#Spear Squid

[buffetlicious]

Japan's top-selling conveyor belt sushi chain Sushiro (スシロー) opened its first Southeast Asia outlet in Singapore on the Aug 19, 2019. I have wanted to visit it but somehow I have been putting it off due to it not being near where I am staying, that is until their Causeway Point branch opened.

I started off with three red plates (S$2.20++) and a gold plate (S$3.80++). The Broiled Mackerel Oshizushi with Mentai is topped with a thick piece of fish brushed with savoury sweet sauce. A refreshing shiso (perilla) leaf sits between the fish and rice. Hidden within the rice are seasoned pollack roe (mentaiko) which imparted the briny umami flavours.

Next up, Spear Squid with Ponzu Jelly has two whole squids sitting atop their rice ball, topped with jellies and scallions. I read that the translucent squids are allowed to age for about a day to let the flesh turn white and acquire a sweet flavour. The ponzu jellies offered a lovely balanced sweet, sour and salty flavour to the otherwise plain mollusk.

When I ordered the Salmon with Basil Cheese, I was kind of skeptical on how this combination would work out. Popped the sushi into the mouth and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. The fish, cheese sauce, finely chopped basil leaves and the searing worked to bring out the best in flavours.

The Swordfish Sushi is plain looking after the all the colourful toppings that came before it. But it does make up with sweet and firm flesh, not forgetting to mention the tiny dollop of wasabi hidden underneath it.

[mr-spice]

イカときのことピーマンのトマトパスタ

[doodle-birdo]

RW OSTober

A certified banger.

[spearskogul]

me: look buddy you can't have the fucking prince dude but I'll hand over the rocks, how about that

Emperor: wtf why are you judging me. you're such a bitch, after everything I've done you're gonna stab me in the back?

me:

[szode]

gory art from 2022

[oedonchapeldweller]

anyways drawing another squid

[mommybard]

Can you believe that there are some cuties out there who are into tentacles? And I don’t mean just having octopus or squid to eat. I mean in a lewd way~ People who get off on the idea of thick, pulsating tentacles wrapping around their body. Binding their arms out of the way and leaving them unable to try ripping the tentacles off. Forcing their legs apart and exposing their vulnerable hole(s). Winding around their thighs, their chests, squeezing and kneading the soft flesh underneath. You’d hope that their clothing could at least provide some protection from them, maybe buy them a few extra moments to think of a plan to escape, but many either leak a liquid that’ll melt through the fabric while flooding the cutie’s systems with aphrodisiacs, or just rip it away, not letting anything get in the tentacles way~ Oh, it gets even worse than that though. They get off on those tentacles violating them. Forcing their way inside their body, be it by making them choke on one snaking its way down their throat, making it bulge from its thickness, leaving them unable to do anything but struggle to breathe through their nose and taste it with every breath. Or spreading their ass, smaller tentacles cracking against their cheeks as another forces their tiny hole to take a much too large tendril, having their hole ruined and stretched wide around it as they try their best to take it. And the ones with prostates there? Having the tendrils slam against it over and over again, almost targeted. It’s a miracle if they can still think coherently in that state. Cuties with pussies even get off on having their lips spread, with a small tentacle teasing their clit, as either a single, thick tentacle spears them or multiple smaller ones do, winding themselves together to make it nearly too much for them, each moving separate than the others, driving them nearly insane as they try to process the situation. That's not even considering the ones who get off on being absolutely filled by those tentacles. And not just by cum, oh no, that would be too tame for some of these people. I hear that there's some who get off on those tentacles forcing eggs deep inside each of their holes, leaving them stuffed to the brim and forced to push them out one at a time~

I swear, there are some depraved cuties out there~

[donnalawliet]

Here are my personal funny nicknames for Umbrella Academy characters. Feel free to share your own!

Luther: Steroid monkey boi

Diego: Mexican Loki

Allison: Manipulation girl

Klaus: Traumatised little sweetheart

Five: My Murder Muffin

Ben: Squid game contestant

Viktor: Hey Siri, play Toxic by Britney Spears

Reginald: Abusive monopoly alien

The Handler: Don‘t touch my murder muffin!

[alphynix]

Spectember 2023 #04: Some Aukward Birds

An anonymous submitter asked for a "penguin/auk-like relative of Pelagornis":

Odontopinguinus vomitus represents an unusal early branch of the pelagornithids that didn't take up long-distance soaring, instead specializing for a pursuit diving lifestyle convergently similar to that of the contemporaneous early penguins, and the later auks and plotopterids.

About 1.2m tall (~4'), it has a more slender spear-like beak than its relatives, with forward-pointing pseudotooth serrations. Like other pelagornithids these "teeth" are fairly fragile, so it feeds primarily on soft-bodied fish and squid, pursuing them underwater with wing-propelled underwater "flight".

Much like procellariiformes they're also rather stinky birds, producing musky preen oil and projectile vomiting foul-smelling stomach contents at threats and rivals.

———

And another anon wanted to see a "big flightless marine duck":

Thalassonetta anambulatus is descended from the already mostly-flightless steamer ducks. At around 2m long (6'6") it's massive for a waterfowl, with vestigial wings and large webbed feet used to propel itself while diving.

With its rather elongated and heavy body and loon-like leg configuration it's no longer able to walk on land – and it's actually almost fully aquatic, only awkwardly hauling out into isolated island beaches to molt and breed.

It feeds mainly on molluscs, crustaceans, and other marine invertebrates, using the large lamellae in its bill to strain them out of soft seafloor sediments.

[mr-spice]

ヤリイカのトマトソーススパゲティ

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Indo-Pacific Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)

(Photo in public domain)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Indo-Pacific Ocean; Atlantic Ocean

Size (Weight/Length)- 100 kg; 3 m

Diet- Fish; Squid; Crustaceans

Cool Facts- The Indo-Pacific sailfish is the fastest fish in the world, clocking in at a maximum speed of 110 kilometers per hour in short bursts. Living in small schools, these sailfish are constantly on the move and in the search for schooling fish. Pushing the school of prey fish into a ball allows the Indo-Pacific sailfish to dart in, one at a time, with amazing speed. Contrary to popular belief, sailfish do not spear fish using their bills. Instead, they rapidly move their head back and forth as they swim through the school, injuring prey with the side of their bill. When the next sailfish dives into the school, the injured fish are snapped up.

Rating- 13/10 (Supreme swordfighter.)

[dopscratch]

My Slugcat Designs

gaze upon the glory of my slugcats, i have gone full mollusk :)

feel free to use with credit! also show me if you do hahaha

fun design details/headcanons under the break

edit: find out why they're all tubemammals instead of felines here

All of them are mostly Smooth Creatures, no fur in sight. Also all of their limbs can be retracted into their bodies because slug. They each have a maximum of 3 fingers and 2 toes, though some have none at all. They are all toothless and instead possess radulae. Some have beaks and some don't, but I haven't decided which ones. The hunter is the only one with a confirmed beak. Beaks are all dark in color.

Monk is Tall because I said so. Lonk. Also I noticed its tentacles are slightly larger than survivors. Also I like the tall little sibling thing because it's funny to me.

Survivor is very average all around. Maybe slightly on the short side.

Hunter is squid. That is all (Not really). Hunter is an absolute beast and I really liked the idea of rotating colossal squid hooks instead of claws. Also squid worked really well for its long legs form :) Edit: As its rot progresses, its orangey color fades (read: parts of its skin start peeling off) and it becomes pinker like its ingame sprite until it becomes that sickly pink of Hunter Long Legs!

I thought the Spanish Dancer really invoked the tattered ribbons of the explosion spears. Also I know it's an aquatic slug and Artificer is terrible in water but I think the flailing to swim around really fits it haha. Also its a skunk because of the whole chemical weapon theme.

Gourmand is an absolute unit. It is very round. I don't have much else to say about it.

I love axolotls but they're overrated, so instead of having the gills of everyone's favorite neotenic Mexican salamander, Rivulet is an octopus. It can use the pink tentacles around its face to hide its big silly eyes if its scared. It can also stretch them out to look bigger. the space in between is webbed, just like in an octopus, though the webbing is not always visible when the tentacles are folded back or in a relaxed position. It has suckers on the back edges and can twist the tentacles around if it wants to use them to grab or hold something near its face. Its arms and legs can extend to great lengths but they cannot support Rivulet on land very well so they usually stay short then (or will only push it up a short height). A siphon on its underside lets it move faster underwater and it may spray water with it playfully.

Spearmaster is also very long like Monk. The spears are pulled from underneath the shell rather than straight out of the tail.

Saint is a sea sheep, complete with the silly closely placed eyes. Its "tongue" is just a tentacle. Also it's short. And a raccoon because I just felt like it fits.

Nightcat is a scaly-foot gastropod because I said so. I think that since it's a pretty mysterious creature it can get a pretty mysterious feature, though with a generally basic silhouette.

Enot/Inv/???/whatever you wanna call it is just cuttlefish. A wild, crazy creature whose colors, shape, number of arms, and texture are never consistent. It is dense and will not float well. Usually its tentacles and limbs have a bit of a curl to the ends.

I think a flamboyant cuttlefish was perfect for its design, and I chose a yellow mongoose because a) silly creature and b) it's not actually a mustelid so it kinda fits how incredibly weird this guy is.

and that is all, hope you enjoy my slugcats.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Fossil Novembirb 12: Peak Penguin Party

The Eocene was one of the golden ages of penguins - having gotten their start right away in the Paleocene, this group was exceptionally common during the Eocene, found throughout the Southern Hemisphere, reaching larger sizes and weirder shapes than penguins today. So, since we've been spending too much time on Europe and North America, we're diving right in to the Penguin Party! In fact, while today there are 6 genera of penguins, the Eocene had 17 - and given fossil taxa tend to underestimate diversity...

Anthropornis by Caz41985

One of the more famous of these penguins was Anthropornis, possibly the largest known genus of penguin, ever. Reading up to 2 meters in height, it's nearly twice as tall as the living Emperor Penguin - and would have essentially been the size of person, a tall one at that. It was the largest, but one of many, giant penguins that lived during the Eocene and into the Oligocene - and possibly even through to the Miocene. Unlike living penguins, it still had a bent joint in its wing, making it somewhat less efficient in terms of ocean swimming. Like the living emperor penguin, it lived in Antarctica, and also in Aotearoa.

Icadyptes by @quetzalpali-art

Pachydyptes was another large penguin, found in Aotearoa, and was the second tallest known species of penguin after Anthropornis. Its slightly smaller cousin, Icadyptes, had an extremely long beak like that of a heron, and may have hunted for fish very differently than its relatives, possibly using it to spear fish and squid rather than catching them outright. Icadyptes lived in Peru, living in warmer latitudes than most other penguins at the time, which would have been extra warm due to the hothouse world - only a few penguins today live in such temperatures.

Inkayacu by @iguanodont

Peru was also the home of Inkayacu, a contemporary of Icadyptes. Unlike living penguins, it was very differently colored - having grey and reddish brown coloration rather than black and white. Not only is this an exciting fossil of color in a dinosaur, it also indicates our assumption that penguins have always looked the same is probably extremely incorrect - and who knows what other kinds of color variation they may have evolved over the millennia! Despite not being a completely modern penguin, it did have feathers that were beginning to be adapted for efficient movement through the water. Being smaller than other contemporary penguins, it probably wouldn't have dived particularly deep.

Aprosdokitos by @thewoodparable

Of course, not all the penguins of this time were large! Mesetaornis was smaller like living species, but had really long toes compared to other penguins, even still using the fourth toe. Still having the bend in the wing, it wasn't an efficient swimmer like living small penguins, indicating that the larger size was probably not to aid with swimming efficiency. Aprosdokitos, an extremely small penguin from this time, was also known from the later Eocene of Antarctica like Mesetaornis. In fact, Aprosdokitos was only a little bigger than living Little Penguins. There must have been a lot of niche partitioning going on between all these kinds of penguins!

Kairuku by Tim Bertelink

Kairuku shows up at the tail end of this period and was one of the last of the Large Penguins, and had particularly long legs for a penguin even at the time. Some also had slender long beaks like Icadyptes, and was probably an excellent diver, able to go deeper than living species of penguin. In fact, there were so many species of Kairuku that were all contemporaneous, they may have had niche partitioning based on their preferred prey or diving range.

Mesetaornis by @drawingwithdinosaurs

As the Paleogene transitioned into the Neogene, penguins become less common, with smaller and more modern-type species replacing the large and less efficient swimmers of the Peak Penguin Party. The reasons behind this transition remain uncertain: competition from newly evolving pinnipeds and other marine mammals? Climate change? New forms of fish and other food sources? The answers will only come with more research. But penguins would bounce back for another round in the Neogene, through to today.

Sources:

Giovanardi, S., D. T. Ksepka, D. B. Thomas. 2021. A giant Oligocene fossil penguin from the North Island of New Zealand. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41(3): e1953047.

Hospitaleche, C.A., Reguero, M. and Santillana, S., 2017. Aprosdokitos mikrotero gen. et sp. nov., the tiniest Sphenisciformes that lived in Antarctica during the Paleogene. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen, 283(1), pp.25-34.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.

[squiddy-god]

A Lonely Night

(osial x reader pt1)

Re-upload from terminated account squid-god-supreme, this is another older one that I wrote when I first started playing engine, which was shortly after the game's release so here is an osial x reader

CW : osial, almost drowning, he's written more in a yandere-ish way, gn! Reader (I think it's been awhile) not proofread we die like men.

You often gazed at the sea, looking out at the crashing waves against liyue rocks, years of water making grooves in the stone. Even on days where no sailor set out from the harbor and the winds whipped with raging waters, when the sea's deep waters swirled and cried out in rage, you could be found on the sandy shores soaked in rain. 

Foolish and crazy they called you; You who sought peace in the abode of fallen gods, who traveled to the silence of Guyun stone forest, the slanted mountains not imposing and ominous as they should have been, but rather welcoming as your boat sailed between them. It was often that you spent time in the stone forest, the sounds of gentle waves the only company you needed while you scaled mountains and explored the shells of adepti long fallen. You only chuckled as you packed your bags once again, wicker basket empty and satchel packed with what you’d need for the day, your mothers face held worry as she once again watched you pack. One would think she wouldn't worry with how many trips you'd made to the mountains of the stone forest but still she worried every time. 

“Don't worry, i'll be back soon! The skies are clear and ill be careful mother” she shook her head, there was really no stopping you, already in the boat and setting out. “Alright dear, but please hurry home!” she called as you rowed away.

The towering mountains blocked the beating sun as you whent to your usual fishing spot. Around bends and under the stone arches. You always found it odd how birds don't nest in the crevices of warm stone, avoiding this place like the plague.but it was peaceful when eagles didn't caw and squawk at fish, scaring them away from your hook and real. You cast your line, the breeze rustling your clothes and carrying the smell of salt along the air. Once you felt a tug on your line you pulled back, silver scaled fish jumping from the watter and into your small boat.

This went on for some time, casting and pulling your line till your once empty basket was full of fish. The sun has risen to noon as it casts daunting shadows over the shifting sea. “Guess it's time to head back to shore for a bit” you mutter to yourself, deciding to spend a while longer at Guyun’s shores. Rowing back didn't take long, tugging your boat just far enough ontoshore to stay put while you rested. You hoped out of the boat and winced as your bare feet touched the hot sand, but none the less you made your way over to a small tree that grew from a crack in the mountain. You let out a small sigh as you leaned back in the shade, eyes darting across the sand as crabs scurried across it. 

The sound of waves lulled you to sleep, eyes sliping shut for a quick nap. That was a mistake, by the time you had awoken the sun had long set, night to pitch black and inky to safely return home. “I hope she doesn't worry too much,” you said, quickly running under the large stone overpass to stay the night. Despite your many trips this was the first time you had spent the night here, your mother always worried about you to let you stay. Lighting a match you kindled a small fire to keep warm and then once again drifted off to sleep. 

Your eyes closed and your mind drifted off, time passing you by before you felt a sharp pain. Your lungs burned with every breath and you felt the air change. The tensen thick as malice filled your being. Roars and screeches sounded in the air as you realized they were your own, you felt another sharp pain as your body lurched into the ocean, dragged down and pinned to the bottom by a heavy stone spear.  When you writhed and fought you felt another and another- 

You woke up coughing, your lungs on fire and you looked around with frantic eyes. They were blown wide as you tried to calm down, body sore from seemingly nothing. A strange noise grasped your attention, like a muffled voice with angered words drowned out by the sea. You stood up and trudge forward, following the sound of the noise out to the shore. A strange man sat in the sand, long hair sprawled against the sand. In the tired state you were in you didn't notice how moonlike seemed to filter threw his hair as if it were water. 

“Are you...alright?” you asked, a safe distance away when you saw him turn around; maybe it was a trick of the moon but you swore his eyes were glowing blue. He didn't say a word, and you walked closer, air changing as if storms were on their way. 

He was puzzled, too puzzled to speak. Such a foolish mortal to approach a god- but did you even know?  Had it really been so long that liuye has forgotten the raging tides and rapids that once plagued them? Ridiculous was the notion yet here you sat besides him, your unspoken presence not unwelcome after years of solitude. 

“It's nice out here, you can even see the stars in the water” he couldn't help but chuckle at your attempt at small talk, for a second almost forgetting his ancient grudge. “Yes, the ocean holds many wonders, the stars are no different” his voice was slightly coarse as he spoke. “Haha that reminds me of old legends,” you sigh “they say that deep beneath the rapid water, where no light shines, a glowing castle lays full of shells and pearls, but that's become no more than a legend” laughing you scratched your neck as if embarrassed by the childish tales. Of course he has heard of this before, how could he not when it was his legend? Yet something compelled him, “what else do they say of it?” he inquired. “Well- they say it's guarded by a monster!” you said raising your hands to look more threatening “a huge sea monster as old as rex lapis who makes the watters rage! The abode of osial” you laugh as you finish your dramatic tale. 

“And what if it's real?” you looked at him with wide eyes and looked back to the ocean. “I'd go there of course! Bygone gods slumber, the oceans no longer rage with the force of gods, if that was a real place then i'd find it one day” you said, a wistful look in your (e/c) eyes. 

As time passed and you talked with the odd man your eyes slipped shut, head lightly hitting the sand as you once again drifted off to sleep. Missing the sound of your voice he looked over and chuckled at your sleeping form, hooking an arm under your legs and back before standing. He laid you down in your boat before pushing it and letting the tide take it into the water. He walked besides your boat, guiding it along as you slept soundly to the rhythm of the waves. Pulling the boat onto the shore of liyue he grimaced. He'd long forgotten this place and the blood that was shed here.

The first being to keep him company in well over two thousand years, a shame he had to let you go so easily. “Although” he thought, looking over to you. “Perhaps I don't”

[fatehbaz]

On 22 September 1773, the Leviathan, a whaling vessel from Newport, Rhode Island, entered the port of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The Leviathan was captained by [T.L.] and had been chasing sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Atlantic since January that year. By September the ship had lost one of its whaling boats and was short on provisions, so was forced to land in Rio to resupply.

This accidental landing would give rise to a whole new whaling industry in Brazil.

---

Brazil was a Portuguese colony where a coastal [...] whaling style had developed over two centuries as a crown monopoly (1614–1801). Whales were captured at sea under contract from Portuguese administrators, while most of the hard labor was performed by African slaves. The main targets were the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) and the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).

In the mid-eighteenth century there was much talk amongst the whalers of another species, one that provided two extremely valuable substances: spermaceti and ambergris. Unknown to the Portuguese whalers, the source of these substances was the sperm whale, a species [...] inhabiting the open sea. It is the largest species of toothed whale (order Odontoceti) in the world, [...] weighing up to 57 tonnes [...]. They can dive to a depth of up to three thousand meters while hunting squid [...]. The spermaceti [...] [is] found in their [...] head [...]. Ambergris is a hard substance produced in the stomach and is thought to ease irritation caused by the mandibles of the cephalopods they feed on. Spermaceti was mainly used in the production of candles and as lamp fuel. Ambergris was used to make fine perfumes and was a component of medicines prescribed to treat headaches and cardiac issues, among other ailments.

---

In 1765 Portuguese whaling contractors sent two French whaling experts to discover if spermaceti and ambergris could be sourced from Brazilian whales. They visited one whaling station after another over the course of three years, inspecting dead whales, but they did not find the fated substances. [...] [T]he administrators [...] believed that "God is not served that in our seas of America appear more than three types of whales, without any being those that provide the drugs." [...] The accidental landing of the Leviathan in Rio changed that, as the locals quickly realized the ship was engaged in a new type of whaling, one that demanded novel methods and expertise [...].

---

Soon the foreign crew joined the local whalers; a ship was ordered to be equipped identically to the Leviathan, with borrowed spears, harpoons, and hooks so the Portuguese could copy the North American whaling methods. The new ship departed in October 1773 and returned three months later, having caught six sperm whales. Due to the success of this voyage, [the Leviathan's captain, T.L.] and his crew were employed to teach the Portuguese everything they knew [...]; in exchange they were paid a share of the proceeds from each whale caught. During a second voyage that took place from February to March 1774, nine sperm whales were caught around 1,200 km off the coast of Rio [...] [with] innovation[s] borrowed from the Rhode Island whalers.

Facing economic and environmental changes, and by sheer chance, the Portuguese crown and whaling administrators changed target species [...]. From October 1773 to June 1777, 30 whaling voyages were conducted and a total of 186 sperm whales were captured by the Portuguese off the coast of Brazil. At the same time, the presence of North American and British whalers in the South Atlantic increased, and whaling grounds were explored further offshore, along the entire Atlantic coast of South America and beyond. Portuguese involvement in sperm-whale hunting ended in 1777 because the whaling contractors amassed unsustainable debts and the industry was taken over by larger vessels from other nations. The accidental arrival of the Leviathan [...] sparked a new industry in Brazil and contributed to the inexorable decline of the other leviathans in this story, the sperm whales. The exploitation of whales in Brazil was facilitated by the transfer of knowledge first from [Europe] [...], then from North America [...].

---

All text above by: Nina Vieira, Patrick Hayes, and Al Matthews. "Facing Changes, Changing Targets: Sperm-Whale Hunting in Late Eighteenth-Century Brazil". Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Autumn 2019), no. 44. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. doi dot org/10.5282/rcc/8789 [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[teal-skull]

I wanna be like Chicken Joe from Surf's up. The level of chill that dude has is inferior, he has the attitude. You're in the middle of a prestigious surfing contest but look how pretty the clouds are! Oh you like that girl? Just go talk to her. Bro check this out, water shoots out of this hole and it's ice cold. Nah this jungle ain't dangerous, jungle is the most peaceful place on the planet. Punch of people pointing their spears at you? "Oh you guys must be hungry try these squids on a stick. "

I need to be like Joe.