#CREATURE GO BRRR

[teeterarting]

The gang's all here

[technicallymaximumkitty]

ok so i heard that in season 2 were gonna learn why everyone is in hell and i am just so flappy rn like-

human design flashback! human design flashback! human design flashback! human design flashback! human design flashback!

that idea got me SO stimmy!

like, their human designs? their backstory? HUMAN DESIGNS! their family! (totally not gonna fact check the legitimacy on their historical accuracy)

plus I can finally learn weather sir pentious was a rich kid or a coal mine/factor kid. (i just want to know if my backstory is even a little cannon)

(Niffty lore is not a need it's a want! plz, i love niffty)

[sketchyracoon]

My internal dialogue has simply been a chant of 'sea slug in a wheelchair'.

[lonely-lovely-lemons]

Forgot to show one of my old creatures lol

Here have Pearline.

(Pürl-lean)

Cute right?

WRONG

Pearline is a baby eldritch creature that is wanted by authorities for committing the following…

•Larceny

•Battery

•Defying Newton’s law

•Warping reality for its own benefit

•exchanging unwanted conversations

•Being annoying

•Attempting to bite the curious people who try to simply talk to it (they find it very offensive??)

•Taunting

•Watching people sleep

If you see this creature turn it over to the local authorities if possible.

If showing signs of aggression report the last known location of its presence.

[lucifugousart]

There's no fucking way i'll have this go lost because of Twitter's downfall

"Design inspiration, symbolism and references behind the water beasts in New Gods: Nezha Reborn"

❗ Premise. DO NOT take what I write for absolute truth or canon material, regardless of the sources. I drew my own conclusions, heavily influenced by my own reading key. Take it as a theory!

The first creature coming to mind when looking at them is surely the Xièzhì (獬豸), a mythical beast that appears multiple times in East Asian legends. We can find a detailed description of these creatures in the Shou Pu (獸譜), a painted album created for the Qianlong Emperor from 1750 to 1761 by court artists Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang, depicting terrestrial animals and legendary beasts and part of the Emperor's personal encyclopedia. Also known with the korean name "Haetae", the Xiezhi is depicted as a muscular beast with a likeness to a lion, goat, and unicorn (sometimes referred to exactly as a “unicorn lion”) living in the northeastern wilderness.

In Shou Pu, and also in many legends, it's said they're naturally able to distinguish innocent from guilty, right from wrong, making them an ultimate symbol of justice that appears a lot in decorations, paintings, buldings and clothing, giving also the name to the judicial hat (法冠) that symbolizes the impartial and effective enforcement of the law.

It's also known as a guardian against disaster, a symbol of water due to its fire-eating qualities and a messenger of the heaven, which also stands for a sense of justice. The attention on justice's symbolism is also drawn by another design detail of the water beasts: the third eye on their forehead. Comes natural the association with “the Eye of Heaven” (天眼), able to differentiate truth from lies, and with "the embodiment of justice" himself: the noble and powerful warrior god Erlang Shen, who is also related to hydrology in a very interesting way.

Now stay with me, because this will lead to another creature that also possibly inspired the water beasts and that brings EVERYTHING together: justice, water and floods. But to better introduce them, first we have to understand why the reference to Erlang is important.

In Chinese myths, Erlang Shen is also a folk hero that helped alleviate the terrible flooding of the Min river. With his name meaning "godly second son" (er = two; lang = boy; shen = god), he was believed to be the second son of the engineer Li Bing, hired to prevent the yearly flooding that would affect the lives of the people of the Chengdu Plains and Dujiangyan city (Sichuan). However, Li Bing couldn't discover the source of the flooding, as it appeared that the flooding wasn't natural. Legend has it that Li Bing sent Erlang to sail up and down the river for a year to attempt to discover the source of the annual flood, but he couldn't discover the cause either.

One day, as Erlang is walking with seven hunters who had witnessed his bravery in slaying a rogue tiger, they chance upon an old woman who is crying at the edge of the river near Dujiangyan. She tells Erlang that she is distraught, as one of her grandsons is to be sacrificed to a dragon that has held dominion over the river for generations. Believing that he has discovered the source of the river’s flooding, Erlang volunteered to take the place of the woman’s grandson to be offered as sacrifice to the dragon instead.

When the ancient dragon arrived to take his sacrifice, Erlang and his friends leapt from hiding and chased the dragon to the river, where the old woman trapped it with chains in a pool below the Dragon Taming Temple.

With the dragon immobile, Erlang splitted the creature in half with his double-edged lance. And with the dragon dead, the annual flooding ended and peace and tranquility came to the Chengdu Plains. To thank Erlang for his bravery, the people elevated him and his father to godhood and dedicated a local temple as Two Kings Temple in their honor (The Erwang Temple in Dujiangyan).

The myth of the water dragon being chained to control the hydrology of the province instantly felt familiar. And it's here that we find the connection to the water beasts.

Li Bing and his son Erlang worked at the complex irrigation system that protected the area and the people from the severe flood of the Min River: the Dujiangyan irrigation system, constructed in 256 BC, which is still in use today. In literature's classic "Huayang Guozhi·Shuzhi" is recorded that, along other clever solutions to avoid a dam, Li Bing also created 5 massive statues referred to as "Water town god beast" (鎮水神獸 if the translation is wrong please correct me!) which resembled a single horned creature similar to a rhino. With a length of more than 3m and a weight of 8 tons, two of these statues were buried in the river to "tame the water spirits". The resemblance with the water beasts, able to trap the river dragons, is astonishing. Curiously, when in July 2013 one of these statues was brought to the surface by archaeologists, heavy rainfalls occurred in Sichuan causing successive floods, and rumors spread saying "that removing the beast from its place, the water spirits couldn't be trapped anymore", followed by the request to put it back in its place claiming their ancestors "buried it there for a reason". According to a popular local tradition, rhinos are a divine beast that can help stop flooding and the newfound statues were supposedly buried by a local folk hero, more likely Erlang himself.

Back to Nezha Reborn, even if Donghai is a fictional city with the name of the raging sea where Nezha kills Ao Bing, it's located near the Eastern Sea. According to what Ao Guang says, is VERY likely that most of the water drawn in by the beasts is from the Yangtze river and its tributary the Min river itself, which would make everything coherent.

In addition to the justice symbolism of the water beasts (and this is my personal interpretation), Ao Guang's control of the waters (and, as a result, of Donghai itself) can also be represented by the chained water beasts themselves, being them the associated with a benevolent and righteous ruler. Therefore, the ending scene with Su Junzhu carrying the beast cub, can be read as justice finally being brought in Donghai following Ao Guang's demise, as the comeback of water finally marks the city's rebirth.

📚 References:

-Qianlong's encyclopedias, republished as "Natural History in the Palace Museum" by the Palace Museum Press and CITIC Press in Beijing

-A Study of Criminal Proceeding Conventions in Tang Dynasty,  Xi Chen

-Lunheng 論衡, Wang Chong -Collier I. D. Chinese Mythology

-The Chronicles of Huayang (Huayang Guo Zhi 华阳国志)

-The Collection of Imperial Books of Ancient and Modern Times (Qing Dynasty) Jiang Tingxi, Chen Menglei, etc.

-Probably more I forgot to take note of 🧍

[earthworms-worm]

His name is Mark

He’s seen things

[roseytoesy]

With some research I have discovered that an octopus’s favorite foods are crustations. Like lobster, crabs and shrimp. moray eels like to eat small fish, crabs, octopuses, squid, and shrimp. because my vore brain won’t shut up I’m going to write out a little headcanon.

Imagine the mc wants to be turned into a mermaid for a day, they of course build up the points and ask azul for this wish. He can easily grant it and on the next free day they both have, they and the twins to into the octavinelle “pool”. The transformation is painful but luckily they were fine after the shock. To many of the merfolks suprise the mc is a shrimp mer! some teasing and Floyd saying he was happy his nickname was quite accurate, they start to figure out how to swim. Learning to to use their many new legs and their little tail. Able to swim forward using their legs and shooting backward by doing some sort of abdominal crunch.

After a while of watching the mc wander around and have fun being a mer the boys can’t help but notice how… delicious the mc looks in this form. Not to mention how much smaller the mc is compared to the eels and octo mer. About the size of a cat to them. Floyd was first to tease how much he wanted a shrimpy snack. He’s stoped just in time by jade and they get into a scuffle. Of course the mc realises that the way jade, Floyd and azul were looking at them was not good. So they quickly shot off backwards and into a coral reef to hide. the hunt was on and there’s 3 ways this could go. 1. They get found by Floyd’s great sense of smell and how he was already chasing them when they dashed away. He would happily corner the poor shrimp mer and swallow them up. Enjoying their many little kicks and thrashes. He would let them out once jade and Azul find him with a rather full looking belly, lazily rubbing and cooing at it as he lazed on a sponge. 2. jade follows slowly. But it’s impossible to truly hide from his cunning gaze and insightfulness. He would deduce where they could have gone and figured out where they could have tried to hide. Pulling a horror movie esc scene by luring the shrimp mer out with some interesting movements and then gobbling them up in a moment of ambush and instincts. Apologizing, not meaning a word of said apology, for eating them before relaxing against the sandy bottom of the reef, chuckling at the little struggles he can feel from the mc. Maybe striking some conversation if the mc was truly scared or worried for their life. He would let them out once he found the others and assured them that the mc was safe and that he had had his fun for now. Definitely looking to enjoy such a delightful snack again in the future. 3. Azul may not be fast but he knows many things and magic was his forte. He could easily track the potions magic on you and followed it to find you inside a small dome of coral, too small for the eels and him, if he had bones. All it took was a bit of cockiness from the mc to get Azul to squeeze himself into the dome to snatch mc up. (Not so confident now huh?) he licks his lips before shoving them into his mouth, happily enjoying the power rush he got over dominating another’s life, to be able to doom or save them at his wish. But he quickly shook that off when he felt the struggles of his prey. Blushing and becoming a bit embarrassed that he slipped into his instincts a bit. He would wait for the mc to calm down a bit before explaining that they’re fine and he would let them out once he figured out how to do so safely. (He’s lying he just wants like 30 more minutes of the blissful fullness he doesn’t allow himself to have except for during the holidays.) he lets them out once jade and Floyd find his little hiding spot.

all in all a very interesting day for the mc. Would they want to do it again?

[3amsnek]

just a big ol parble floof (inspired by my friend’s socks under a blacklight)

click for better quality

Reblogs >> likes! Don’t like if you don’t reblog

[silvcrignis]

Claude Frollo Character Study in a single image:

[thecrappyportalmaster]

Anyone else end up in a rabbit hole for a fandom they have absolutely no part in? Like I was just interested in video game urban legends and now I know way too much about mortal kombat lore then anyone who’s never played mortal kombat should know about mortal kombat lore.

[the-unnecessary-commentary]

I've made seven

[sweet-beezus]

Poking around my brain for funny shapes hours

[your-subby-creature]

You ever think a thought that feels too big for your brain

[nereb-and-dungalef]

hot take but i like, super relate to victor frankenstein

[herd-of-creatures]

Dont get a lot of phantom limbs and what not, hasnt happened a ton b u t

Almost a year ago we were having these wolf ear shifts for a long time at work nearly consistently but they went away.

Something similar is happening again but this time its dragon ears but specifically skywing ears?? Technically they are more shaped like horse ears but the thing is I instinctively know they are dragon ears and are dark red. Its just so strange this is the second phantom limb thats just been animal ears specifically and for a pretty consistent period of time.

Picture for reference of a skywing, feels important lmao