#Pearl Pygmy

[tizzypizza]

alternatively, YOU are the only thing preventing acht from having to witness pearl and marina making out

[mudcrabmassacre]

And we are completely set! The tank has fully cycled, nitrites and ammonia at 0, and after a quick clean of the glass and sucking out some thread algae that bloomed in the sand, the tank is fully ready for its inhabitants!

They won't be arriving for a couple weeks yet though, I've still got to order them and funds are short atm. But soon! 🌿🌱���🦐

[epic-and-kitty]

......I think I have a crush on Pearl Splatoon.....

[rassicas]

Frye is not a Vampire Squid.

It's one thing to headcanon something, but it's another to pass it around a fact, which is why i have to say: Frye is not canonically a vampire squid. This idea originated from a popular twitter thread made at the time of Splatoon 3's direct, and the evidence it's based on is...weak. And yet I still see this info passed around... Yeah I think Frye is just supposed to be a regular Inkling.

the splatoon team has shown us that inklings, like humans, can have a lot of diversity. while our player character models are limited, in-universe its a different story. these are all considered regular inklings. look at the varied eye masks, faces,...they can even have blue skin! So i think that frye is just the splatoon team showing us how more diverse inklings can be.

I made a google drive folder of Inkling hairstyles with a lot of concept art, you can see many diverse examples. To address the other specific points of evidence used:

Long fangs: All Inklings have sharp "teeth"/ beaks. Inkling beak shapes can vary. the last one appears to have a snaggletooth.

Long ears: Ear shapes can vary as well. compare ears of the squid sisters with the player character. Pearl has short ears. hell even the player inkling ears between s2 and s3 are different.

purple fingertips: prior to S3, fingertip coloration was something only seen on octolings, not on inklings. with how her and Shiver can freely change finger tip colors according to their ink, it seems like just a thing inklings and octolings can Do and we just haven't seen much of until now, like how we didn't see much varied hairstyles until s2. Perhaps with how integrated octarian culture is in the splatlands, inklings have caught onto this style as well? Her earrings, the sharp pointy bits in her design: Yes this was used as evidence for the vampire squid thing. That's all eel motifs.

Now the biggest reason she cannot be a vampire squid... vampire squids are NOT squids! They're more closely related to octopuses, but really, they're their own thing (also they're called 'bat octopuses' in japanese... the language the splatoon developers speak. nothing to do with vampires or squids)

With how splatoon's designs have been so far, other species of cephalopods are not guaranteed to look like inklings, especially if not closely related to ink-producing squids and octopuses (and vampire squids are not) Here we have a dumbo octopus (not octoling). also nautiluses. In the case of a species that would be more closely related to the playable species, what seems to be an octoling based on a blue ringed octopus.

Going off this, if the splatoon team were to make a vampire squid character, it most likely wouldn't be a subtle 'inkling/octoling but 2 inches to the left,' For such a unique species, I think they would be pretty explicit about it in the design itself. And considering that they are deepsea creatures that do not produce normal ink, a vampire squid in splatoon might look pretty odd! In conclusion...please stop claiming frye is "supposed to be" or "canonically" a vampire squid, it's a flimsy headcanon based on superficial traits at best and there is zero evidence that was the developer's intent.

(And while I'm here, Pearl is not confirmed a pygmy squid, marie is not confirmed to be a firefly squid, marina is not a webfoot octopus etc. That's fanon based on their japanese names, not canon. As far as we know, the player inklings and inkling idols are all just one species of inkling. inklings and octolings seem to take inspiration from multiple species, but it's not confirmed if they are those species.)

[cadavercrafts]

Made a little bracelet for me :3c Onyx and silver pearls and the mouse skull is silverclay and based on a real pygmy mouse skull, true to size! Silverclay is so damn cool, i wish i could afford to work with it more

[anilyan]

Venti is Phanes + on Istaroth and the Primordial One

[Edit 13/04/2025: THIS IS OLD AND MESSY. Instead, please check my updated theory, it really goes in-depth and is organized and without inconsistencies. I would have posted it on reddit, but it exceeded the character limit >.< So you can check it on tumblr and twitter]

Not so crack theory: Venti is Phanes and is the androgynous being born from the Chymical Marriage between the Primordial One and Istaroth, before she was betrayed by the Sinners

(I posted this before but now it's properly explained)

I am using this lore in my old mondstadt fic, Nameless (actually soon to turn into trilogy, since vol 2 is about venti rewinding time and vol 3 is present time story and I took so long to plan all the lore with all the canon crumbs and theories we had...)

Yes, a lot of the info about gods is pulled from wikipedia, I’m not being paid to research more, okay? I just want to feed the brainrot. My main sources besides those are the videos listed at the end.

I would love if this theory made its way to some big lore content creator for them to analyse and criticize, because I have been rotating this in my head but I don’t have their capacity or knowledge to tear this apart.

NOTES:

This post contain minimal mentions of 2 leaks, about the rest of the collection of The Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies, and a sus minimal old leak about Venti

This post contains some references to the Penacony arc from Honkai star rail, but no knowledge about the game is required and in fact, I don't even play it myself and those are just sus parallels

0. Summary / main points

Istaroth and the Primordial One parallel Chronos (personification of time) and Ananke (most powerful dictator of Fate and mother of The Fates/Moirai), respectively.

Chronos and Ananke laid down the cosmic / orphic world that created/reshaped the world. In a way, that was an Alchemical Marriage, that also gave birth to the androgynous winged being Phanes/Venti, and to the Abyss,

Venti has many ties to fate, including extensive apple symbology visible even in wisp form. The apples, besides being a symbol of fate, also represent a dream bubble in accordance to the structure of Teyvat. Quoting his most sus birthday art, “It is written that there is a whole tiny world hidden inside an apple core”

Venti has at least some control over 1 half of Teyvat while the other half is ruled by The Night Mother/Nyx. He also offers us half of the apple in the mentioned birthday art.

Ananke was a serpent-like being, and we see a Black Serpent 1) coiled around Phanes 2) coiled around the pearl/cosmic egg in the Gnostic Chorus 3) in the Black Serpent Knights, who also had Ishtar/Istaroth’s star as a symbol 4) In Nibelung, if we consider serpents and dragons the same

Istaroth supported Khaenri’ah (thus why the Nation had her symbol) and both opposed the Heavenly Principles/Celestia, until she was betrayed by the Sinners/6 Pygmies and forgotten

The Primordial One was opposed by Celestia. We also know that Nibelung fought Celestia. They were either allies or even the same being (a black serpent), and their perceived opposition is not too different from how Remus went down misinterpreted by history

1. About the Primordial One

In case it’s not yet clear, this assumes that Phanes =/= Primordial One. After all, the book Before the Sun and Moon simply says that “The Primordial One may have been Phanes*”,* and the fandom just started equating the two.

I am of the opinion that the Primordial One and Celestia are in opposition, while Istaroth is on the side of the Primordial One, or at least opposed to Celestia too. Maybe the Alchemical Marriage was part of a plan of theirs. Read more about it in section 3.

And if the truth about Remuria taught us anything, is that some rivalries depicted in history are false. In the same way Remus went down as a Tyrant when in reality he never wanted to employ force and was even allied with Sybilla (a vishap), I would say that the Primordial One and Nibelung/dragons/vishaps probably found ways to coexist. We do know that Nibelung went to war against the Heavenly Principles/Celestia, but if Celestia and Primordial One opposed each other, that just makes an alliance between PO and the Dragon King more likely.

We don’t know if Primordial One = 1st Descender and Celestia = 2nd Descender, so I will avoid using those terms throughout the post. But if the 2nd who came = 2nd Descender = Celestia, then that would lend further credibility to the idea that Celestia and the PO are on opposing sides, since the 2nd who came basically stole PO’s ruling of Teyvat.

2. About Istaroth AND Khaenri’ah

Like I said above, I believe that Istaroth sides with the Primordial One and that both are in opposition to Celestia

Istaroth has the ability to create alt Looms of Fate through those seeds she gives away - those basically grow into trees that are databases of history outside the control of Celestia. I had already affirmed this for my fic before we got the 2nd Caribert quest, but at this point is practically confirmed.

Istaroth is based on Astaroth and Ishtar, and Ishtar’s morning star is an 8-pointed star just like the symbol of Khaenri’ah. And so the Black Serpent Nights probably served Istaroth in some way.

Khaenri’ah supposedly didn’t have a god, but let’s keep in mind Istaroth was forgotten by time. It’s also possible that, even if Khaenri’ah had a god, they still considered themselves the pride of humankind since Istaroth likely wasn’t associated with Celestia, as I mentioned

Speaking of Black Serpents, other prevalent Black serpents are the one in the Gnostic Chorus, and Nibelung, in a way (not sure if they are or not the same entity). So I would say that Nibelung is/was also allied with Khaenri’ah/Istaroth/Primordial One. Please refer to the section above for an explanation.

The 6 Pygmies and the Pale Princess is a book that is an allegory for the 5 Sinners of Khaenri’ah + Dainsleif and Istaroth. I include, at the end, a video that explains that properly and is very much worth the watch. From there (or at least, from the leaked volumes), we know that the Sinners basically betrayed Istaroth, which might explain why she ended up being forgotten and why Dainsleif is the only Pygmie that didn’t go fully down the Sinner’s path.

3. The relationship between the Primordial One and Istaroth

Like I say above, many things point to them being allied. At the very least, we can quite safely infer they both opposed Celestia/The Heavenly Principles and in turn allied with Khaenri’ah.

The cosmic/ orphic/world egg was created by Chronos (personification of time) and Ananke (most powerful dictator of Fate and mother of The Fates/Moirai). “Ananke and Chronos are mates, mingling together in serpent form as a tie around the universe. Together, they have crushed the primal egg of creation of which constituent parts became earth, heaven and sea to form the ordered universe.”

Ananke and Chronos have to be the PO and Istaroth - which one is which is a bit debatable, with their genders being a counterargument on its own. But I would say Chronos is Istaroth (due to her associations with time, although she is more a god of moments than of time) while Ananke is the Primordial One (who had the 3 moon sisters/moirai as shades + is probably the Dreamer/HSR’s SUNday parallel who plays the symphony that creates the fates reflected by the moons (read more in next section)).

The cosmic egg that birthed the world, together with the Abyss AND Venti, probably resulted from their Alchemical Marriage. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was also the Gnostic Pearl depicted in the Gnostic Chorus cutscene, or even if the Black Serpent there was Ananke/Primordial One. In fact, that would only solidify the connections with the Black Serpent Knights and them wearing Istaroth’s symbol. And it would be extra funny if somehow the Primordial One and Nibelung were the same entity (since I already explained why I think they were are least on the same side)… and therefore were a black serpent/dragon.

Okay, but what is an Alchemical/Chymical Marriage? It’s a marriage between a Red King and a White Queen, the Sun and the Moon, gold and silver, sulphur and mercury. It’s sometimes pointed as the source of the Philosophers' Stone, and from that union of opposites is birthed an androgynous being. Btw, that marriage is facilitated by a dove, but this is off-topic and you can see why that is interesting in the last video linked. It’s also a process that sometimes involves ‘fermentation”, which is also off-topic but ties well with the wine-making process and other things mentioned in the last video too.

According to Jakob: "The Seal of Chymical Marriage was an ancient Fontainian ritual meant to seal off the source of life. Now it has been reversed, and all has been set free once more!" So, it can be used to separate the Primordial Sea from the world, which sounds similar to creating a world/pearl/philosopher’s stone/egg/dream bubble that floats in the sea of quanta or wtv is the logic used across Hoyoverse’s worlds. We confirm again this was necessary to create Teyvat's egg, and that the Primordial One couldn’t do it alone because two people are required for a marriage.

And do you know what Marriages also require? A ring. Who was escaping with a golden ring, that is an important figure of Khaenri’ah and the only Pygmy who didn’t act like the others/didn’t become a Sinner? Dainsleif, whose constellation is even a Serpent ring. May I point to the Das Rheinegold music drama, that is part of the series The Ring of Nibelung, and maybe use that as extra merit to associate the Primordial One with Nibelung?

4. About the world of Teyvat

Dragons = Vishaps = Sea slugs = Bees = Seelies. Yes. We already know that the the dragons and seelies in Genshin are based on irl sea slugs, I won’t elaborate on that. As for Bees, that is because we have seelie-like bees in Remuria, connected to the prophet Golden-Bee Sybilla (don’t mistake Sybilla with Sylla, who is a Dragon King, although I guess this is all the same family)

Teyvat is theoretically 2 worlds/halves, the version we know and the mirror world, that is probably the Abyss. Or maybe all of it is a mirror world, idk. We can even see similar world structures in Honkai Star Rail, especially in Penacony, where the world there is literally mirrored and a dream too. Some people say Teyvat is divided in 3 parts: the Light Realm, Void Realm, and the Human Realm. But I think the Pimordial One just transformed the Light Realm into the Human Realm, so there are still 2 parts only, and we know they can overlap anyway.

Cycle: People die » are absorbed by the roots » are supposed to travel to the top of the world tree (inverted, so top is in abyss) to become Irminsul fruit / stars » said stars form constellations that determine people's fate, or more accurately, since they are all in a dream, are data that allows the tree to predict their fates » it’s because people exist as stars that their fates and presence can be summoned in the form of shooting stars

Dainsleif confirmed that the leylines can be woven to determine Fate / have their records changed. The Loom used to weave them is a Symphony, or in other words, Remus’ Symphony of Fate is very similar or the same thing as a Loom of Fate, although maybe not at the same scale. It’s possible that other God-Kings also attempted to create their own Looms of Fate.

Add to that some Penacony’s parallels, and you can infer that the Symphony is controlled in a floating palace, that is actually a Grande Theater, by the Sun(day) (potentially Phanes or the Primordial One, basically the one who Dreams), and it’s reflected by the moons (Aria, Sonnet and Canon, so the musical associations are fitting). Considering that the 3 moon sisters are also probably the mythological Moirai who weave Fate, yeah, that tracks.

5. Finally, about Venti

Addressing the Venti is/isn’t the weakest Archon debate: Idk and I don’t quite care, because regardless of how much power he holds now, this theory is about his origins and role more than anything.

Venti is the one narrating the Gnostic Chorus cutscene, so clearly he knows about the origins of Teyvat and other important stuff. Yes, it can just be because of his ties to Istaroth who had the winds of time and bla bla, but I would say he has a bigger involvement.

In the Gnostic Chorus, there is a Black serpent, and I already mentioned how it ties with Khaenri’ah and Istaroth in the second section. Well, Phanes is a figure that has a serpent coiled around him too, Ananke, to be more precise.

Phanes was believed to have hatched from the egg of Chronos and Ananke (Istaroth and PO, section 3), OR Nyx in the form of a black bird and wind, OR from the cosmic /orphic egg placed in and hatched from Aether, who was the personification of the bright upper sky and another son of Chronos. Regardless, it seems like the egg birthed both Phanes AND the world?

Phanes is described sometimes as male, sometimes as androgynous. I don’t need to explain how that fits Venti. The androgynous part also fits with how a being born from an Alchemical Marriage should be androgynous due to being an union of opposites.

Phanes is also described has having wings and a crown. We are yet to see a crown, but at least the angel wings are there.

Some myths say that Phanes was Dionysus (god of wine… amongst other things), or Eros (god of love, yes I’m simplifying), and oh boy isn’t Venti the god of all of that too? Although this is complicated since it has to do with gods being iterations of past gods and such, you can read more about it here

In a certain play, after Phanes mates with Chaos, he creates flying creatures. It would also fit Venti well, especially given that tale from Amber’s Quest where he taught birds how to fly.

Okay, this gets less obvious now. Phanes is a first-born deity who emerged from the abyss and gave birth to the universe, and is a god of creation, light and goodness. The Abyss part is extra intriguing because the world has an abyss half, and some in-game books even compare wine with the Abyss, and also with the idea that drinking the abyss/wine is a way to acquire Forbidden Knowledge. Please, check the last video I link.

Phanes counterpart is Nyx (Night). In some tales she is Phane’s wife, sometimes his daughter, and in others she creates an egg from which Phanes is born, so wtv. I don’t know who Nyx is (besides being clearly The Night Mother from the book of the Six Pygmies), but it’s pretty clear that the Abyss half is under her responsibility in some way.

Oh, right, this was a sus leak that broke my mind months ago and seemed completely nonsensical, but since I started cooking this theory, I can’t help but look back at it. It claimed that Venti was the guide of the Primordial One. Humm… yeah, if Venti was part of a plan between Istaroth and PO, I can see that, although I don’t know what the goal could be. Maybe he is assuming Istaroth’s role now that she is gone in supporting the PO?

This is a very wild guess, but I really thing Venti has something to do with the Gnostic Pearl. Idk if that pearl is the same one that hatched the world, or something that holds the world together (think Mikha from HSR), but I can imagine him having some responsibility over taking care of it.

And if you think Venti holding Fate in his hands is a stretch… let’s talk about Apples. Especially in anime, Apples are often depicted as the fruit of Fate (look no further than Mawaru Penguindrum), and in Inazuma, the girl giving Fortune Slips is called Gendou Ringo, with Ringo meaning ‘apple’ in Japanese. Well… Mondstadt is a land full of apple trees, Venti loves apple cider and is often asking for apples to pay for his performances, is being given an apple in archon form in one of his birthday arts, created the Golden-Apple Archipelago, and even the top of his head in wisp form resembles an apple stem. Seriously, I go crazy with how many people never noticed that. This is too much in our face to not be relevant.

This sounds like a stretch, but apples are round and so the shape is not too different from a dream bubble. And do you know what the birthday art I mentioned had in the caption? “It is written that there is a whole tiny world hidden inside an apple core. Here, this half is for you. Let's take a stroll in the tiny little world. But remember to keep it a secret because... you're the only one I want to bring there.” If he isn’t holding Fate or a world in some way, then I don’t know what this is supposed to mean.

You know how I said that Teyvat is divided into 2 halves? That also connects well with his quote (when he gives us half of the apple/world), and with the idea that Phanes is the day while Nyx is the night. So maybe Venti is responsible for the half of Teyvat that we know/he gave us while Nyx is responsible for the Abyss side.

So… is there any proof that Venti is Phanes? No. Are there many many sus elements about him and connections with the things I listed? Yes. I could see the Traveler being Phanes and being entrusted the Light/Human half of Teyvat by Venti as a scenario just as likely, especially if The Abyss sibling ends up being/becoming Nyx, but I like this version more xD

But even if the main theory ends up being wrong, I hope people you got some things to think about.

Some videos for extra lore, more a less in order of relevance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZIR-tfzfd4 » Reinterpretation of all volumes of the Six Pygmies and the Pale Princess in light of finding out about the 5 Sinners of Khaenri’ah + Dain + connections of Istaroth with Khaenri’ah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK3xYKtUniQ » More about the connections between Istaroth and Khaenri’ah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePjY4c0Rj0k » Elaborates on how a Loom of Fate is basically another database, as opposed to the Irminsul, and mentios how Istaroth can could create several Looms of Fate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAm9uElsKd4 » Parallels with the Penacony arc from Honkai Start Rail and list of evidences that Teyvat is a Dream bubble

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhST-fz6Yps » Video is from before we learned about the 5 Sinners, and I’m not fully sold on the chronology, but I still think it does a good job at elaborating n the serpent thing from the gnostic chorus and other things we can infer about genshin thanks to parallels to Penacony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHCv8KFdL6M&t=1045s » Ties sacramental bread and blood with wine and the way wisdom/abilities can be passed down thrown ingesting parts of gods, and the concept of fairy rings and The Ring of Nibelung, with the concept of a Chemical Marriage.

[post-apocalyptic-fantasy-au]

2.5

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Skizz and Impulse immediately jumped into mother hen mode as soon as she rode in with the burning, unconcious stranger on her back, of course. Skizz being Skizz took charge, ordering Impulse - the strongest of them - to lift him off Gem's chestnut back and lay him down on the sofa, but the pygmy dragon swooped underneath, stopping them, hissing and spitting.

"He says his hair is actual fire," Impulse translated, pulling the creature back towards him, leaning his head away.

Skizz thought quick, his bright blue eyes taking in the room and its options. "Gemmy Bemmy, get a blanket and put it on the ground."

The tiles would crack, but they wouldn't burn. Gem hurried to do as she was told, crouching down onto her forelegs to lay out the softest blanket they had.

Impulse lowered the creature down onto it as Skizz gave Gem her next order: "Go make an icepack."

She practically cantered to the kitchen, hurrying to fill a plastic bag they kept for just this purpose with ice. She'd seen both her dads do this so many times when their old wounds flared up that she could do it in her sleep.

When she brought it back, she could hear Impulse ask the faerie who'd fetched her, "Do you know what he is?" Impulse's thick brown hair, usually quite neat, was sticking out in a way that suggested he'd wiped sweat from his forehead.

"He said he's a Tango!" the small male said. He was zipping around, fretting something awful.

The dragon, curled up on the mystery creature's chest, growled something.

"Tango's his name," Impulse repeated in English for those in the room who couldn't understand every language in the world. "He's half pygmy dragon, half human, apparently." The dragon added something else, and Impulse translated uncertainly, "He calls himself a... Tek?"

Skizz paused, the ice pack half in his grip, half in Gem's. "A human and a pygmy dragon? How does that work?"

"Skizz!" Gem scolded.

"Right, right, sorry!" He grabbed the ice pack and pressed it against Tango's burning forehead. It hissed.

Skizz frowned at the steam rising from the bag. "Dippledop, will you check Gem's back? It might be burned."

"I'm fine!" Gem protested, taking a step back, but Impulse came over anyway.

"We just need to check," he told her, and Gem rolled her eyes.

He ran a hand over her glossy back, checking for any scarring her coat might hide. She huffed, but held still. It would be so annoying if she had burned herself, after all.

After a few moments, Impulse gave the all clear. She was fine.

Skizz let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good." Finally, he turned to the faerie. "What's your name?"

"Zed. Zedaph. The dragon is Torchy."

Skizz nodded. "I'm Skizz. My buddy over there is Impulse, and the beautiful centaur is Gem."

"Is he gonna be okay?" Gem asked, flicking her tail nervously.

"I don't know a thing about dragons." Impulse glanced at Skizz, who shook his head.

"I don't know that he's human enough for my knowledge of them to help."

As a half-human himself, Gem had hoped Skizz would know what to do, maybe at least figure out what human remedies would work on Tango. He'd always been good at knowing what she needed, after all.

Gem sighed. "So we're flying blind."

"Not entirely." Zedaph flew up to Impulse, hovering in front of his face. Gem decided she liked his voice. It was slow, with a laugh braided into every word, even as he was clearly panicking. "You can understand Torchy, right?"

"Right."

Torchy said something in whatever dragon language he spoke.

"Oh great! Torchy said he doesn't know enough about Tango to help. Even he doesn't know how much of Tango is human and how much is dragon."

"Oh good!"

Skizz and Impulse had a way of turning sarcastic and hysterical when things went wrong. Things were definitely going wrong now.

Gem sighed. She had to be the voice of reason. "So, we work with what we know, and make up what we don't."

She wished Pearl was here. Pearl would know what to do. At the very least, she'd be able to lift the spirits in the room. Usually that was Skizz's job, but he was just as stressed as the rest of them. She knew Impulse wished Grian were here for the same reason.

Honestly, all four of the siblings would have been welcome. Jimmy was guaranteed to do something silly that would get Skizz to grin and join in, and Lizzie was so good at keeping a level head that Gem was sure nothing would shake her.

But then she thought better of it. Joel wouldn't stay behind if Lizzie and Jimmy were here, and if Grian came, Scar would be close behind, and with Scar would come Bdubs. And if Bdubs joined the party, Etho would be sure to hear of it and he could never stay away from such a large gathering, and Cleo wouldn't allow Etho to be here with both of her boys without supervision, and then Cleo and Pearl would be at loggerheads the entire time, not to mention the weird tension between Impulse and Bdubs, and it would just be chaos. Besides, if Pearl came, Scott would probably accompany her, and Gem wasn't sure she'd be able to resist the urge to kick him while she was stressed.

Maybe it was better to just keep it to the five of them - six if they included the very unconscious creature lying on the floor at her feet.

"What happened to him?" Skizz asked, pulling Gem from her thoughts.

"He was sick - sneezing and coughing and stuff - so I got him some medicine I stole from the humans for sneezing and coughing, and then like half an hour later, BOOM, he started burning up and collapsing!" And still, even with his voice laced with panic, Zedaph seemed to be on the verge of laughter. Gem wondered if that was just how he sounded or if he, like her dads, was hysterical.

"Gemmy, go open a window," Skizz ordered softly, and Gem hurried to obey, grateful for something to do.

She didn't just open a window, she opened every window, throwing the wooden blinds wide to let in the fresh air. Then she opened the door as well. It was wide and tall, adjusted repeatedly as she grew to be able to fit her in, so plenty of air was able to flow in.

Then she eyed Tango, especially that fiery hair.

Slowly, uncertainly, she said, "We need him to cool down, right?"

"Right," Skizz said. He was still kneeling beside Tango, still holding the long-melted icepack to his forehead like it might do something.

Impulse looked up at her. He was still standing, but he was so much shorter than Gem that unless she was sitting or lying down, he had to look up at her anyway. "Do you have something in mind?"

"If we put him out..."

"Put him-" Skizz looked up at Impulse. He was about a million years old, and at least ten times older than Impulse, but sometimes it was like he knew half as much as Impulse about anything. "Could that work?"

"I have no idea." Impulse shrugged and glanced at Zedaph.

"Don't look at me!" Zedaph threw up his tiny arms. "I've barely known him longer than you!"

They all turned to Torchy and Impulse asked, "Could it?"

Torchy lifted his head, looked between all of them, then at Tango. He let out a small puff of smoke, and Gem thought it looked like a sigh. He huffed.

"I guess it's worth a try," Impulse murmured.

Carefully, Skizz opened the top of the bag and slowly poured it over Tango's head, keeping one hand upright on his forehead to prevent any of it flowing over his face.

The hiss of steam filled the room, and Gem flinched back, raising her arms to protect her face. The fire on Tango's head died, and almost immediately, he started to scream. It was the tortured, agonised sound of someone in indescribable pain.

The panic in the room went up about sixteen notches as Tango started to thrash, back arching, limbs flailing wildly. A desperate attempt at speech, pleas maybe, managed to make it through the screams, but there were no decipherable words among the babbling.

Impulse had frozen up, Skizz was shaking so bad Gem worried he'd shift right there in their living room, Zedaph was way too tiny to do anything, and Torchy was flying in circles and panicking. She was on her own here.

She dropped to the ground beside Tango, folding up her legs beneath her body, and reached out to try and secure him, worried he'd hurt himself. Before she could reach him, however, his flailing hand connected with her face. She reared back, staggering gracelessly to her feet and just barely managed to keep the horse instinct to kick him in the face at bay.

That was when Torchy decided to actually be helpful, swooping down to land on the floor above Tango's head. He started puffing fire at his wet scalp, boiling away the water little by little. Tango stilled slightly, letting out a moan of relief among the quieting screams.

It was too slow: Torchy was only little, his fire not that warm, and Gem knew pygmy dragons didn't have that much fire in them anyway. It wasn't long before the steady stream became a series of thin, splotchy bursts. But Torchy refused to give up. He kept breathing fire over Tango's head as the hybrid slowly calmed, his screams fading away to nothing. Only once all the water was gone and Tango's own flames starting flicking back to life, feeble at first but growing quickly in strength and number, that he finally stopped twitching and stilled.

Finally, Torchy collapsed, all out of fire and out of energy. He curled up among Tango's flames, and Tango raised a weak, trembling hand to up to him, laying it on the dragon back. He didn't move again from that position.

Shaken, Gem looked around at the rest of the room.

Now that the screaming had stopped, Imp and Skizz were coming back from whatever haze of memories they'd been lost in. She didn't know much about their past, about how they'd come to be together, but she knew it was bad, because she often found them wide awake and holding each other in the middle of the night, and sometimes when they were in pain they started crying and panicking. Now, they were just staring, wide eyed, at Tango on the floor, at Gem and the red mark blossoming on her cheek.

Zedaph had taken up Torchy's place in flying stressed circles around the room, buzzing and twittering in the language which was most garden faeries' only means of communication.

Shakily, she said to the rest of the room, "Okay, so not that. Any other ideas?"

A brief moment of silence, then Skizz started giggling hysterically as Impulse ran to Gem's side, jumping up to grab her arms so he could pull her down and inspect her face.

"OhmygoshGemareyouokay?!" he gasped.

"I'm fine, Impulse," she assured him, shaking him off and straightening.

Skizz managed to get ahold of himself, stepping forward to eye up Tango. "Is it just me, or does this guy look better? No, I think it's- no, yes! Yeah, he definitely looks better!"

Gem inched warily closer, not eager for another accidental slap, and saw that, indeed, Tango did have a little more colour in his face, his skin looking closer to gold than the washed out yellow-beige-ish colour it had before.

She took her first real good look at Tango. He was short, almost as short as Impulse, but unlike Impulse, he was built like a stick bug, all thin limbs and knobbly joins and narrow shoulders. Under the tight yellow shirt he wore, Gem could see scales covering the lower part of his neck and clearly continuing beneath the shirt. He slept with his mouth open slightly and his jaw clenched, revealing sharp teeth, and his hands ended in sharp claws rather than nails. She could certainly see the dragon descent in him, even if she couldn't quite figure out how it had come about.

She decided not to dwell on it.

"What do we do now?" she asked instead.

Impulse, still trying to fuss over her, glanced down at Tango. "I guess now we wait. Try to keep him cool... without getting him wet, probably."

A rush of guilt his Gem. It had been her idea to try that, after all. She swallowed. "Will he... do you think he's...?"

"He'll be fine, Gemmy," Skizz assured her gently. "You couldn't have known."

She pursed her lips. She wasn't as prone to guilt spirals as Grian, for example, but she felt bad. He'd sounded seriously hurt.

"He's already doing better," Impulse pointed out. "Looks like that was the shock his body needed to fight whatever it is that's making him sick. I'd say you did him a favour!" Then he grimaced. "Even if it was an... uncomfortable one."

Gem barked out a laugh, then clapped her hands over her mouth to contain the sound. "Uncomfortable?"

"Less than fortunate," Impulse confirmed.

"You sound like Grian," she pointed out, and Skizz chuckled.

"More like Mumbo."

"Whatever." Impulse rolled his eyes. "My point still stands. You shouldn't lose sleep over this. You were just trying to help."

"I guess." She smiled down at her dads, who grinned back up at her. "Thanks."

"I'll watch him," Skizz offered. "You guys go get some sleep."

Impulse glanced up at Zedaph, who was hovering uncertainly above them now that the worst stress was over. "Do you... need a bed?" he offered, clearly unsure how or even if garden faeries slept.

"You know what, I'll just crash down here, if that's alright," Zedaph answered, lowering himself onto the armrest of the sofa. "But thanks for the offer."

"Of course. Let Skizz know if you need anything."

"Will do. Thank you, fellas."

Impulse trudged up the stairs to the bedroom he shared with Skizz while Gem crossed to the door to her room - she struggled with stairs sometimes, especially when she was tired.

She couldn't shake the feeling, as she sank down against her cushioned recliner, that something had just changed in her world.

[previous] [next] [first]

(Massive shoutout to Mel @mellioops for giving me suggestions for Gem's horse half! The recliner comes from this post from @/theartingace)

[coroika-headcanons]

Strangely Detailed Driving Headcanons. there is lile the tiniest bit of army x skull, mask x aloha, and emperor x rider in one part

Nobody in team blue except for Headphones can drive.

- Goggles is too young and/or doesn't have a license because he keeps failing his tests when he's finally old enough to get one. He should not ever be allowed on a road

- Specs gets super anxious and jittery and nearly crashed because of that like twice. He has a license but refuses to drive anywhere and prefers to take public transportation if anything

- god knows how the hell bobble hat is gonan drive with her eyes closed shes gonna like hit 50 people and still be like 😄

The s4. And also rider.

-Skull, in theory, can drive because he has his license and passed the test, but with the sheer amount of things he has to pay attention to on the road he can't do it for long because it overwhelms him. A lot. Which makes him get irritable and tense and jumpy and therefore bad at driving

- Mask can drive just fine he just gets like. Really mad at everything. (Aloha also lieks to make fun of his height by putting a booster seat in the front of his car. Mask hates it and always chews him out for it)

- Aloha can also drive just fine but he always has loud ass music on so he can't take Skull or Mask with him because it will overstimulate the hell out of Skull and make him Mask levels of snappy and it will just make Mask's temper so much worse. Also mask and aloha will start arguing so they cant go together anyway

- Army is the best driver out of all of them he is ALWAYS following road rules and he is extremely strict about what's allowed in his car. NO eating (unless you're skull because army loves his boy wife BUT EVEN THEN NO LITTER ANYWHERE OR ELSE) (aloha brings purposefully crumb filled things just to piss him off).

- rider claims he can drive but he has this huge blind spot BECAUSE HE IS LITERALLY MISSING AN EYE so he really can't. Also he, like mask, will start chewing out drivers on the road for pissing him off. He couls drive just fine before he lost his eye he was a little irritable but nothing too bad

whenever they go on a road trip they force Army to drive. Skull always gets shotgun no matter what because he is the leader and everyone has to do what he says even if he says literally nothing. Anyway they bring Rider along and Rider is like "...Hey if y'all can bring your partners (candycurry & seasonal allergic rhinitis (dont even ask man)) can I bring mi" and before he can even finish theyre all just collectively like "NO" because NOBODY wants Emperor in that damn car. He wouldn't want to go anyway but he'd make everything about himself

Team GAYperor

- contrary to popular belief emperor still doesn't have a license because he keeps failing his driver's test. For context I hc him to be a pygmy squid (related to Pearl-- younger brother) and he is just. Insanely mutated hence his height and red pupils. So his vision and hearing are really fucked. He has like 20/200 god knows how he pulled off all those square king cup wins without glasses. But anyway he cant drive bc the last time he did his drivers test he ran into a pedestrian (cutout) because he couldn't see it (it was right in front of him). Also hed just be really obnoxious on the road like always thinking he has the rightaway even when he literally doesnt. He just gets people to drive him... he has a lot of influence and is rich he can do whatever

- pacer is just like a regular driver She is also strict about what you can and cannot bring in her car but not army levels of strict. She always has tea in like a travel cup in her car somewhere. She needs it or she dies

- squidkid can drive but the rest of team emp has collectively agreed to not be in any car with him when hes driving because hes really reckless. One time he did that when thenrest of them were in the car owned by Someone idk theyre all rich and good lord did he get the earful of a lifetime from Emperor

- Prinz is like just BARELY old enough to drive. He doesnt have a license he would have to fistfight his own anxiety before he is allowed near the wheel of any car. Prinz is also a pygmy squid who is mutated but not nearly as much as Emperor so he has decent vision and pretty good hearing... so that isnt a problem for him. But The Horrors are

X-Blood or whatever I don't like them

- vintage can drive or something i dont like him especially.but he seems like he is one of those really aggressive drivers that if they want to be in that lane they WILL be in that lane get OUT THEIR WAY

- omega can drive but shes also dead silent the whole time and it's horrifying GIRL PLEASE TALK

- Double Egg and Red-Sole can both drive fine seperately but they cant be put together bc theyll start fucking around and giggling like little schoolgirls. And then get lectured by vintage

The. Octo expansion guys

- hachi barely understands road rules so absolutely not. Also he is barely even old enough. When he is old enough he still doesnt get rhem. He does love to tinker with cars though

- ^ Nana is absolutely not better off than hachi so like. Same thing

actually same thing for all of them. Sometimes they have group octopus autism bonding time where they all mess with a car for fun

⭐

[floridafishkeeper]

Mangrove rivulus update! One of them is finally friendly enough to beg for food. These guys are eating golden pearls 500-800micron right now. If you are keeping species that require tiny live foods in captivity I cannot recommend getting golden pearls enough. I've even gotten pygmy Sunfish and dwarf seahorses on to them. Great food for guppies and betta etc as well. I grab mine from everything aquatic.

[tizzypizza]

the squeakquel

bottom text (the original martield is here!!) https://x.com/inkyinsanity/status/1723412875685814549?s=46&t=Sgigf9F4Sf2v6ov1khk6vA

[leafnighthybridwolfsbane]

Seawing Headcanons

(Info below the cut)

With seawings, I think they're going to be one of my favorite tribes for patterning. This one specifically is based on a koi fish. I did forget to do one thing that I have in my personal headcanons. Experimenting with new way of doing the eye when simplifying it on the bust. Also, accidentally merged a couple layers when the patterning was on a separate clipping mask.

Tribe Headcanons

Seawings have additional feelers to find food such as clams. The deeper one hatches, the more they have.

All the feelers have glowing patches that are similar to an angler fish.

The edge of the chest ruff is fade tinted the color of the gills.

Their gills pop out when courting another dragon. These colors very depending on the area the egg has been laid at and took to hatch. Meaning there is a wide variety of colors they can be.

The bulbs along the chest and spine also glow.

Seawings have big feet to aid in swimming.

Their wings are counter shaded, so the bottom color is the lightest while the top color is the darkest on their bodies.

The glowing patterns on their wings batches their glow scales normally, being rare when they match more with the gill colors

Seawings are the second smallest tribe normally.

This can change depending on the depths the eggs have been laid at. In tide pools or similar shallow areas, they will tend to almost be the size of runts or pygmies. If they're laid in deeper depths than most, like near under water volcano depths, they tend to get very big.

These Seawings tend to have their own health issues when hatched and aren't recommended.

Tide pool Seawings tend to have harder than diamond scales, making it hard to move a lot. They are considered what we humans call "Pug-like". It is easier for them to gain a version of Münchmeyer disease due to the hardness of their outer scales. Though they have been getting better in more recent histories.

Tide pools are typically derogatorily called "Sunfish" or "Blob fish" due too their health issues, though thankfully it has ceased a bit in recent decades. It's not a lot better though

Deep depth Seawings tend to be almost the exact opposite issue. Their bones and scales are softer than diamonds and they cannot surface as they are a purely aquatic species.

Deep depths tend to be a bit more fire resistant due to being closer to the underwater volcanoes.

Patterning of different sea creatures isn't unheard of, just not as common.

Their glow scales and can camouflage slightly like an octopus to keep themselves from being found. Normally the color will match the surrounding scales and patterns.

Seawings take great pride in their flashy scales, staying near water to make sure they look like a piece of sunken treasure.

Lore Headcanons

Seawings are experts at writing stories. They do not often tend to write histories, sometimes exaggerating them slightly to make them a bit more suited for a story to write.

They have had several heated arguments with the rainwings that they're better artists. It was consecutively agreed that seawings were better writers while rainwings are better artists. Seawings don't go into tangents with flowery, emotional, descriptions that pause the entire plot to get into.

Seawings still have issues with the ethics of having their eggs in tide pools and deep depths due to the issues it may cause to those variants of those hatched from those circumstances. Both variants were once used for past wars, and even one civil war.

Other exports include pearls, sea treasures, and fish.

Their best alliance is with the mudwings as they have quite a bit in common when it comes to what they can do. It's believed that they are distant relatives when it comes to evolution.

Their funerary rites include placing two large pearls in their snout underneath the tongue, wrapping the snout in linens that matched their gill and glow scale colors. Once this is done, they are buried halfway into the sand so their bodies can become ecosystems for the creatures that share the same ocean.

Their afterlife is similar to to the river styx, though it is a forest-like place where their guide will ask for the pearls as payment so they can swim in the oceans of the afterlife. The linens are used as a make-shift pouch.

Seawings see an apology as a way to explain why they did the action. Their apologies are giving reasons for their actions. Just saying something like "I'm sorry" or "I apologize" without reason is considered disrespectful and the quickest way for them to take it as a sign for the other dragon to fight for repentance. This makes them the tribe that is quickest to anger.

Drawing Inspirations

Their bodies are similar to a Persian cat.

Marine animals are a great source of coloration and patterns.

Pugs are a great reference for the way a tide pool seawing looks like.

Whales and sharks bodies are best for references for the deep depths seawings, though their feelers are better to be referenced from octopi.

Wing of Fire Headcanon List

Sandwings

Skywings

Icewings

Mudwings

Leafwings

Hivewings

Silkwings

[nephilimbrute]

with side order coming up i decided to make a recap(???) of my side order au. apologies if some of it isn't clear / doesn't make sense

it starts with the retirement of off the hook after octo expansion, roughly 2 years after splat2. (note that the chaos vs. order splatfest likely didn't happen, splat3 happens in some other way idk.) this part is a little janky but there's this "commander" (not related to tartar in any way) that decides to take over inkopolis via power and mind control. out of spite and as a first step they decided to go ahead and literally Kill pearl, who later died in marina's arms. after that marina wasn't able to do anything for the remainder of the day but hold pearl's body, and as the sun came up the next day only then did she decide to bury pearl just outside the pygmy mansion

her grief still persists, marina tried her best to keep the death of pearl a secret, during interviews she just says "oh she's been off the grid lately" or "visiting family", and when going out she'd try to make it quick to avoid being spotted by fans and it would only be for running errands. marina's grief (unfortunately) keeps her alive, she takes care of herself since its what pearl would've wanted. frequently she hallucinates pearl being there, and she's developed a fear for being around others, as well as gaslighting herself into thinking pearl is still alive, just away. she spends all of her time staying in the pygmy mansion. she waits and lingers, doing this routine over and over again for ~100 years, and eventually inkopolis itself crumbles to dust and is left barren

those 100 years pass and it's marina's time to shine!..kind of...the only feasible option for her was to brainwash everybody into a state of being "calm", making them into mindless walking zombies. despite everything she still felt guilt for what happened to pearl. inkopolis turns into a bleached dystopia, corals grow due to the neglect of it being cleaned, it becomes completely quiet and only marina is left with her thoughts

by the time the side order DLC takes place, she ""accidentally"" frees agent 8 from their "hypnosis". agent 8 suffers a splitting headache as soon as they're released and completely loses the ability to speak, their memory getting worse by each passing second. often times they get a sort of "déjà vu" or "flashbacks" of when pearl and marina were happier. marina still loves them dearly but she's afraid of hurting them, so she distances herself away from them, but 8 keeps on trying to reach her. in the DLC, marina acts like a final boss to the story, and when going against her she doesn't try to stop 8 from defeating her or attack back but instead she accepts it

extra stuff; the brain coral is used to control the minds of the inkfish, the other bleached corals represent neglect. the whole theme of side order is focusing on one's mental state and watching it deteriorate(?), memory loss (and similarly to octo expansion, 8 trying to get their memories back). marina sometimes wakes up with scratches or bruises (to which she denies), and she becomes somewhat dependent on agent 8

[waterskies]

This 10gal has been sitting beside my bed empty for months now. So I just randomly set it up today. I'm not 100% on what I'm going to put in here. I was thinking maybe Celestial Pearl Danios or maybe Emerald Dwarf Rasboras. Another betta is also tempting. I would also like some pygmy corys. I would do cherry shrimp, but my water isn't suitable for them, unfortunately. I'm curious, what would you put in here?

[halljavalge]

Source: erikmandre - Sunny forest with with a tiny pearl - pygmy owl, Estonia.

ℍ𝐚𝓵ｌ נ𝐀 𝔳คĻǤẸ

[best-bird-tournament]

Pygmy owl (Glaucidium) - round 1, section 1

[sylverkitsune]

Due to my recently amplified mama feelings I've been having lately and listening to the audiobook of Escaping Peril and absolutely ADORING Cliff, I've been playing with the idea of what the different tribes babies would look like for the first three years of their life, before they became considered dragonets. I also have a small personal gripe about the lil prince being big enough to wrap his arms around Soar's neck in the GN despite being about a year old. I also kinda had my own idea of what could give the tribes a more unique silhouette. So here they are! ^^

Starting with Seawings, I think their baby tails would be rather flat but pretty big to help with swimming. I wanted to also give them smaller wings and bigger paws since Seawings are an aquatic species and such adaptations could help with swimming better. I also like to imagine the inside of seawing eggshells are a mother of pearl sheen and a shard would be kept like we'd keep our child's first hair clipping or first lost tooth.

Next Mudwings~ I'd love to think they'd also have smaller wings and have the body similar to moo deng the cute lil pigmy hippo.

Rainwings, one of my favorite tribes~ I'd imagine they'd start out with smallish frills and glide worthy wings instead of fully flighted wings, as well as having to grow into their tails and they'd have similar leg structures to both pygmy marmosets and bush babies. Of course they'd be a chameleon green right out the shell.

Icewings should be fluffy and i am ready to die on this hill. Same as the Seawings, they'd have big paws but also wider to act more like snowshoes. There's also a velvet layer on the membrane of their wings. Their fur would be rabbit soft yet very dense to retain heat. They don't have their serrated claws and spikes until they become 2 years old.

I feel like the differences and similarities between Nightwings and Icewings are beautiful and nuanced. SO! I decided to play that into Nightwing design. I decided to give them fur, too, but more like a semi lion's mane and trailing down their spine to the tip of the tail. the rest of the design didn't really change except for how royals and indicators for seers. I'd imagine Nightwing royals would have been bred to have golden star scales under their wings and if the royal is a seer, they'd have a gold star on their forehead instead of a common's silver.

Sandwings i kinda kept the same, ngl. save for babies having comedically large barbs that would have a scute kind of shedding throughout life to become sharp. They'd also have very veiny wings and large ears to help with temperature regulation.

Now onto the Pantalan tribes!

Hivewings wouldn't have their sharp bits related to their abilities just yet. They'd have to develop them over time. I also feel like they would have their wings already but they'd be too small to fly right away.

Silkwings. so much design potential. I kinda stayed simple with butterfly themed silkwings (orange) but their wing nubbins would be soooo smol~!Their antenne would also be just little buds to start and grow as they age. Moth based Silkwings (brown bust) have more wing shaped ears, would become semi-fluffy as they age and their antenne would unfurl into a feathery structure instead of just thin like the butterfly themed silkwings. for now though, beby moffs have a tuft of fluff at the metaphorical clavicle of their neck.

Leafwings got a more literal take on their name. wings and ears look more like leaves and glide more than fly. Simple as it gets lol.

You'll notice Skywings aren't on here. Skywings I felt should be left alone since, while they are master flyers and have the hottest fire, even having a literal firescales mutation, they remind me of THE epitome of a dragon. plus, the redesign i had for them would complicate that very mutation since I made them feathery and fluffy. I might redo the redesign later so stay tuned to whenever i get that done.