small sized rivers, ponds, ditches, and creeks, preferably found over gravel, sand, and vegetation. In the colder nights and winters, this fish is known to temporarily migrate to deeper waters, where they are more protected from the freeze. 

These fish are small, only three inches in length as juveniles, and only up to 5-7inches (18cm) as adults. As fry these fish start a silver color, very similar to spawning salmon and trout, but as they age they can turn silver, brown, olive, and of course, in the breeding seasons red and gold. The fry feed on zooplankton, algae, crustaceans, and, the trait of which makes them a concern in nonnative areas, trout and salmon fry. These fish at all ages are opportunistic, eating anything they can, including their own fish eggs. Adults tend to eat: insects, aquatic or terrestrial, mollusks, plankton, small fish, and eggs. Due to their small size they're predated on by larger fish in their environments, along with loons, and minks.

During spawning season, which runs from May to July, males will turn a brassy color, and gain a red stripe running behind the eye and along the lateral line, signifying that they are of breeding age. Spawning occurs in the afternoon and evening when adults move to spawning streams (or lake fish will move to inlet streams), where females and males will pick one another to thrash side by side, variously releasing eggs and sperm. These eggs then are abandoned to stick to the bottom of the stream on rocks and vegetation. Eggs will then hatch in 14-15 days after fertilization, forming schools with the other various redside shiners hatching. This is the time in which some subspecies prey upon trout fry, and others simply compete with trout for food. These fish will then sexually mature around 2-3 years of age, and will live for around 5 in total.

That's the redside shiner, everybody! Thank you for being lenient well I've been on fish hiatus briefly as I got a feel for my school term. However, fish of the day should return for at least a few days a week, but I will be attempting to get these out all five days, so keep an eye out! Have a wonderful day!

Sources:

McPhail, J. D. (2007). Redside Shiner. Pearson Ecological. https://pearsonecological.com/fish-l2-single/redside-shiner/

Utah Natural Heritage Program. Species database - Utah Natural Heritage Program Field Guide. (2019). https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=richardsonius+balteatus

Nico, L., & Fuller, P. (2004, August 6). Redside Shiner (Richardsonius Balteatus) - species profile. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database. https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=644

[sunmoon-starfactory]

Gone Fishin' 2.0

This set serves as both an streamlining update to the original files, as well as adds in being able to source items from the sea and to make productive farming situations as well.

Changes from Gone Fishin' 1.0

Optimization of textures: most made smaller, many items repositoried.

Food Points Amounts: All fish used to be worth the same amount of food points. Now they are varied depending upon fish size.

All items unlocked in the catalog for purchase if so desired.

Modern Rods included in separate folder - Shares GUIDs with simple rods; Choose One Type

Converter Crates/Fish Stand have been converted to decorative (requested per beta testers) as their functions have been combined to a new station, they share the same GUIDs as the original versions.

Filet knife has been eliminated from the set, as it's function has been put into the new station.

NEW: Cleaning & Packing station; allows packing of fish crates and butchering of fish.

NEW: Traps; Passive allocation of various fresh water or salt water creatures.

NEW: Tidepools: Quick forage spots for various ocean resources

NEW: Farming Tank: Make various fish, sea critters, and even seaweed renewable resources right at home. A glass recolor of BB Niches is included for making glass walled tanks.

Download - SFS

View Use/Instruction Manual

See below the cut for more detail.

This fishing set is intended to allow a sim to catch a variety of fish based on their body skill rather than their badge skill/season/bait type used. Of course all fishers have good days and bad days so they may also pull up some trash, seaweed or some treasure along with the intended catch.

Key Features:

Bait Sources - To fish, one needs bait. Fresh water fish use worms, and salt water creatures prefer small bait fish. These can also be used as Fish Food for farming. If a sim is super desperate, they are worth 1 food point if stocked to the fridge.

Fish Anywhere, Anytime Spots - Comes in fresh water and salt water variations. Works in all seasons, can be used by multiple sims at the same time. All fish are worth a variety of food points based on size and they can be added directly to the fridge or butchered.

Fish Traps - These are passive traps that run every 3 hours (tunable). They must be baited to function and sometimes come up with nothing.

Tidepools - A great place to forage for mollusks, shells, and other small sea critters and salt water foragables.

Farming Tank - Gather the needed materials and creatures to start farming them rather than relying on chance. Fish, mollusks, shrimp, and seaweed can all be grown. Rather than any particular type of fish, sims will received "Farmed Fish". A glass recolor of BB Niches is included for making glass walled tanks. A decorative protective net object can be called onto the Farm Tank.

Cleaning & Packing Station - This all in one station now takes the place of the previous converters and filet knife. All fish except Tuna and Swordfish can be packed into crates, as well as Lobsters, Crabs, and Fish Filets.

When a fish is butchered on this station, it produces Fish Filets that are worth 1 food point a piece. Sims receive as many that a fish raw stocked is worth, plus an additional filet. With certain traits, sims can gain more.

Displays - The Fish Crate Display and Fishing Rod are back, but have been repoed to the Cask Shelf now to save space.

Tools - The fishing rod tool allows for autonomous fishing while the new pole net is required for farming and other actions.

[digi-lov]

Syakomon EX8-056, Gesomon EX8-058, and MarineDevimon EX8-061 by Itohiro from EX-08 Extra Booster Chain of Liberation

[silverhart-makes-art]

Pretty sure I have a good guess as to this week's Bestiary Posting animal, so I'm just gonna go totally off the rails for this one.

My thought process was as follows: Three rows of teeth means it must be a shark. And it would be fun to draw a fish, since I haven't done one for this challenge yet. But oh no, it has 'powerful feet'. Fish don't have feet. You know what does have powerful feet though? Mollusks. Mollusks have feet. It's described as having eyes though. What mollusks have eyes? That's right. Cephalopods!

Hence, the Mlekragg is a cephalopod.

Yes, it is a stretch, but sometimes with this challenge I like to imagine I'm an alien illustrator with no concept of what animals humans would regularly encounter. While most humans would probably assume this is a terrestrial mammal, there's no reason an alien would. In fact, considering how many more invertebrates there are then vertebrates, it makes sense for an outside observer to assume any animals described by humans is an inveterate, unless it says otherwise. It's all very sound alien logic, and not just me making wild leaps because I want my imaginary bestiary to have some more variety beyond my favorite birds and mammals. I'm really trying to use this challenge to be more imaginative and crazy with creature designs, and think outside the box when I can.

Anywho, the cuttlefish and nautilus were my main points of reference, though I did look at some reconstructions of prehistoric cephalopods for inspiration. Then I simply took all the elements of the Mlekragg and slapped it onto that body form. The triple row of teeth can't be seen in my drawing, but it is located where a cephalopod's beak would typically be. The 'face of a man' is actually a pattern on it's hood it uses to fool predators. Behind the hood flares out a 'lion's mane', which it uses for display and also to disorient it's prey when it snatches it up. It has a pointed "tail" with a stinger. It doesn't look much like a scorpion's tail - took a bit of artistic liberty and decided it just stings like a scorpion's tail, rather then looks like it. I've decided to interpret 'powerful feet' and 'good jumper' as two different traits. So it's 'powerful feet' are it's tentacles, but it uses it's stinger to leap. Why does a sea creature need to leap? Well, I imagine they live near coasts and occasionally get stranded in tide pools or on land and use their stingers to propel themselves back into the water. It kind of works like a springtail's little 'tail'. Much like the description says, no obstacle can keep the Mlekragg in!

On the bottom right I've drawn a picture of one using it's stinger to leap, and on the left I've drawn a cartoon version of it that accentuates the lion shape/human face idea. With it's tentacles and mane laid back and it's fins hanging down it does look like a little leaping lion. I also gave it a little grin in keeping with the cartoon tradition of putting cephalopod mouths on the mantle, which we know is incorrect. It does make him look like a very personable little gentleman though.

I feel if I were a bit more confident in drawing cephalpods and knew more about mollusk anatomy I could've maybe taken this in an even wilder direction. Maybe I'll revisit it in the future.

[nilsavatar]

DAY 9 - ACCIDENTAL STIMULATION

Parings: Rotxo x Fem!human

Genre/Warnings: NSFW/MDNI +18, no use of Y/N, SMUT, accidental stimulation, rubbing, fingering, sexual tension, olfactophilia (Rotxo turns on by smelling arousal) praising (baby boy/pretty boy/good boy), Aubree (reader) is slightly older, cursing, edging, sub-Rotxo, size difference. All characters are AGED-UP.

Summary: the research for an octopus-like species turns into a totally different search.

@acts-of-pastel you mentioned you wished for a Rotxo x human. I hope I have met your expectations☺️

Word Count: 3k

Masterlist - Request a fic

The ilu were funny. Prankster, playful creatures, and very affectionate, even with the few humans in Metkayina territory. They reminded her of dolphins in the way they behaved. In fact, just like dolphins, they had established a bond of friendship with the people of the reef.

However, Aubree had overlooked one crucial detail: the sticky skin.

The Ph.D. student had stood on the back of a Pandora animal before, but they had always been land creatures. So, her small size was inconsequential as long as she could grip tightly. The problem with the ilu lay precisely in that. No matter how much strength she put into her legs, she promptly slipped off the back of the mount. Did she press a little with her right knee? That’s when the left would lose its grip and her weight would unbalance until she fell into the water. Ditto if she did the opposite. Squeezing simultaneously with both was out of the question; she didn’t have long enough legs.

The only solution was to ride with an expert, and fortunately for her, Rotxo had been generous enough to offer to carry her himself. She could not have taken Ao’nung’s constant shenanigans. The woman was here to work, not to be ridiculed.

So here they were, on the beach, the salty smell of the ocean filling the air. Rotxo, already astride his ilu, gently extended a hand to her, while Aubree stared skeptically at the animal, wondering which way to mount.

“I’ve got you,” he repeated to her for the millionth time, his kind lips not losing their friendly smile for a second.

That boy was far too good and patient. An angel. The exact opposite of his best friend, she thought and wondered how on earth those two got along. She, in his place, would have gladly pulled off that annoying smirk with which he strutted around.

Really unbearable.

However, her thoughts were not consumed by her bitterness towards the future olo'eyktan. She had a mission: to take a sample of sagittaria ink.

Skuka, the local name for these 1.2 m nautilus-like creatures, had traits similar to terrestrial mollusks, octopuses, squids, and grinders. An incredibly unique species among the aquatic creatures cataloged on Pandora, but one about which very little was yet known because of its shy nature and the ease with which it camouflaged itself among corals and reef bottoms. Despite its bright purple hue, the skilled cephalopod expertly altered its color.

The similarities between Earth and Pandora were nearly overwhelming, despite their existence in separate systems. The universe was not meant to host life. To find it in its vastness, to receive confirmation that we were not the only ones, was a rarity; an exception that confirmed the rule. Yet, encountering the identical elements duplicated, albeit in a chaotic manner and frequently in colossal proportions to meet the tastes of a feeble human within an alternate ecosystem? It was awe-inspiring, a virtual impossibility.

Pandora's name had become synonymous with achieving the unachievable.

Sagittaria proved incredibly elusive, resulting in a scarcity of publications about it; near to zero. All that was known was the extraordinary special ability to oxygenate not only seawater, but also freshwater. However, just recently, Aubree had set eyes on it for the first time, on an unfortunate specimen caught by reef fishermen, inevitably ending up on the communal dinner menu. While cleaning, the woman noticed a black pouch that they saved to use as a condiment.

The animal’s defensive ink. 

This gave her an idea. If she could analyze the fluid secreted by a live specimen, they could find the answers they were looking for about this curious creature. By chance, the fisherman who had caught the previous octopus was none other than Rotxo, leading her to approach the young diver.

“We gotta go skuka hunting if you're still up for it. We don't have forever,” he said with a slight insistence, dirtying his voice. Her hesitation was making him lose his patience. And the man’s patience was infinite.

Aubree checked one last time that her scuba gear was working and, with a heavy sigh, approached Rotxo, who wasted no further time in lifting her by weight, putting her in the saddle, and anchoring her to his chest with one hand so large that it practically covered her entire abdomen; his thumb pressing on her sternum, placing it right in the middle of her breasts.

Rotxo’s nose curled, tasting a strange note in the air. His mind drew a blank, yet the familiarity was indescribable. It had the sweetness of a ripe fruit, with a touch of spiciness that intoxicated him and caused him to search for the source. He probed carefully. In Aubree's perspective, he appeared to be investigating the absence of predators, unaware of the information her body was betraying.

The completely accidental and unexpected gesture sent a bolt of electricity coursing through her entire body. Like a lightning splitting a tree in two. A thunderbolt that had started where his index finger had pressed on her left nipple (right at the level of her heart, now threatening to explode in her chest) and had ended in the deepest part of her belly. Here an immense heat had sprung up, she was sure had reached her cheeks as well. She never believed that the day would come when she would give thanks for wearing the full mask of the eco-pack over her face. Suddenly, she no longer felt the visceral chill of the ocean penetrate her bones. How could she when all her senses were exclusively focused on the huge man behind her?

When a stronger breath of wind hit them, a whiff of that smell hit him again, along with a scent he knew well.

The scientist’s sugar shampoo.

He had been groping her boob until that moment and, like an idiot, had not even acknowledged it.

With a sudden realization, his orbits split apart, revealing the shock on his face. What he had perceived were her subtle pheromones, barely discernable to most, but not to him. Aubree was ... aroused? For him? Right now, out of all the times. Why? Wasn’t it abominable for human to feel attraction to an alien? Perhaps she was into big stuff.

Great Mother, Rotxo, what the hell are you thinking?

It was a misunderstanding. It had to be. It didn’t make sense. And finally he noticed. Recorded the soft roundness under his palm and that he had held the whole way.

It will surely be embarrassment. He judged the trail of pheromones, not finding the courage to believe there really was more to it.

Not to upset her further, Rotxo slid his hand further to her side and pushed back a little, but this only caused the woman to slip back by the force of gravity, landing precisely on his lower abdomen.

Holding back from moaning was impossible; the parting line in Aubree’s bottom fit his growing erection wonderfully.

The woman was about to apologise by pushing further forward on the ilu’s back when a tight, burning grip on her side silenced her.

“Do not move.” The depth of his voice made her head spin, as if she were about to faint, a soft ringing filling her ears. She wasn’t sure of her voice when shakily she called out to him. 

“Do not talk. Just—,” he exhaled a heavy breath, his voice equally uncertain, “Just do nothing.”

With both palms, he smeared the human on himself — the action already tremendous for his willpower, as all her weight pressed deliciously against his lower abdomen —, then lowered his face to her head, until he buried his nose in her hair. He sniffed her like a cat examines a salmon mousse. Ravenous.

But that wasn’t enough. He wanted more. He needed more.

With trembling fingers, the diver found the zip of her wetsuit and tugged it as far as he could. She shivered, her back suddenly exposed to the cold, but she did not have time to register it, for her body was already in the grip of another kind of shiver. More intense and visceral, which went hand in hand with the hot puffs that escaped from the Na’vi’s nostrils as he explored her bare epidermis. As he did so, he glued her even more tightly to himself and her beautiful ass hit him again, now irrefutably erect, and Aubree missed a beat. Her head grew lighter and lighter, her body more and more uncontrollable. Rotxo’s moans went hand in hand with the dance of her hips.

Rotxo made her feel the outline of his canines on one shoulder, while his hand slid along the outline of her intimacy until he found her swollen clit. Sensitive and erect. She let out a whine. She felt him smile as he rubbed the thick, tight fabric, giving her a pleasant but insufficient friction.

Unsatisfied, Aubree levered the animal’s back to give herself a harder push backwards that made him blow something incomprehensible. His hand crept inside her wetsuit, happily surprised to discover her completely unclothed underneath as he pinched at her nipple, glancing up to catch the moan leaving her plump lips. 

So that’s what she liked. Sweet, filthy little thing.

Satisfied, her back immediately arched and his hands planted themselves on the one remaining on her pelvis. He smiled around her, thrilled to be right. She pushed her ass against him and he groaned, his cock stiffening more than it already was. Fuck, at this rate, he would probably cum through the loincloth, untouched, but he restrained himself. 

“Rotxo,” you mewled. A shiver snaked down his spine at the sound and couldn’t hold back another groan that made the girl look up at him with a racing heart. “Feels good,” she bit into her lip, thighs pressed together.

After more lapses, tugging at her nipple and a playful bite at her shoulder, he approached her face. His gaze fell on her lips, a little reddened and covered with her own saliva. Swollen, eager. 

Fucking mask. 

The other hand quickly found its way to her womanhood, leaning into her as he let her guide him.

He passed her clitoris, teased her fleshy folds and insinuated a fingertip towards the deepest part of her pussy, finding it already magnificently wet and wide. He wore the sensitive ring that tightened around his finger, as if it eagerly sought to trap him, causing a sigh louder than the rest. An unequivocal invitation that he was damned if he was going to refuse it. He pushed the first phalanx lazily to stretch her walls, helping them adjust to a size she had never experienced before. Then he reached for the knuckle and finally found himself sucked in whole. Each millimetre covered corresponded to a higher-pitched cry until Aubree became a whimpering mess.

He couldn’t help wondering how she would act when it was his cock’s turn to sink into her. She would be unconsciously transfixed on him. A dark laugh echoed in his windpipe at the mere thought.

“Put another one in.”

It took him a couple of seconds to register that she had spoken. “What?”

“Put a-another finger.”

“Do it, baby boy.”

“Syulang (flower), I don’t want to hurt you.” He actually wanted to, to be honest. If he hadn’t risked dismembering her, he would have shed his tewng (loincloth) and her diving suit long ago, and slammed her on his cock. But he had to constrain himself, prepare her properly. She was just a little human. Beautiful and fragile, like a crystal.

Shit, that pet name was all he needed to make his knees go soft. He could do nothing but succumb. With no little effort, a second finger took its place next to the first. The burning that pervaded her was almost unbearable, intense, yet addicting. Her mouth was dry because of time she remained wide open in a scream of both pain and pleasure. Small tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

“Right there!” The sweetness of her voice stimulated his excitement even more because every time she made a sound, a fresh wave of her perfume blanketed him. It was exhilarating.

He couldn’t help but let himself get a little cocky, smirking to himself, running his tongue over his lower lip. The obscene sounds coming from her cunt should have mortified her, but nothing of the sort came to mind as she felt her release coming up and teasing the surface. 

She tried to hide her loud moans by biting her lip until it bled, but watching his hand disappeared into her scuba wetsuit, his fingers pumped into her and his thumb twirled over her sweet clit made her head spin. Doing it in the middle of the ocean made the action even more naughty, wild. He was driving her crazy. She couldn’t recall ever being touched so sublimely. 

Sooner than she had expected, Aubree’s thighs trembled from the aftershock, trying to come down from the climax. She lay back on his chest and gasped, trying to catch her breath.  She stared at the sunny sky for a moment, her mind baffled by what had just happened. 

When she finally composed herself, she rose again to stare at him. Her eyes flashed with mischief. She licked her lower lip with excruciating slowness before biting it, giggling. “My turn.” She was still smiling, little smile lines at the corners of her lips and eyes, when she anchored herself to the saddle for support and began to languidly rub her ass against his covered shaft.

His cock was so big and heavy, she could feel it even through the fabric. Hard and throbbing. He let out a broken moan, staring at her with hooded eyes. Even without a skin-to-skin touch, it was absolutely incredible; the material gave that extra friction that made him fall into a spiral, and for a moment he considered not taking off his tewng at all.

As she approached the point where Rotxo needed her most, she moved her hands to support her pelvis. She imagined having him inside her. Ripping into her spongy walls in a deliciously painful way, before fucking her stupid. He was so big that she would surely cum several times in a row.

“Please don't stop.” 

Who would’ve guessed he was the begging type? Aubree smiled devilishly, giving herself a more mighty momentum, only for him to throw his head back.

“Relax, pretty boy.” He was struggling to hold it together. Just having her ass on him was enough. He couldn’t even imagine what her mouth would feel like. Him hitting the back of her throat, filling it with so many streams of seed, making her swallow every single drop of it. Fuck, and your pussy. Just at the idea, pre-cum dripped to patch the cloth.

She stooped a little more to change the angle. His aquamarine eyes were fixed on hers and a hand rested on her back to steady her. Or perhaps to keep him grounded. He groaned. She gasped in surprise when Rotxo grabbed her butt, keeping her there.

His dick pulsated. The veins were more evident than before. He was close. “Be a good boy and cum for me.”

“N-no,” he said, eyebrows coming together and lips parting. He looked away from her only to kiss her back, nibbling at the soft skin. 

“I know you need to cum.”

“I’ll do anything you want, but please, not like this. I can’t...” his fingers dug into the flesh of her bottom, moaning louder now.

“Don’t worry, pretty boy. Just let it go.”

His hips stuttered as he stifled a moan, no longer knowing where to put his hands. She rubbed herself against him faster and he gasped, moaning hopelessly, almost choking on his own saliva.

His long, prolonged wailing was because he had shot his sperm entirely into his tewng, like an inexperienced kid. His cock throbbed and twitched as he continued to empty himself, his thighs quivering. He used an arm to cover part of his face as he emitted low whines.

“Don’t make that face. I’ll pull another one out of you.” Her playful smile made him hard again. She was so... so alluring. Charming and seductive. He hadn’t planned to fall into her hands, but there he was. Ensnared by her mesmerizing stare, he couldn't break free. He was left speechless, grappling for something to say. Every fiber of his being yearned for her, an insatiable hunger that could not be denied.

She moved up, leaning forward to stretch a hand between his legs to reach his aching erection, taking its heavy length in her frail hand. He let out a shuddering breath, blinking as he felt her tease the tip of his cock. 

“Strip.” Fuck, he was about to lose it again. 

Her name sounded heavenly coming from his beautiful lips, his eyes already begging her to keep doing what she was doing.

But suddenly Aubree’s gaze changed. Her head snapped to one side toward the seabed, too deep for her to really see it. Yet something had caught her attention.

A purple blur moved sinuously but funny against the current.

The woman’s eyes glittered as she trudged back into her wetsuit.“Rotxo, a sagittaria!”

“What?”

“A skuka!” she sat back down, her back to him, ready to chase after the cephalopod. "Come on, now," she said, her tone laced with impatience.

“But, but…” He was so stunned that he couldn't find his words.

She threw him a wink. We'll finish this up later on. You'll get a sweet reward if you fetch that skuka for me.”

He couldn’t believe that between him and an octopus, Aubree would choose the octopus. A fucking octopus!

But with the tantalizing prospect of being profusely thanked later, he swallowed his huff and commanded the ilu to set off in pursuit of the mollusc. Already anticipating his prize.

Special thanks to @pandoraslxna for the prompt!

[eluxurex]

what's the black stuff on your oc

I genuinely wanted answer this with a some pictures but then I realized how quickly I lose energy, so I'll just write it down.

Tw: Death mention

Well, to say what exactly those black stuff are is a complicated question. But it's linked to his soul which is shown in this post

Now, if you have gone to check that out, you'll see that the major color of her soul is black. Now, it's this color because it's incomplete so the soul tries to make a replacement for the missing part.

I like to think that souls have at least three parts: the core, inner layer and outer layer. The core is where the basic components of the soul are enclosed in, the inner layer acting as barrier to separate the core from external world and the outer layer completing the soul as a hole.

Now with Eli, he only has two layers: the core and inner layer. Her soul is not complete.

To add more light to this, I guess I should explain what Eli is to begin with. Eli's a parasite, an entity that has to depend on others to truly live. There are at least three main categories of parasites, namely: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual.

Physical parasites are your 'usual' shit, just attaching themselves to some poor being that will now be their host, slowly sucking out the life within the host, till they're nothing more than a empty huk devoid of any life and moving on to their next victim. They vary looks, some resembling mollusks (particularly snails and slugs) while some just look like a moving mass of goo.

Emotional parasites are really just a different kind of physical parasites, but instead of them completely eating up the host from the inside, they merely latch unto the brain and soak up hormones released when the host are experiencing emotions. They're mostly harmless, reducing stress for the host and never even taking near enough that will negatively affect the host. Though, once one of these have latched unto a host's brain, they re together for life. If one dies the other follows in suite.

Spiritual parasites are probably the weirdest of them all. This guys are literally just souls, having no physical form of their own. Some of them come from different emotions accumulating to the point that they no longer become abstract concepts and have a near physical form, which is a soul. Eli is one of these, as the colors in her soul are really just emotions.

Now with these guys, they have the ability to forcefully push out a soul from its body and take its place. But the thing is, the majority of times these souls immediately take control of a body as soon as they are made, so the main victims here are really just unborn children. Spiritual parasites don't actually have any ill intention when they do this, as it's just an instinct they have as without a body they can't interact much with the world.

Though with what I explained in a previous ask (look up #otherspace lore to see it). Most of the times, the bodies they inhabit start to get traits from their soul, which is why Eli has black goo covering their body. Though, in some areas, there isn't anything under neath the black stuff.

Anyways, since these guys have naturally incomplete souls, they have to find some other method to trigger their souls to create the last layer. For Eli's case, he has to 'feel' to a certain extent. Depending on the major emotion in his soul that triggers the process, the black goo wouldn't be altered accordingly.

Also, these guys are technically immortal, since their souls are made from abstract concepts, so even if they die, they can still go forcefully inhabit another body. But if their soul completes, they would really be invulnerable and can't be killed.

The only way for a spiritual parasite to really die is if they release the content s of their core and return to their most basic components: emotions, therefore becoming abstract once more

[conkreetmonkey]

On one hand, it makes absolutely no sense lore-wise for fuzzification to give anyone anything but grizzly bear traits. It's very explicitly made from Mr. Grizz's DNA, and that alone, no other mammal material in the mix.

On the other hand, it's so cool to think about what characters would become what animals if the ooze DID just mammal-ify you without it specifically being bear-based...

Possible justification for the latter I came up with while writing this post: the Alterna mind crystals picked up on Mr. Grizz's desire to re-mammal the world, and as such "carries out" this "command" by "rearranging" the avaliable bear genes in different ways to mimic different animals Grizz remembers from his pre-WWV life as a normal bear and his time on the Ark Polaris. It can't apply a trait that Mr. Grizz doesn't have the preexisting genetics for, but it CAN use them selectively.

For instance, let's say Mr. Grizz has the code for a few different tones of grizzly brown fur within his DNA, expressed on different parts of his body or buried as unexpressed recessive genes. The ooze can perhaps cause these colours to be expressed in spots or stripes. If you want to really stretch things, you could say that he's a carrier for recessive albino or melanistic colouration, to get white or black fur respectively, although on second thought you could just say the ooze fucked with the melanin production genes itself... regardless, many fur colours such as orange and grey probably couldn't be found at all, but you have wiggle room with how far you want to push this, at least. Or perhaps the ooze can just yoink pigment production genes from the Mollusk Era host themselves!

Perhaps the ooze could apply the hefty muscle and fat growth of a bear to certain individuals, to mimic certain species (such as, uh, bears). Or some could get just muscle (for primates, bovids, canines, idfk), and some just fat (maybe for seals, pigs and cetaceans), and maybe some would just gain larger skeletal frames but no additional bulk (moose??giraffe?? maybe??).

Then you've got selective application of teeth/claws, diet/taste, instincts such as aggression, protectiveness and hibernation, vocal stuff, mannerisms... you could probably cobble together most large mammals from bear traits. It's just a shame there can't be horns, antlers or unique ears...

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #244

Brought to you by a marine biologist continuing with eels...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

So, yesterday we covered yet another moray eel, and today, we won't! Of the eels present in the Animal Crossing franchise, moray eels still make up about 44% of them, even when we include today's new eel, the Darkfin Pike Eel.

The Darkfin Pike Eel was available in ACPC throughout the summer of 2023 and hasn't returned. It was uncommon at Saltwater Shores, but being under a long, thin shadow, as other eels are, might have made it easier to sus out.

I find it funny that the English version of the game calls this the Darkfin Pike Eel, which is the common name used in Australia. The more widespread common name is the Daggertooth Pike Conger (Muraenesox cinereus), with "pike congers" being a brand new group of eels AC hasn't included until now! Pike congers are true eels in the Order Anguilliformes. Their Family, Muraenesocidae, is within the Suborder Congroidei, which includes the proper conger eels. This means today's fish is more closely related to our garden eels (the splendid and spotted) than it is to our morays and other eel friends. ACPC did a great job on this sprite - the important details are in the well-developed pectoral fins this species has, the long, pointed face, and the sharp teeth!

From Joel Sartore's (National Geographic photographer and speaker) Photo Ark - https://www.joelsartore.com/product/photo-ark-book/

And it's in the game because - you guessed it - it is a popular food fish in Japan. They actually have a very hefty fishery and are considered a delicacy in some parts of Japan.

The Daggertooth can get pretty damn big, with large specimens growing to 7ft or over 2m. They live throughout the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to IndoChina and Japan. They have well-developed jaws and...their teeth are just crazy. The upper jaw has a single row of teeth down the middle instead of being normal. The end of the lower jaw almost resembles a spike ball, with large dagger-like teeth just springing up from the gums. That's probably where it got its name. I'd also hazard an educated guess that these teeth are amazing at catching and holding onto slippery prey like fish, which they do feed on.

Eels, in general, and for the most part, are naked. That includes the Daggertooth. They don't have scales, and if they do, they are embedded deep in the skin, very much unlike the type of fish scales you would first think of. Lots of fish are naked, which I know from experience doesn't really register to most people. That is, unless you're Kosher, in which case, this can actually turn into a big deal, depending upon how strictly you observe. For the rest of the class, "Kosher" refers to food that adheres to Jewish dietary laws. One of these laws states that to be Kosher, you mustn't eat seafood unless it has scales and fins. This basically rules out all types of crustaceans and mollusks, or really anything that isn't a fish. For some people, as long as it's clearly a fish, it's fine, but others do go further and avoid scale-less fish, like eels. The more you know!

Scales are important to the fish that have them - they provide an extra layer of protection from predators, parasites, and also just simply scratching themselves on something in their environment. For some fish, though, scales aren't worth it. Eels, and lots of other naked fish, cover themselves in very thick coats of slime to protect themselves in the way that scales might. Without scales, they also have behaviors that protect them. They may be great at camouflage, they might burrow into sediment, or they'll hang out in very narrow crevices all day, all as ways to circumvent the fact that they are naked and vulnerable. As we have covered many times on AC Fish Explained, all traits have pros and cons. Losing a trait and thriving anyway (there are just about 1000 species of eels) probably means you're better off without it. (And by "better off" I mean, the animal can now use the energy and resources it would have used to build and maintain scales on some other trait, or becoming more fecund (aka having more babies), or getting bigger, etc etc etc...)

And there you have it! Fascinating stuff, no?