#and of COURSE they taste like mollusks

[bobcatmoran]

Continuing Adventures of watching Dungeon Meshi, and my inner biologist is screaming over the apparent life cycle of the Living Armor.

[kotoku]

the touden party with an innkeeper! reader

synopsis - The Touden party was not an unfamiliar name to you due to the gossip other parties shared amongst themselves about the siblings and their oddball group. However, you thought the gossip was a bit over dramatic, finding them to be quite the pleasant guests whenever they visited your inn. 

Overtime, you got sucked into their stories from the dungeon floors and even heard how they prepped monster food. Although they weren’t the most normal party you have ever seen, you grew a tight bond with each party member.

pairings - laios x reader / chilchuck x reader / marcille x reader / senshi & reader / izutsumi & reader

warnings - characters may be ooc..

“You guys were able to eat living armor!? That’s so weird but cool!” 

“I know right! You’d think they were inedible, but they actually have a type of mollusk in them!--” 

“--I’ll make sure to bring some up next time so I can show you how we cooked it!”

“Really!? I look forward to tasting it!”

✤✤✤✤

✢ You grew curious of the leader of the Touden party, often finding yourself spending more time with him after dinner to talk about different things

✢ He was so full of personality that you couldn’t help but get drawn in to him– cooking his favorite meals, indulging in his monster facts, and helping him think of different ways some monsters could be cooked

✢ The stories he shared from his encounters in the dungeon often left you wondering, what would it be like if you were part of his party? (You would shake your head to rid of those thoughts, fully knowing that you would be useless if it came to fighting/supporting)

✢ When you heard of Falin’s disappearance and his ambitions, you were distraught yet worried for his well-being– what if he didn’t succeed?

✢ A small part of you wanted to discourage him from the idea, for what if it would be all for nothing? Yet, the larger part of you had hope that he could do it, so you offered your support for him and his party if it meant ensuring their well-being (before they head off)

✢ Considering that they usually spend weeks in the dungeon, you’d often daydream about the tall blond whenever you did your chores

✢ People would catch you lost in the clouds, so you’d quickly become embarrassed when someone would say something

✢ When the time comes for their expected return, you had already set up each room accordingly and prepared a meal for all of them 

 ✢ At some point, when Laios returns, you’d leave a small note and a gift for the man confessing your feelings (he finds it on the bed and thought that you had forgotten it when cleaning it)

✢ Needless to say, Laios wouldn’t be able to look at you, face turning a pretty pink when he’s reminded of your feelings for him

✢ Of course, he expresses his own thoughts and emotions in his own way, so it’d take some time before he approaches you with a determined gleam in his eyes 

✢ In his eyes, he believes that you would make a wonderful partner, your caring attitude making him feel all the more fuzzy

✢ Expect him to be spending a lot of time with you during his stays, as he knows that eventually he’ll have to return back to the dungeon depths

✢ At some point, Laios requests that he sleeps in your room during his stays, which you happily oblige

✢ Whenever he comes back from the dungeon, he always has a gift for you (whether it’s some sort of relic, flower/plant, or ingredient that you two could experiment with)

✢ Eventually, Laios would love to settle down with you after he has gotten his sister back 

“My party members are all idiots, _____.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just look at them! sigh I’ll take another round of ale.”

“Ehh– they seem fine to me, but whatever you say, Chil.”

✤✤✤✤

✢ When you first met Chilchuck.. he was quite the hot-headed yet reliable person, always complaining about certain events that happened during their dungeon run (You hear a lot about his party members lol)

✢ Over time, you understood his behavior and could see that despite his mean words and actions, he really did care for his friends

✢ You really admired his stern yet caring nature, always scolding those closest to him with good intentions

✢ Chilchuck didn’t really give you much attention at first, only treating you with basic human decency

✢ But the more his party stayed at your inn, the more he began to make light conversations with you, slowly evolving into deep and meaningful discussions that would last into the early hours of the morning

✢ He starts appreciating your presence more and more with each visit, offering to help you make dinner, chatting with you as you both cleaned the dishes… It felt rather intimate, doing this domestic things with you

✢ When Chilchuck notices that he’s developing feelings for you, he’s overcome with fear and anxiety 

✢ He wanted to avoid the potential heartbreak, for he knew all too well what it felt like when he and his wife divorced 

✢ Despite his sudden distancing and coldness, you’d probably corner him one night to confront him about his recent behavior

✢ Chilchuck’s resolve would soon crumble, explaining his recent actions and confessing his feelings for you with a downcast gaze (He doesn’t expect you to reciprocate)

✢ To his surprise, you do! 

✢ Chilchuck would definitely come around more often whenever he has the free time, helping you around the inn and recounting recent events that happened while they were exploring the deeper levels of the dungeon…

✢ You’re quite familiar with his alcoholism, always being there to take care of him when he’s had a little too much to drink…

✢ He can be quite clingy while drunk, so expect to be his body pillow for the next 8 hours

✢ When he plans to open up his shop, you’re there to support him while also taking care of the inn (Maybe the two could go hand in hand…)

“_____! I can’t wait to taste your cooking, it’ll be the first normal meal I’ve ever had in weeks!”

“I'm sure Senshi’s cooking makes the monster ingredients seem more digestible, Marci.”

“NO IT DOESN’T!!”

✤✤✤✤

✢ Marcille always made you chuckle to yourself at her expressive attitude, always openly displaying her dislike or favor towards something

✢ She was easy to read at times, her heart always on her sleeve 

✢ She was a pleasant guest to have at your inn, always offering help when it seemed like you needed it but you could never put a guest to work

✢ Yet you always find yourself choked up, unable to say ‘no’ to her offers…

✢ You make sure that her room has things that you know she would like, her previous visits providing you experience

✢ Whenever Marcille comes back from the dungeon, she always pulls you into a hug and cries about how happy she is to eat your home cooked meals again

✢ When you both have free time, she is happy to recount the events from the dungeon and is willing to teach you simple spells (that may prove beneficial since you run the inn)

✢ If you were ever to accidentally nick yourself when cutting a vegetable (or get hurt in general), she’d be there to help cast a healing spell on you

✢ You take note of her motherly behavior, especially with the way she is around Izutsumi 

✢ Compliment her, and you’ll get a bashful Marci who tries to play it off (but deep down she’s internally screaming)

✢ She’s never afraid to show you her affectionate and doting side, always picking up things from the dungeon floors to give to you

✢ She absolutely refuses to introduce you to monster food.

✢ If you were to confess your feelings for her one night after dinner, she’d sputter and almost let the plate slip out of her hand, catching it quickly so it doesn’t break into tiny pieces

✢ Eventually, she would recompose herself and give you her own thoughts and emotions, concluding it with a flustered glance and a smile 

✢ She could almost feel her heart bursting out of her chest at your confession, feeling as if she were going to faint on the spot

✢ Nonetheless, she’s really happy and would always look forward to her return to the surface 

“Welcome back! You brought the ingredients, Senshi?”

“Sure did, ready to start cookin’?”

“You bet!”

✤✤✤✤

✢ Senshi was such a pleasant surprise when he suddenly popped into your inn with the Touden party

✢ You’ve never seen the man before, but his amazing beard and mustache are enough to capture your eye (They look very fluffy!)

✢ You learn from him the adventures that the group had faced, as well as the different meals they had in the dungeon

✢ Hearing of the ingredients he used had left you fascinated, wondering just how he was able to make use of such.. exotic creatures

✢ You would honestly take notes as he explains, always butting in with your own questions which he’s happy to answer 

✢ You always learn something new from him everyday.. hm…

✢ Despite you being a responsible adult, he would still see you as a youngin’, always making sure that you’re taking care of yourself as well (and not just your guests)

✢ The two of you slowly develop a fatherly relationship, with Senshi helping you cook, clean, and take care of his party members

✢ You’re truly grateful for his help but tell him that he doesn’t need to go through all the trouble, which he declines and continues about his business anyway

✢ If you wanted to try a specific monster, he’d happily cook it for you and the party one night at the inn

✢ Senshi admires your hard working spirit, always giving you his thanks and compliments

✢ He would rarely stay at the inn and instead stay within the dungeon, but he wouldn’t mind stopping by every now and then, especially with his party

✢ It’s always a joy having Senshi around, and he thinks the same for you

“How have you been, Izutsumi? Anything interesting in the dungeon?”

“..Nah, it was pretty lame for the most part… But at least I got into some action!”

“Hmm? Tell me more about it at dinner! I cooked your favorite.”

✤✤✤✤

✢ At first, Izutsumi was.. reclusive

✢ Always keeping to herself and only interacting with those if she needs to, but she was a bit different when it came to her party members

✢ You noticed how she seemed to have opened up to her fellow members, speaking her mind and becoming much more expressive

✢ She didn’t say much to you at first, but over time, she slowly began to warm up to you

✢ Despite her openly making conversation with you whenever she comes back from the dungeon (or whatever it is that she’s doing), she still keeps her distance just a bit

✢ You’re determined to get to know her, but you’ll never force her to do something she wouldn’t like

✢ You are aware of her table mannerisms and pickiness, yet you don’t mind, always finding a meal that she would enjoy 

✢ Eventually her table mannerisms would get better with the help of you and her party members

✢ You never cared much for the fact that she was a beastkin, instead welcoming her with open arms to the inn when she first came

✢ Sometimes you would find her room a mess, some scratches lingering on the desk or drawers.. you’d give her a small scolding later

✢ Izutsumi honestly sees you as her mother/older sister figure, always doting and caring for her even if she didn’t want it (She’ll never tell you)

✢ At one point she probably called you ‘mom’ by accident, immediately running back to her room to hide away from you for the rest of the day until dinner comes around

✢ She has her walls built up around her but they eventually begin to crumble the more she talks with you over dinner or at night when she can’t sleep

✢ Depending on how she’s feeling, she’d be interested in your history and why you continue to manage this inn, seeing it as a boring job

✢ Izutsumi comes to understand you after a while, and eventually when she returns back to the surface, she finds herself anticipating your presence and meals

[monstrouslydelicious]

one more bit of At Least Out Loud, this time after the living armor discovery

Just rescue Falin and get back to the surface. Rescue Falin, get back to the surface, and you can go your separate ways. No one ever has to know about this, Chilchuck thought, gritting his teeth to keep a dumb grin from spreading across his face. Laios was being absurdly attractive again and it wasn't fair. His excitement over discovering living armor was actually living shouldn't be as cute as it was.

“You see that? How when he talks about monsters he gets crazy eyes? It creeps me out,” Chilchuck muttered to Marcille instead. This wasn’t the first time he’d had to suppress unwise emotions around Laios, so he was well practiced in saying the exact opposite of how he felt.

Although it’s never been quite this hard before - he is stupidly adorable like this.

So adorable, in fact, that Chilchuck almost missed Laios asking Senshi about eating the slimy little armor creatures. He would have missed it if not for Marcille’s screech of protest and yank on his arm to drag the armor he was holding toward Laios’ face. At that point, his own self-preservation instincts drowned out any lingering thoughts of Laios’ appeal, and he joined her in yelling about not eating something they knew virtually nothing about.

But then Senshi agreed to try cooking them, and Chilchuck sighed. They might as well just drop it. There was no stopping those two now, and Marcille’s continued objections seemed like a waste of energy. Even when she suggested the living armor might be poisonous, Laios’ confidence that anything that poisonous wouldn’t need to hide itself seemed logical enough. And he’s not usually wrong when it comes to monsters, Chilchuck thought begrudgingly, I guess I’ll just eat whatever seems the least disgusting - after he tries it first, of course.

While the other three picked apart the pieces of armor, Chilchuck got a fire started, then sat back and watched as Senshi decided different ways to cook the creatures. They are starting to smell really good, he admitted to himself, feeling his stomach rumble at the enticing aroma of the cooking mollusks.

But Chilchuck Tims was nothing if not a half-foot of conviction, so when Senshi declared everything finished, he narrowed his eyes at Laios and insisted he try it first. The other two agreed and waited to see what would happen. Chilchuck could feel a little worry gnawing at his heart. Instead of acknowledging that, even to himself, he muttered, “We leave his corpse if he dies, okay?”

And yet, when Laios dropped the piece of armor-shell he was holding, Chilchuck had a moment of intense terror. Was it actually poisonous? What if he dies - Marcille isn’t good at resurrection magic, that was always Falin’s job. No, no -

Laios’ shouting about how delicious it was shook those thoughts from his head and he nearly sagged with relief.

Then Senshi was trying his portion and suddenly, Laios was asking him and Marcille how theirs tasted. Taking a tentative bite, Chilchuck chewed thoughtfully. Laios is right, this is pretty tasty. Not that he was going to actually acknowledge that when Marcille asked, downplaying his opinion. No sense letting this go to his head.

Later, as they cleaned and packed up, Senshi remarked, “In all my years of eating monsters in this here dungeon, I never would have dreamed I’d eat critters like those.”

“I doubt anyone dreamed Living Armor was a type of shellfish, a weird type born from an egg case,” Chilchuck answered, knowing full well he was leaving an opening for Laios to start rambling again - and doing it anyway.

The tall-man didn’t disappoint and he started thinking through the life cycle of Living Armor out loud. Oh, he’s getting a little weird with it again, Chilchuck thought as Laios excitedly theorized that armor holding hands might actually be a mating ritual for the creatures. And yet, he couldn’t deny the dreamy, besotted look he was actively attempting to resist.

[demonslayedher]

Tengen's Favorite: Fugu

A.k.a., the pufferfish, a flamboyant way to flirt with death by tetrodotoxin.

"Sempai, you didn't!" you might be shaking your screens as a way to shake sense into me. "Sempai, I thought you wouldn't risk your life for Kimetsu Kitchen!" So you say, but I'd like to remind you that I am a bad cook and I could probably find less flamboyant methods of culinary death. But also I am here to educate, and guess what? This isn't my first time eating fugu. It's time to knock the flamboyance down a notch by telling you that fugu is more commonly consumed than you might think, as well as give you the details about Uzui Tengen's favorite food in a safe way.

Because yes, you should mind safety.

Cutting out the liver and other toxic organs is a very precise, very crucial process, so let's allow Hinatsuru to concentrate and ask our local fish-fan and poison expert to tell us more.

"Thank you for asking! Did you know pufferfish don't make this neurotoxin themselves? They get it from eating things like mollusks and bacteria, so I'll bet in the future raising these fish in farms with controlled diets will be popular. The tetrodotoxin, or TTX, blocks the passage of sodium ions into a nerve cell, thereby not letting signals to contract reach the muscles. Although there is no antidote, it's a poison humans can metabolize rather quickly, provided they have artificial respiratory assistance. The paralysis and all the other symptoms sure won't be fun, though!"

Thanks, Shinobu! Taisho Secret: Shinobu's goldfish is named Fugu.

She's right about the farmed fugu, and I've heard it said that people who can taste a difference between farmed fugu and wild fugu tend to prefer it farmed anyway. What's also important to note is that there are many varieties of fugu, and "torafugu" (tiger puffer) is the safest variety, and what is typically consumed. Although some people say the livers are the best part, they are typically rich people who wind up eating their words later on. Don't listen to them, they are dead.

We'll pause here to acknowledge the history, because not everyone who has ingested wild fugu has doomed themselves to consciously watching themselves suffocate over the course of a few hours. There are records of use their use in Chinese medicine, and even though Toyotomi Hideyoshi (one of the three great unifiers of Japan) formally banned their consumption and the Tokugawa shogunate upheld this ban, people continued to consume them anyway, especially in areas where the Tokugawa shogun was not popular. (I'd like to imagine some Uzui ancestors ate fugu out of spite.)

One region not especially privy to the shogunate was the Choshu domain, in modern day Yamaguchi prefecture. This domain played a major role in overthrowing the shogunate and establishing the Meiji government, and the first prime minister, Itou Hirobumi, was from Yamaguchi. The story goes that in 1887, it was on visit down at the very western tip of Japan's main island that he stayed at an inn and wanted fish, and the lady of the establishment had no fish to serve him except the illegal pufferfish. She decided it was better to risk what might look like an attempted assassination of the top guy in the country than to serve him a subpar meal.

Well, bam, it was so good that pufferfish was legal the following year! By my calculations and presumed dates that KnY takes place, that means it was already legal before Tengen was born. Sorry, buddy, you don't get to be that edgy.

As for how to eat it, the most iconic way is to eat it raw, sliced so thin that you can still see elaborate patterns on the dishes through the translucent flesh. This is called "tessa." It's often arranged in elegant patterns evocative of chrysanthemums, or on festive occasions, like a phoenix. It's most often a winter dish, but you can get it all year round. It has a very, very light, rather unflamboyant flavor, and is therefore typically eaten with a special variety of onions grown to accompany it, and other condiments like ponzu, citrus, and momiji-oroshi (grated daikon with chili pepper).

The main draw is the texture of the fish. As someone who enjoys sashimi, I did find the texture of tessa very, very nice when I recently got a chance to try it. The same meal also served the skin, and the flesh cooked into a rice porridge dish.

I wonder if Hinatsuru is almost done?

Not yet. Then let's talk about incidents and safety!

Basically, if you're not in Japan: DON'T DO IT. Heck, if you're in the European Union, it's illegal in the first place. There are very, ve-r-r-r-y slim opportunities of eating it in the United States after it is sourced from Japan, and although frozen tessa can travel, really, why bother eating in New York City? If you have that budget to spend, just fly to Japan. Anywhere else... just don't do it. The restaurant fatalities in recent years have primarily been in countries that don't have as stringent of a training and certification process as Japan. Japan also has a small handful of cases each year, but they don't usually end in fatalities because the accidental poisonings may not always be a large dose, and the victims received medical attention that got them through the crucial hours of paralysis. Also, those cases have typically been due to overconfident fishermen, not mistakes made by industry professionals.

But if you're in Japan----oh! It looks like Hinatsuru is done.

All of those examples? Things I have eaten in real life, often under the mistaken impression that "fugu" referred to two different kinds of fish (as happens sometimes), as there was no way I'd have eaten fugu without signing a waiver first, right???

No. Not at all. It is totally realistic to find yourself in a situation where you are served fugu without realizing what it is (though I imagine most tourists don't find themselves in these situations unless they have a guide who planned things without asking about dietary preferences). To demystify this fish a bit, there is so much fugu consumed without incident that you can get to a point where the possibility of poison doesn't even cross your mind. They sell it at a regular grocery story just down the street from where I live in a place that is not famous for fugu or anything like that. (Also, no one brings it up as much, but raw eel is toxic too! You never see it available for sale unless it's been precooked or specially marinated. Again, industry standards.)

Granted, I was still nervous about eating tessa, and the danger is still part of the thrill of fugu, though the industry stresses its merits as a tasty and (otherwise) healthy fish. I get the feeling that if Tengen lived in the Reiwa era, he'd find pufferfish disappointingly lower risk now than suits his thrill. Nonetheless, although I'll eat it if it's served to me, it is not something I go out of my way to eat.

But I will state it again: ONLY eat pufferfish that has been prepared by a professional in Japan. Otherwise, DO NOT.

[flowerprose]

NAMESAKE EXCERPT 💀🌿

i'm so behind, but so in love with this story, so i think that should count for something. by god, i'm gonna finish it soon, and then it's going into the hellish pit of querying.

“You're unsightly when you eat,” Hades observes. Kore catches the dissolving quirk of his brow before he returns to his fatty pork ribs and strange, purple tentacles. She smirks despite the insult. 

“For someone who bristles at the mention of my father, you certainly indulge in his line of thinking. He makes the same complaints about me and Mother. In the forest, we don't often sit at a table for supper. We dine with our hands, around a small hearth that keeps our fingers and bellies warm. It's beautiful out there. It's unlike anything you would find at a feast.”

“So you envy mortals and their primitive ways?” 

“Primitive or honest?” Kore challenge kindly. “You'll find all sorts of classes, even amongst the humans. The finest will dine with footstools and golden chalices and swift servants to bring their courses. But I like the burnt taste of coal clinging to fire-cooked bread. How fat dribbles down your cheek and stains your dress–a garment you may wear for days before weaving another. Many of the humans obtain so little, yet they've survived with only the resources of Gaia to feed them. They love tremendously and give thanks for ever morsel that touches their lips.” 

Hades seems to consider her words, which satisfies her long enough to try one of the oysters. The briny mollusk only earns a shake of her head as her lips squeeze together in revulsion. “No, I don’t like that at all,” she mutters to herself, tossing the shell back into a waste basket. 

Hades chuckles, earning curious looks from the rest of the table. “You speak of Gaia often,” he says, addressing her alone.

“Mother of Mother’s Mother. We owe all of this to her, don't we? All life trickles down through a mother.” 

“And here I thought your lot frolicked naked under the moonlight, chanting songs.”

“Only under a full moon,” Kore says. She's smiling when she hears the shuffle of Hades glancing at her again. 

Despite her dislike of table manners, the food is exquisitely seasoned, so unlike any of the dinners she shared with her father or within the forest. The small tomatoes burst in her mouth like acid blood, chased by a goblet of dry wine. Kore has always sought her sweet drinks, but the unusual variety impresses her enough to keep sampling more. 

“I didn't think I could eat once I died,” she says between mouthfuls of food. 

Hades' mouth curls in disgust, but he doesn’t rise to her bait. “Visit the Field of Asphodel. The heroes still banquet, still recount their victories in vivid detail. Not all who venture here drink from the River Lethe.”

“Would the River Lethe work on me? Expel my memories of my mother?”

Hades frowns as he considers this, chewing carefully on his garden peas. “I don’t recommend that you try, in case it does."

tag list: @mr-writes, @afoolandathief, @sapphic-story, @megarywrites, @blushroomx, @ozzie-scribe, @theskeletonprior, @muddshadow, @thepixiediaries, @nikkywrites, @bebewrites, @jhellfiregirls, @pinespittinink, @pink-prose-n-wiriters-woe, @phantomnations, @queenslayerbee, @antihell, @monstrousfreedom, @perasperaadastrawriting, @andromedaexists, @thebluesthourcommunity, @fearofahumanplanet, @bloodlessheirbyjacques, @stephwriteswords, @cljordan-imperium, @carminasolis, @kaatiba, @moondust-bard, @macabremoons, @lena-rambles.

@beforethepen

[ciaossu-imagines]

Hi, could I get some headcanon for my boys Jonah and Luka??

Of course you can, my dear! Thank you for the request and I hope you enjoy the headcanons!

JONAH

Jonah is one of those people who claim they’re allergic to food they just dislike to avoid having to eat it.

I do think that Jonah is someone who is really affected, mentally and emotionally, by his surroundings and the way they look, so things that are super colourful and bright can easily leave him feeling a little overwhelmed and nauseous, just too stimulated, and a lot of clutter or mess makes him feel stressed.

Out of the two brothers, Jonah is the one who can more easily make excuses for the way his parents raised them and is the one more likely to try to build a good relationship with his parents or, at the very least, a civil one and is the one who feels the most desire to make them proud of him.

Jonah hates pocket change. It gets heavy, he barely if ever uses it, and it clinks and rattles annoyingly in his pocket and if the change is negligible and just small pocket change, I can see him as being the type to tell the shop clerk to just keep the change.

Jonah has a sensitivity to caffeine and more than one cup of caffeinated tea or coffee a day will keep him awake far into the night and makes him jittery and slightly shaky throughout the day.

LUKA

Luka wouldn’t admit it, but he really looks forward to the days when Seth dyes his hair for two main reasons. He oddly enough actually really likes the smell of hair dye and secondly – he’s a sucker for a good head massage and Seth gives scalp massages to die for.

Much like Jonah, Luka has a sensitivity to caffeine but, because he hates being like Jonah in any way, he takes extra measures to drink more caffeine than he should to try to build up a better tolerance for it.

Luka has an allergy to mollusks, like mussels and oysters, though he’s weirdly enough fine with crustaceans like lobster and crab, though he doesn’t really like the taste of those so much.

Luka has a bad habit of biting the inside of his cheeks and lips, so he often has canker sores, and he uses a saltwater rinse when brushing his teeth to help them heal.

Luka really loves the smell of vinegar and doesn’t mind cleaning because a lot of the cleaners the Black Army uses are vinegar based. He’s actually amazing at doing windows, by the way – somehow he manages to make them streak-free every time.

[lavender-long-stories]

Spoilers for Lighthouse | Chapter 1 | Rated T

“Damn it.” Kisame watched the water ripple from the spot where he dropped his pliers. Those were his good ones too, the ones big enough for his hands and not gnarly and rusted. He crossed his arm over the side of the haul and huffed. The sun was hot, and he was already irritated that they had crap caught in the net that needed to be cut free. Now he had to go back inside and get some of the shitty pliers to continue hacking it free.

Screw this stupid boat, screw the stupid fishing net, screw the stupid fish, screw the stupid sea litterers that are the reason he had to cut the shit out of the rigging in the first place.

Kisame sighed audibly, peering down at the water. Well, nothing would get better if he just stood here and complained. Right? Ugh.

Before pushing himself off the hall, he noticed a dark shadow approaching from below. It got darker and darker until a head peeked out of the water. A mop of dark hair swirled to the surface from the spot where he dropped the pliers.  

It had been a while since he saw a mermaid, years even, and he had only seen them from a distance. It was his understanding that they stayed away from the boats.

Her head fully emerged out of the water as her eyes widened, seemingly more surprised that his skin was blue than he was that she had just come out from under the boat. He raised an eyebrow at her. Was she just sightseeing or upset that he dropped his pliers on her?

Her head dipped back into the water bashfully. Was she embarrassed that she was staring? A tentacle came out of the water up past her head, holding up his pliers. 

Oh! Awesome. 

Kisame turned his head to search for something to pull it up. “Give me a minute.” He grabbed a bucket and a rope and lowered it down.

The tentacle dropped the pliers into the bucket before she fully sank back into the water, moving back from the boat before poking her head back up to watch him pull the bucket up, retrieved his tool, and gave it a wave at her. 

“Thanks!” Kisame called.

She nodded before she sank back into the water, leaving a dark cloud of hair on the surface until she receded far enough to take it all with her.

Kisame flicked the water off the tool and tugged the net arm back as far as it would come to him so he could free it. Octopus mermaids. Huh? He didn’t know why it surprised him that there were octopus mermaids. He just assumed they would all be half-fish, like fish fish, not mollusk. Where did the spine end and the boneless squishy part start?

Why was he asking stupid questions? He had shark teeth in a humanoid mouth.

The waves rocked the boat back and forth at their will. Leaving the crew to accommodate for the shifting of the deck as they worked. The sound of the pulley swivel rattling announced another fishing net coming up with its load to be dropped on the deck.

Kisame wiped his brow as he watched the line come up, hoping another piece of trash wouldn’t get caught in the mechanism. As the net came up out of the water, he grabbed it to help guide it onto the deck, and the crew set to work emptying it. 

“You think we will find a mermaid this time, yeah?” Deidara teased.

Kisame gave him a look. “Maybe.” He shot back. 

“What are you on about?” Hidan kicked aside the edge of the net. 

Deidara flicked a fish into the pile. “Last run, Kisame saw a mermaid.”

Hidan’s face twisted up in judgment. “And you didn’t catch it?”

“That’s what I was saying.” Deidara chuckled. 

Kisame gave him a look. “It helped me out. I’m not harassing the damn things so you can see it.”

“What do you think a mermaid would taste like?” Hidan wondered aloud.

“What?” Deidara flicked his bangs out of the way to give him a look of complete confusion.

Hidan shrugged. “Well, half-human, human is meant to taste like pork.” Of course, he would know that. “Is it like fishy pork, or does the fish flavor stop where the human part starts.”

Deidara paused as he considered it. “Does that mean Kisame tastes like pork or fish?”

Kisame huffed as they finished the load. “Do I have to sleep with a knife so you two don’t take a chunk out of me?”

Kisame lugged another box off the deck. Wind coming in with the tide pushed past him, feeling nice but not really helping how much hauling would make you sweat.

He knew he was the biggest guy on the crew, but he shouldn’t be the one who was always stuck with unloading. He dropped the box on the stack and huffed. He was going to be the one that went to the market next time. Let Deidara handle the boat, not Hidan. He didn’t trust him to tie a knot. They would come back, and the boat would have floated away.

He dusted his hands off and looked out over the peer toward town. Would he have enough time to drop in on Itachi before he closed up for the night? Of course, if he was too late, he could drag him out to the bar, only for him to complain the whole time. 

He squinted as his focus was drawn down to the beach. Rocky, beat in by waves, and not ideal for people looking to enjoy the sun or the water, especially not so close to where the fishing boats docked. No one liked the smell. So, it was usually empty at this hour. The waves were getting high, so any local kids looking for shells or climbing about had been called in.

So what the hell was over there, laying in the rocks? 

He left his task for the excuse to take a break, heading down the pier and into the rocky sand. The waves splashed up, warning him that they would overtake where he was traversing soon. 

He got closer to what he had originally caught his attention: what had looked like a human arm sticking out from between the rocks. Well, he was half right. It was a human arm. 

“Aw damn, poor thing.” He knelt down to the mermaid, the same one from the week before if he wasn’t mistaken. He pushed her hair out of her face to confirm, revealing that she had a nasty scrap on her temple. Maybe someone else dropped something into the water and hit her this time.

It wasn’t uncommon to find the occasional mermaid washed up on the island, but people said if you found one up on the beach, not taking its corpse back to the water would lay in a curse.

Curse? Stupid excuse. Really, it was just a cruel move to leave it out in the open or eat it like he was sure Hidan would have suggested. 

Kisame slipped his arm behind her back. He hadn’t really looked because her mess of hair covered her shoulders, but what he had thought was some time of fabric covering her top was actually squishy octopus flesh the whole way to her collarbone. It was so malleable that he could feel her human bones through it.

He blanked on picking up her ‘legs.’ It didn’t really matter. She wasn’t going to feel it, but it was going to feel rude to just haul her back to the water like a sack of potatoes.

He tried to hike his arm up under her fish half, and he flinched back as the tentacles started curling around his arm. 

She wasn’t dead.

Kisame lowered his head to her chest. He could hear her breathing, but her skin was cold. Was that normal?  

He didn’t want to dump her back into the water if she was unconscious. The waves could carry her anywhere. That was no better than leaving her here on the rocks to die.

… So what should he do?

Itachi opened the door to Kisame’s place and called in. “Was making a house call a joke, or are you actually hurt?”

Kisame came out of his room with a bloody rag in hand. “Not me.” 

Then who the hell did he hurt? Itachi hurried to get into the room, but Kisame put his arm out to stop him. 

“Slow down, she’s spooked,” Kisame told him.

She? Itachi peeked his head in to find no one on the bed, but on a pill of blood-soaked towels was a woman who was curled into the corner, literally. A mass of tentacles curled into her while she tried to make herself as small as possible. He thought the island’s talk about the mermaids being real was just a running joke.

“She hit her head on the rocks, but all the blood is coming from her side. Do you think you can help her?” Kisame let him in.

Itachi approached her, making the tentacles retract further into herself. “I’m not sure. I’m not exactly a vet.”

Kisame kneeled in behind him. “Let him see. He’s a doctor.”

She lifted her arms to show the blood-soaked rag she was holding just under her rib cage. Itachi slowly reached his hand in and pulled it away to look at the damage. It was going to be hard to work with her backed into the corner like she was. “Can we get her into the kitchen? I am going to need some clean water and…” Could he put stitches into the skin like this? “I might have to send you for more bandages.”

Lighthouse

Pairing: Kisame x Hinata  Rating: T Tags: Romance | Fluff | Mermaid AU | Happy Ending

Fish-men exist so why not mermaids?

Image by Stephen Crowley

[solejust]

Western geo duck

WESTERN GEO DUCK FREE

As geoduck aquaculture is local to the Pacific Northwest and parts of the western coast of California, a more localized example may be more appropriate for courses in other parts of the country, but many of the activities would be appropriate across most contexts. The issue is complicated by a complex permitting process, limited scientific information to guide decision making, and vocal public opposition to certain aspects of geoduck farming. Specific concerns have centered on aspects of aquaculture that may disturb ecological communities, habitats, and ecosystem processes. Geoduck is the world's largest burrowing clam and is prized at sushi bars because it pairs well with other flavors. Geoduck (giant clam, Panopea generosa) aquaculture is a complex issue in the Puget Sound. The belly has a mild taste and is usually served pan fried, steamed or stewed. Nestled in the coastal waters of western Canada and northwestern America, Geoducks sits in. After completing this case, students will be able to use the socio-environmental system framework and apply it to other environmental issues. Geoducks impressive measurements make it the worlds oldest bazaar. The shell of the clam ranges from 15 centimetres to over 20 centimetres in length, but. The geoduck is native to the coastal waters of western Canada and the northwest United States. The common name is derived from the Lushootseed word gdq. This case provides a framework and tools for analyzing and understanding complex socio-environmental systems, using geoduck aquaculture in the Pacific Northwest as an example system. The Pacific geoduck is a species of very large saltwater clam in the family Hiatellidae. They also found surveillance video show Olsen personally delivering the geoduck crates for shipment to Oakland.SESYNC has selected this case study as an exemplary S-E synthesis case study. The geoduck is native to the west coast of North America. But, investigators found surveillance video of the time of the receipt showing he only threw away a small amount of household waste. The geoduck pronounced gooey duck,scientific name Panopea generosa, is a species of very. Olsen told Alaskan officials he destroyed the geoduck shipment, and gave them a bill from the King County garbage transfer station as proof. And sign up for BREAKING NEWS emails delivered straight to your inbox. Its shell valves are not large enough to.

WESTERN GEO DUCK FREE

Get breaking news alerts in the FREE FOX 13 Seattle app. A giant mud-burrowing bivalve mollusk occurring on the west coast of North America, where it is collected for food. RELATED: L&I: Sumner seafood plant ignoring COVID protocols led to 16 workers sick, 1 dead Olsen also shipped 10 cases of the geoduck to a buyer in Oakland, California, and falsified paperwork marking the contents of the crate as "fresh Yelloweye." "We’ll likely never know if any of the Chinese customers became ill from these clams, but a prison sentence is justified by the danger of his conduct and his repeated lies to authorities, claiming he had destroyed the potentially harmful geoduck." Olsen chose to gamble with the lives of customers across the globe – putting them at risk of shellfish poisoning," said U.S. Olsen said he would, but instead illegally shipped the geoduck to Hong Kong for consumption. An Alaska wildlife trooper told Olsen he needed to destroy the shipment, as the clams were possibly contaminated.

[fangirleaconmigo]

It's time again to play...

I Can't Believe It's Not Fanon

otherwise known as: 

Witcher facts that sound like Geraskier fic writers made them up, but that are, in fact, book canon. The subject of this post is...(drumroll please)

In fic, Geralt is often extremely, over the top, protective of Jaskier. Is this is a bit of an exaggeration invented to please Geraskier shippers?

Well, folks...

It is canon, my friends. And I think you guys are going to really like this one.

Geralt is especially protective of Jaskier/Dandelion, thinking of him first, even in war zones, and even when he has others to protect.

Now, to review, my previous post was about how Dandelion is protective of Geralt. I've written here how he mocks people who are bigoted against Geralt. I wrote here about how He puts his pride aside to take a job he doesn’t want  to do because Geralt is hungry and gives him the equivalent of puppy eyes. He also withstands torture for Geralt and lies to his employer Dijsktra (essentially becoming Geralt’s spy rather than the other way around)

But now we're going to talk about:

Geralt as a Protector of Dandelion

When we think about Geralt being protective, we tend to think sword fights and bar brawls. And that is true, for sure. Geralt is absolutely fine with killing anyone who threatens someone he loves. 

But it’s not just grand gestures and homicide, folks, it’s day - to - day devotion.

Geralt is a bit of a mom friend and considers it his job to protect Dandelion’s from his own trademark curiosity.

Dandelion has little restraint when he gets it into his head to examine, grab, question, taste, ANYTHING that he discovers. (I think Joey shows this very well in TWN when he’s in the Kaer Morhen lab sticking everything in his mouth!!) Everything fascinates him!

And this comes up a lot.

Once again Geralt quietly cursed the bard’s irrepressible curiosity.

Baptism of Fire Ch 2

and

Dandelion, who had never been able to reign in his curiosity, urged Pegasus on…

Baptism of Fire Ch 3

Geralt takes it upon himself to protect Dandelion from the effects of his unfettered passion and interest in the world. Here is a funny (to me) scene in Sword of Destiny. Dandelion insists on going with Geralt on this job to look for a sea monster. He’s hoping to see a mermaid. 

They spot some underwater steps and immediately Dandelion wades out too far. 

"...they are steps," Dandelion whispered in awe."

Uh oh. Geralt tries to warn him.

"Dandelion! That's a trench! You'll slip off!"

Dandelion dismisses him of course. He has already seen this new cool fuckin thing, and won’t be dissuaded.

"...See it's shallow here, barely waist deep...as wide as a ballroom.."

Until

"...Oh, bloody hell."

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Bloody hell. Geralt intervenes.

Geralt jumped very quickly into the water and grabbed the bard, who had fallen in up to his neck.

Dandelion, of course, isn't fazed. He just ignores it and prattles on about the pretty mollusks he's found. (Is Geralt still grabbing him?)

"...It's a pretty color don't you think? Grab it and shove it into your bag, mine's full already."

LOL he’s filled his bag with sea shit and expects Geralt to now take up space in his bag. Poor Geralt. He tries again.

"...Get back on the shelf this minute, Dandelion, this isn't a game."

I laughed when I read that. ...this minute, Dandelion. See, it's no wonder he's such a good dad to Ciri. He just acts like that all the time. Then, sea monsters come out of the water (like they do) and Geralt and Dandelion run away. But Dandelion...

"...suddenly stumbled and fell...Geralt caught him by the belt and hauled him out of the foam, now seething all around them."

Sword of Destiny pp 221-226

I just love that visual of Dandelion trying to keep his head above water and Geralt hauling him out by his belt. I picture him like a flailing yowling wet kitten being scruffed. But anyway, they drag each other out and Geralt lives to fight another day.

But not before Geralt says RUN DANDELION SAVE YOURSELF and Dandelion says NO I’M NOT LEAVING YOU. 

That is a habit of theirs. You’re gonna see that a few more times in this post.

Dandelion’s physical safety is always in the back of Geralt's mind. He thinks of it when making any decisions.

In Baptism of Fire, when they are about to go into a scary forest with a whole company of friends, Geralt’s first thought is for Dandelion:

I’ll have to keep Dandelion on a short leash, and make sure he doesn’t touch anything. Particularly since there’s no shortage of plant life that likes to supplement its chlorophyll diet with morsels of meat, plants whose shoot are as deadly as a crab spiders venom when they come into contact with skin. And the gas of course… Baptism of Fire Ch 7

I just picture Dandelion on a little short leash and I cackle.

Now, what about when Geralt has more people to take care of? Does he still think of Dandelion first before anything else? Yes.

In Baptism of Fire, Geralt is traveling with a company of friends (the dearly beloved hansa), Zoltan Chivay and his crew, war widows, and war orphans. (Don’t ask how he gets himself into these things...it’s usually bc his heart is squishy shh don’t tell him I said that)

But holy shit! What’s this??? Nilfgaardian troops appear out of nowhere! (Well, not nowhere, they are traveling through an active war zone). Shrieks from the refugees pierce the sky.

“Nilfgaaaaaard!”

Cavalry from the West! Nilfgaard are attacking! Every man for himself!

There is utter pandemonium. Milva (archer friend, love of my life) calls out to Geralt.

“Our horses!...Our horses, Witcher, follow me!”

Milva is the biggest horse girl in all of the saga (Geralt is merely a second rate horse enjoyer, world’s okayest horse dad next to her) and she’s like COME WITH ME.

Now, let’s look at what Geralt does. Let’s review. There are civilians. War widows. War orphans. Several other dear close friends. Horses. And what does Geralt do? Well, actually let’s start with what Dandelion does...you know, what he always does...shriek for Geralt.

“Geralt!” Dandelion shouted. “Save me!”

If there is one thing Dandelion will do every time he is in trouble, it is shriek for Geralt. Again, this is well represented in the show by Joey when he tells Yen: "You don't get to be the damsel in distress. That's my job." (I really wish I knew which lines were improv'ed bc I loved that one)

But ok, so back to the passage.

“The crowd separated them, scattered them like a great wave and carried Milva away in the blink of an eye. Geralt, gripping Dandelion by the collar, didn’t allow himself to be swept away...”

So. He didn’t think long about that one. He already has him by the collar when shit starts happening. Then Geralt tries to get his bearings but he can’t because:

The Witcher could no longer see anything, but neither did he have any time to watch since he was busy rescuing Dandelion, whose legs had been swept from under him again by a stampeding hog. When Geralt bent down to pick the poet up, a hay rack was thrown straight onto his back...

Ouch. Now he’s on the ground and Dandelion is up.

“Get up!” the troubadour yelled. “Get on your blasted feet!”

“I can’t,” the Witcher groaned...Save yourself. Dandelion.”

“I won’t leave you!”

Baptism of Fire 166-167

They are again, in the midst of danger, shouting vows to not leave the other. It’s their thing. 

When Geralt comes across Dandelion in Sword of Destiny, he is fleeing the war and once again asking Geralt to deliver him.

 "...Geralt, don't leave me here! I'll never survive by myself! Don't leave me!"

"You must be insane, Dandelion," 'the witcher said, leaning over the saddle. "you must be insane with fear, if you think I'd leave you. Give me your hand and jump up on the horse..."

Sword of Destiny p 368

So. They are just Like That.

Ok, onto the next dramatic Geralt rescue where he is so impressive and gallant in Dandelion’s defense it blows Cahir’s balls off. (Not literally. Also, if you’ve only seen TWN please forget everything you know about Cahir before proceeding. They are friends here).

Anyway, it’s near the end of Baptism of Fire, and the hansa is caught in the crossfire between Nilfgaard and Lyria. Dandelion is trying to get the Lyrian's attention to tell them they are on their side...ie...they are Nordlings, not Nilfgaardians (quick somebody hide Cahir). Someone shouts at him to get down. He...doesn’t listen.

The poet, as usual, rather than listen to the warning, wanted to know what it was all about. And right then, arrows whistled through the air...Two flew straight for Dandelion, but the Witcher already had his sword in his hand, leapt forward, and deflected both of them with swift blows.

“By the Great Sun,” Cahir grunted. “He deflected two arrows! Remarkable! I’ve never seen anything like it...”

Baptism of Fire 328

I mean COME ON. Gallantry. Can you hear me clapping and whooping? Geralt, buddy, you are magnificent. 

There is SO MUCH MORE OF THIS. In fact, my first canon or fanon post was about him slaughtering a whole room full of people to rescue a kidnapped Dandelion.And I still haven't covered everything. I can only include so many examples. But you get the idea.

Ok, but you could say...he always defends Dandelion because he’s the most hopeless one. And Dandelion usually is the least warrior-y person around. But not always! Sometimes there are war refugees. 

But more importantly, the thing is, we KNOW why Geralt saves him. The story tells us that it enrages Geralt when people harm Dandelion. It is his emotions. He just reacts. Here are two examples.

First example of Geralt feeling rage when Dandelion is harmed:

In this one, the people who harm Dandelion live (or more correctly do not live) to regret it. So, in Baptism of Fire (can you tell I just reread this one) Geralt and Dandelion are fleeing the noose (long story) and Geralt steals a horse.

"Jump on, Dandelion! And hold tight!"

They are fleeing soldiers but end up surrounded. Arrows start flying through the air. Dandelion has his arms around Geralt.

Dandelion yelled, this time very loudly indeed, and dug his fingers into Geralt's sides. The Witcher felt something warm dripping onto his neck.

"Hold on!" he shouted, catching the poet by his elbow and drawing him closer to his own back. "Hold on, Dandelion!"

They lose balance and both fall from the horse. Dandelion hits the ground.

The poet thudded onto the dirt and lay still, groaning pathetically. His head and left shoulder were covered in blood, which glistened black in the moonlight.

Geralt does not take this well. Like. At all.

The Witcher sprang up, feeling a wave of cold fury and hatred inside him. He jumped out to meet their pursuers, drawing the horsemen's attention away from Dandelion. But not because he wanted to sacrifice for his friend. He wanted to kill.

So Geralt felt a wave of cold fury and hatred. He sprung up, not to sacrifice himself because he had no intention of doing so. He was going to kill. And reader, he does exactly that. He kills them all.

Then when he gets Dandelion back to camp, Regis offers to help. Regis is a barber surgeon and can do field dressings. The only thing is, Geralt has just FINALLY realized that Regis is a vampire. So even though Regis has saved his life and been a fucking amazing friend, Geralt is a TAD TENSE. Also, he is still emotional from seeing Dandelion get hurt. So when Regis says the following:

"Your blood smells nice, poet."

Geralt does not react well to this.

At precisely that moment the Witcher did something Milva would never have expected. He walked over to the horse and drew a long Nilfgaardian sword from the scabbard fastened under the saddle flap.

"Move away from him" he snarled, standing over the barber surgeon.

Now, Regis meant that Dandelion's blood wasn't infected, and was also poking at Geralt (the way he does). But we do see Geralt becoming enraged in that scene when people harm or when (he thinks) they threaten Dandelion. He's like, get your blood licking vampire mouth away from my fave boy. (Never to worry, they do all make up with best boy Regis)

Here's the second example of the story telling us literally that Geralt feels rage when Dandelion is harmed.

In The Last Wish, we are told how Geralt feels when Toruviel breaks Dandelion’s lute. More specifically, we are told how Geralt feels when he sees Dandelion’s lips quiver.

Here is Dandelion's response to seeing his lute smashed.

The poet turned as white as death. His lips quivered.

The very next sentence after "His lips quivered." is this.

Geralt, feeling a cold fury rising up somewhere within him, drew Toruviel's eyes with his own.

Geralt doesn’t feels fury when Toruviel kicks him. He is calculating. Smart. But now that Dandelion's lips are quivering, it's cold fury time.

Next, we get typical Geralt ‘kill me, not him’ gallantry. Filavandrel comes in and informs them that he has to kill them. Geralt says: 

"Spare him, at least," Geralt indicated Dandelion with his head. "No, not out of lofty mercy. Out of common sense. Nobody's going to ask after me, but they are going to take revenge for him."

I have to include the next part because it’s hilarious. (even though I’ve talked about it before). Filavandrel says...I can’t, because if I spare the poet, he’ll come back and avenge you.

So Geralt is having a ‘save yourself Dandelion’ moment, which as fucking always, Dandelion will. not. let. him. have.

"You can be sure of that!" Dandelion burst out, pale as death. "You can be sure, you son-of-a-bitch. Kill me too, because I promise otherwise, I'll set the world against you. You'll see what lice from a fur coat can do! We'll finish you off even if we have to level those mountains of yours to the ground! You can be sure of that!"

"How stupid you are, Dandelion," sighed the witcher.

The Last Wish, pp 190-200

But there is an even greater reason why Geralt defends Dandelion with such constancy and devotion. There is the single most important thing of all. Geralt tells us exactly what it is with his own words. So let’s let him tell us. 

In the djinn story in The Last Wish, Geralt is in the tent with Chireadan explaining why he needs to get Yennefer to help Dandelion with his throat, and he says,

“…this only concerns Dandelion. He suffered at my side, in my presence. I didn’t manage to save him and I couldn’t help him. I’d sit on a scorpion with my bare backside if I knew it would help him.”

The Last Wish pg 236

Geralt values his friendship and appreciates his loyalty. Plain and simple.

And ultimately that is why Yennefer comes to value Dandelion too, despite the fact that he can be a complete nightmare. It is his sheer loyalty and steadfastness that wins her over. In Blood of Elves when she is explaining why she wants him to be safe, she says:

“...Do as I ask. I wouldn’t like anything bad to happen to you. I like you too much, owe you too much--”

“You’ve said that already. What do you owe me, Yennefer?”

The sorceress turned her head away, did not say anything for a while.

“You traveled with him,” she said finally. “Thanks to you he was not alone. You were a friend to him. You were with him.”

The bard lowered his eyes.

“He didn’t get much for it,” he muttered. “He didn’t get much from our friendship. He had little but trouble because of me. He constantly had to get me out of some scrape...help me...”

She leaned across the table, put her hand on his and squeezed it hard without saying anything. Her eyes held regret.

Blood of Elves, p37

The fact is, both Yennefer and Geralt have had long lives filled with people using them as tools. Exploiting them. Wanting to use their power in the service of things they don't care about or actively despise. They both have a metric shitton of trauma plus some serious self worth issues.

So what both of them need more than anything is someone who values, likes, and loves them simply for who they are. That is why they both end up as parents to Ciri. They both make the decision to fight for her. To fight for the chance to love her as a child, not as a Source or a Chosen One or anything else. They realize they need humanity and to embrace their inherent worth as people.

That is why Geralt loves Dandelion. That is why Yen grows to love him. That is why he fits right in.

Because in a continent full of people with agendas who are thirsty for power and don’t hesitate to try to use them or Ciri, Dandelion is just there because he loves them. That’s it and that’s all. And what is more important than that?

I would fight to defend that too. 

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Diet-wise, Snails are Like Cows, not Bugs

by Timothy A. Pearce

When classifying organisms into broad categories, many people would group snails with insects rather than mammals. When it comes to diet, however, snails are much more like mammals than insects. That’s because, when choosing what to eat, insects tend to be specialists, while most mammals, and most snails, tend to be generalists. This pattern is especially striking when considering just herbivorous species.

Webbhelix multilineata snail eating leaf.

Cows eating grass. Image by Shubham Khatri, from Wikimedia Commons.

Many herbivorous insects specialize on eating one or a few species of plants, and most often within a single plant family. For example, when we think of tent caterpillars, we expect to see them on cherry trees. In the caterpillar life stage of butterflies and moths, 69% of species feed upon just a single family of plants. If you look at just tropical butterflies and moths found within 25 degrees of the equator, the figure rises to 83% (Forister et al. 2015). Herbivorous mammals, on the other hand, tend to be generalists, eating a wide variety of plants from numerous plant families. Snails, it turns out, have broad diets including a variety of plants from numerous plant families, making snails more like mammals than insects, at least in their diets.

Of course, there are exceptions. While most herbivorous mammals are generalists, two mammals are famous diet specialists. Can you think of them? Hint: one eats bamboo, the other eats Eucalyptus leaves. Did you come up with panda and koala? Good for you! Similarly, while most insects are diet specialists, sometimes we do hear about plagues of locusts that have broad diets, so they eat practically every green thing in sight.

Most plants make chemicals that are not directly involved in growth or other metabolic functions. Scientists call these chemicals secondary compounds. In fact, secondary compounds are responsible for many of the distinct aromas and tastes in the spices we rely upon to flavor our cooking. But why would plants bother making secondary compounds that don’t directly benefit the plant? The most common hypothesis for why plants make secondary compounds is to protect the plants from diseases or herbivores.

Herbivores have ways (e.g., enzymes) to detoxify or reduce the effects of plant chemical defenses. Herbivorous insects that specialize on a few related species of plants can, over evolutionary time, develop strategies that effectively detoxify the defenses of those plants. Sometimes co-evolution results, an ongoing process in which the plant will modify its secondary compound to be more toxic, then the insect will develop the ability to detoxify that, and so on. The plant’s arsenal of chemical defenses protects it from the vast majority of herbivorous insects, but not the insects that specialize on that particular plant group. For example, milkweed is fed on by only a very few insects, including monarch butterfly caterpillars, that have countered its defenses.

Caterpillar eating leaf. Image by Krishna A. Gopala, from Wikimedia Commons.

In contrast to specialist insect herbivores, mammals tend to eat a wide variety of plant species. Consequently, mammals need general detoxification strategies that will protect them from a variety of plant secondary compounds. Thanks to detoxification enzymes located mostly in our livers and kidneys (Freeland & Janzen 1974), we can enjoy eating a wide variety of tasty plants without being poisoned.

Like herbivorous mammals, herbivorous snails also have general detoxification strategies, which might account for their large livers, where most of the detoxification occurs.

Now you know one way that snails are more like cows than insects: their diet!

Here is a joke about snails eating:

Two snails were munching a tasty salad made with a large number of different plants. One of the snails accidently dropped one of the exotic leaves from the salad. The other snail said, “You can still eat it, use the five-hour rule.”

Timothy A. Pearce is the head of the Section of Mollusks at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Literature Cited

Forister, M.L., Novotny, V., Panorska, A.K., Baje, L., Basset, Y., Butterill, P.T., Cizek, L., Coley. P.D., Dem, F., Diniz, I.R., Drozd, P., Fox, M., Glassmire, A.E., Hazen, R., Hrcek, J., Jahner, J.P., Kaman, O, Kozubowski, T.J., Kursar, T.A., Lewis, O.T., Lill, J., Marquis, R.J., Miller, S.E., Morais, H.C., Murakami, M., Nickel, H., Pardikes, N.A., Ricklefs, R.E., Singer, M.S., Smilanich, A.M., Stireman, J.O., Villamarín-Cortez, S., Vodka, S., Volf, M., Wagner, D.L., Walla, T., Weiblen, G.D. & Dyer, L.A. 2015. Global insect herbivore diet breadth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(2):442-447; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423042112

Freeland, W.J. & Janzen, D.H. 1974. Strategies in herbivory by mammals: the role of plant secondary compounds. American Naturalist, 108(961): 269-289.

[unrestedjade]

Baseless Ferengi headcanons no one asked for and that get increasingly queer-navel-gazing and self indulgent because the horrible space goblins have consumed my brain:

- Mobile ears, because if hearing is so well developed and important to them they should be able to aim those big stupid radar dishes. Also because then they can emote with them and that's cute. THE AESTHETIC IS PARAMOUNT.

- Since they canonically sharpen their teeth with chew sticks and sharpeners, their teeth must grow continuously. So I submit: subcultures that let certain teeth grow out as a fashion/political statement. Ferengi punks and anarchists with 5" tusks. Ferengi with all their teeth filed flat (mom and dad HATE it).

- Corollary to the above, most of their teeth are crooked. At the least, they don't share our fetish for straight teeth. What if their teeth are deciduous, and there's no point in trying to force them into perfect alignment, since they'll just fall out and get replaced? So like, sharks but their teeth can also grow longer with no limit. WHAT HAST EVOLUTION WROUGHT ON FERENGINAR :V

- Parents nagging their kids to sharpen their teeth "or they'll grow up into your brain and you'll die :)"

- Personal space? Don't know her.

Okay I need a cut because there's too many now. WHOLE SOCIETY OF GAY HOMOPHOBIC UNCLES AND AUNTS GO I HAVE A PROBLEM

- I can't remember who on here put forth the idea of them having retractable claws but Yes. :3

- Pushing back against the worst canon episode a bit but: relative ear size being the only obvious sexually dimorphic trait, and even that having enough of a gray area that the only way to be 100% sure you're talking to a male or female Ferengi is if you do a blood test. Unless they're intersex! *shrug emoji*

- This is why they're so fanatical about gender conformity and their Victorian "separate spheres" attitude to men and women's roles. Capitalist patriarchy is fragile! And as artificial to Ferengi as it ever was to Humans! (self-indulgenceeeee about gender shiiiiit)

- You know how with domesticated rabbits, the rabbit getting groomed and paid attention to is the boss? Yeah. Go ahead and paint your bestie's nails, just don't be surprised if she cops a little bit of an attitude with you from then on.

- Their fight/flight/freeze/fawn instincts skew heavily toward the last three, and what a lot of other species read as annoying sucking up is the Ferengi in question feeling anxious and unsafe. Especially if they don't feel integrated into the group. Even being at the bottom of the pecking order is better than not being in the flock at all.

- If they DO opt for fight, it's ugly and typically their last resort. Bites or scratches will get infected without intervention-- microbes that their immune system can handle could cause big trouble for aliens. You might wanna check for full or partial teeth that break off and get lodged in the wound, too.

- Too many of these are tooth related but I don't care. :B More teeth stuff: you know what else has teeth that grow constantly? Puffer fish. Likewise, Ferengi can chew up mollusk shells as easy as potato chips, and they need the minerals for their teeth. (Imagine grandpa Sisko offering Nog a crayfish for the first time and watching as he just...pops the whole damn thing in his mouth and crunches away...)

- Their staple foods seem to be grubs and other arthropods, high in protein and fat. I've unilaterally decided their cuisine also involves a lot of edible fungi, ferns, plant shoots and seeds. Gotta get those vitamins. Overall flavor profile leaning toward umami, vegetal, and fresh herbs, and pretty mild (or "delicate" if you wanna be snooty about it, which a Ferengi probably would let's be real).

- Not much sugary food. I'm basing this solely on Quark's aversion to root beer as "cloying". Which could definitely just be his personal preference, but most of the people I hear hating on root beer cite the actual sassafras/sarsaparilla flavor (saying it tastes like medicine) not the sweetness. Nog might be the weirdo outlier for being able to enjoy it.

- Their home planet isn't bright and sunny, so their eyes are better at discerning shades of gray in low light conditions, with relatively weak color vision. Which could explain why they dress Like That.

- Conversely, human music has a reputation for stinking on ice because a lot of it is juuuuust lightly dissonant or out of tune because we can't pick up flaws that small. Ferengi can, and it drives them up the *wall*.

- Music? So many different kinds. Traditionally, maybe lots of percussion and winds, and water as a common component of many instruments to alter pitch or tone. Polyphony out the ass. Some of the modern stuff is an impenetrable wall of sound if you're not a species with a lot of brain real estate devoted to processing sounds. Pick out one melody to follow at a time.

- Yes, back to teeth again I'm sorry. It's a sickness. At some point in their history, pre-chewing food was just something you did for your baby or great grandma as a matter of necessity. Possibly your baby gets an important boost to their immune system and gut biome from your spit. At some point takes on a more formal intimacy aspect and gradually drifted from something all adults and older kids do to something only women do. Your husband and older kids have perfectly functional teeth, but you love them, right? =_= (Think old memes about husbands being useless in the kitchen if little wifey isn't there to cook, but even more ridiculous. Ishka was right about everything but especially this. Thank you for making your family chew their own food, Ishka. Not all heroes wear capes. Or anything!)

- How did they get started on the whole men: clothed vs women: unclothed nonsense? My equally stupid idea: men just get cold easier. Those huge ears dissipate a ton of body heat. Cue Ferengi cliches like "jeez, we could be standing on the surface of the sun and my husband would put on another layer." At some point, again, this got codified and pushed to ridiculous extremes in the name of controlling women and keeping everyone in their assigned box, to the point that women just have to shiver if they really are too cold and men have to pass out from heat stroke if the alternative is going shirtless, because That Would Be Inappropriate.

- Marriages default to five years, but they're also the only avenue for women to have their own household or any stability. Plus their religion places no emphasis on purity save for pure adherence to the free market and the RoA. So, curveball to the rest of their patriarchal bullshit: female virginity isn't a concern in the least. Bring it up and they'll rightly side-eye you.

- Family law is absolutely bonkers and lawyers that specialize in it make BANK. I feel like custody would default to the father usually but oh wait, the maternal grandfather has a legal stake in this, too, and your next father-in-law is asking HOW many kids are you dragging into my daughter's house, etc etc. Growing up with a full sibling is way rarer than growing up with half or stepsiblings, since it usually takes both men and women two or three tries to find someone they vibe with. (Not love, unless you're super cringe.)

- A misogynistic society is a homophobic society. Imo those flavors of shittiness just come in pairs. Homosexual behaviors are fine within certain parameters (aka "always have sex with the boss") but not on your own terms. To add spice, bisexuality is their most common mode (because I'm bi and these are my hcs for my fics I'm not writing, so there), but capitalism demands fresh grist for the mill so you better get het-married and pop out some kids you lowly peons. You have a choice so make the proper one. :)

- Corollary to the above, that doesn't keep all kinds of illicit "we're just friends with quid-pro-quo benefits for realsies" affairs of every stripe and every gender from going on everywhere. Many Ferengi have a lightbulb moment somewhere in early adulthood when they figure out their dad's business partner or the "auntie" who visited their mom every month had a little more going on.

- Plus there's way more gender non-conformity and varying degrees of trans-ing than the powers that be have a handle on. Pel isn't unique, even if most would have to somehow make it out into space to be able to thrive.

Damn a lot of these are just my personal bugbears plus THE GILDED AGE BUT WITH HAIRLESS SPACE RODENTS ain't they

- Women can't earn profit, okay. But lending or "lending" things to each other isn't commerce, riiiiiiight? To be assigned female is to master navigating a vast, dizzying barter/gift economy. Smart boys and men leverage this, too, and there are splinter sects that view this as the purest expression of the Great Material Continuum.

- Of course plenty of women make profit anyway, and just do their bast to dodge the FCA. The tough thing about insisting on using latinum as currency is that cash can be so hard to track, you know?

- Because of the RoA, guys are discouraged from doing favors or giving gifts without setting clear expectation of getting some return on investment. This can twist into an expression of friendship (and of course women do it too), and the ledger will keep cycling between debit and credit among friends for decades. A common mistake aliens make is to tell them recompense isn't needed without explaining why, or return their favor or present with something that zeroes out the debt. The Ferengi will assume you want to break off the friendship. (I cribbed this from dim memories of an African studies course I took in 2007 and whose textbook I know I still have but I can't frigging find it...)

- Flirting, they do a lot of it for a lot of reasons. Roddenberry made it clear that they're just straight up pretty horny, but there's no reason it can't pull double duty for building alliances with other people, smoothing over feuds or disagreements, or cementing friendships. Ferengi who are ace and/or sex-repulsed are possibly viewed similar to the way we'd view someone who's "not a hugger/not big on touching" and if they flirt just don't get offended if it doesn't go any further; aro Ferengi don't garner much comment aside from an occasional "wow how badass, never falling in love with anyone."

- where to even start on making sense of the Blessed Exchequer??? Like seriously, what is this literal prosperity gospel insanity, I need to force myself to re-read Rand and like, some Milton Friedman for this shit. Help.

- fuck I'm probably going to actually do that, RIP me...

[missedstations]

“Diasporic” - Sharon Lin

I have had enough of these chicken feet poems, R says. Everyone is repeating each other: moon, river, fish. So I write about castles, Iowa, that tow truck my dad never had. It’s easy to make up a life when you’re looking for a story. I tell my class during show-and-tell, these shells were from my mother’s dowry, not mollusks I plucked off the beach. It’s a shame I carry with me, unshakeable. I learned to be an imposter was not a skill they taught at sixteen, so I wrote about wandering, disappointment. The editors love sorrow. I read Jonathan Franzen then and David Foster Wallace, voices I wasn’t supposed to have in my head. I’m not always lost in China. I’m mistaken for a local, I know half the words, I get by and I know no one here. In every Chinatown, it’s the same squalor like time never passes, like the Chinaman is always wearing faded silk. I need to get out of my head. I travel in a train passing palm trees, groves, Salinas, dust bowls, a crow hopping by the side of the track, broken wing, no crows around. It’s the same story told backwards, returning to the heartland, foreign faces racing to the city, fields planted gold. I find photos from Tuka of rolling grass and yaks, pink beads and bells and cheeks without bones. Passing a golf course, a boy in red—his name is Kyle, he lives in San Clemente, he has his entire life planned. My name is Sharon, I live and god I can’t say more. I think there is no better place to be. Once in a class where we made dumplings and discussed migration. We are shaped by larger forces, the professor said. A force to push us back in place, pegs loose and rolling. To find myself, I say, I’m here to find myself. I’ll push every peg you need, write about chicken feet and how pepper tastes the same in every city. How many years before I forget the taste. I used to gather my fallen hairs in plastic bags, sweep the bathroom floor for strands. My mother wanders, forgetting, and I do not know where she sleeps tonight. She tells me diaspora means lost and I have nothing to lose. R thinks it’s brilliant how she stopped writing about fish: Do you remember the taste of fish? I only remember the bones.

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish - Explained #119

Brought to you by a marine biologist with another snail!

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

We just covered the Turban Shell, which was another type of marine snail. That one was an herbivore, an animal that eats primarily plant material, in their case, algae. When you think of snails, you probably don’t think of them as anything but slow-moving, low-on-the-food chain-kinda animals. But, it’s okay, you’re allowed to be wrong. These snails are actually predators.

Just dive and you’ll find this. 

Anyway, I don’t think we need to go over Mollusks and Gastropods again, right? Gastropods are all the snails and slugs and they are Mollusks like the Octopus and Manila Clam. Within Class Gastropoda is Family Buccinidae, also known as the “true whelks”. “Whelk” is used commonly to refer to lots of sea snails, usually of the larger variety, much in the same way “conch” is. Where I live, “whelk” and “conch” could be referring to the same animals, which are actually whelks; we don’t have any actual conchs here in New York. Anyway, the true whelks are all predators that eat other mollusks, usually bivalves that they either steal or scavenge from sea stars (yes, we will cover that) or break open their preys’ shells with their own shell. The reinforced point at the end of the whelk’s shell is used like a hammer to break open bivalve shells. They will also eat worms and scavenge in general, so they’re pretty generalist, all things considered. They have a long proboscis and antennae that allow them to find prey via touch, taste, and smell while crawling along the sea floor. 

The whelk represented in ACNH is Buccinum undatum, the common or waved whelk. It’s native to Northern Europe and North America, preferring colder waters, which could explain why they put it in the cold tank with the Sea Butterfly. Of course, that doesn’t explain why it’s available 24/7/365, so maybe that’s a little more telling of the island you inhabit (must not be tropical). Either way, this is yet another sea creature that is enjoyed on dinner plates the world over.

Anyway, so these things are predators that open up bivalves and eat them, but how? Well, snails and slugs have a pretty nifty tool called a radula. It’s like a hooked, spiked tongue they use to scrape food off of surfaces. For herbivorous snails, they use it to scrape up algae, moss, plants, etc from rocks. For carnivores, like whelks, they use it to scrape the flesh out of the shells. Works the same way. 

And there you have it. Fascinating stuff, no?

[rrameyguerrero]

Worldbuilding: Flora/ Fauna

For your world to be complete, it needs plants and animals. I confess, I create these as needed usually. Say my characters are walking through the woods. I need there to be trees, bushes, ground cover, and weeds. Maybe a chipmunk runs across their path, and birds are singing in the trees.

You could start with a list of plants and animals that are found in each region. If you use existing plants and animals from earth, then it should be easy to make a corresponding map. When I make mine, I overlay it with the North American map. But you can do this with any part of the globe. That way, it’s easy to see where each animal or plant is found naturally. This will have to be tweaked for places like mountain ranges and beaches.

After I decide what animals and plants from this world I want to use, I move on to creating fantasy plants and animals.

Plants:

When creating plants for my fictional world, I looked at field guides and foraging guides for inspiration. These guides are helpful for when you have to describe a certain plant, or if you are deciding whether a character can eat it or use it for medicine.

There are three main types of plants. Native, invasive (weeds), and horticultural. This is important to know so that you don’t have random crops growing in the wilderness. If they are native, they may grow wild, but it is unlikely that they will grow in rows.

First when creating fantasy flora, you should have a description of the plant. I say description first, because not every character will know the name of every plant in your world, but they will be able to describe it. Is it a tree, shrub, or ground cover? Does it have spiky or rounded leaves? Does it flower? Does it have vine-like runners?

Next name it. This can be a fun process. Remember there is sometimes an official scientific name and many common names for the same plant. You don’t have to know all of them, but be aware of that.

Next you should know if the plant is a perennial or annual. If it’s a perennial does it reseed itself, or are people or animals involved? What climate or region does this plant grow in? A bog plant like a Venus fly trap would be out of place on a mountainside. A cactus would be out of place in a tundra.

One of the most important things to know about plants is how they can be used. Do they have a fruit that can be eaten? What does it taste like? Are the leaves, fruits, roots, or barks medicinal? Is it poisonous? Can you use it for textiles? Can it be used as firewood?

Certain plants are used in religious ceremonies (or recreationally) for their mind-altering properties. Are they addicting? Do people abuse this plant as a drug? Is this plant widely available, or is it horded as a costly commodity?

As you can see, creating flora can be as simple as using existing plants from our world to complex. Have fun with it.

 Fauna:

When creating animals for my fictional world, I looked at the Wikipedia page for North American animals. It listed every animal (I think) found in North America. From there I made a Pinterest page with all of those animals. I’ll leave the link below for inspiration.

When I created animals from my imagination, I first decided what region I wanted them to live in. I needed mostly monsters, so that’s what I mainly focused on, but I also created magical creatures as well. Because of this, I made them plot points. Like MC meets mountain squid.

Other times, I created the creatures as I needed them. For example, my MC goes into a bog. When he gets there, he is confronted by several creatures. When I was a very small kid, I was afraid of frogs. So I created a giant toad who sticks out of the mud, waiting to chomp on deer who trespass on their land. Many of the creatures I create are based on random fears I have.

When we look at our planet as a resource, we can see that there are two kinds of animals. Vertebrates and invertebrates. Those with and without a backbone. Vertebrates are further broken into mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Invertebrates are broken into annelid worms (earthworm, ect.), arthropods (arachnids, crustaceans, insects, myriapods), echinoderms (starfish, ect.), eterates (jellyfish, ect.), flatworms, mollusks, and protozoa.

Naming your fantasy animals is very important. Sometimes, people have different names for the same species. Sometimes there is a scientific name that is used. Next you’ll need a description of your fantasy animals. How big is it? Does it have fur, scales, or feathers? Does it have ears? Can you see its teeth? How fast is it?

What does this animal eat? Is it a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore? How does it hunt (if it hunts)? Does it hibernate and store food for the winter?

Consider this animal’s habitat. This will have a lot to say about its appearance. For example, animals that live in the desert usually have developed certain ways of conserving water, like a camel with its hump. Is this animal domesticated? Why did people decide to domesticate this animal? For example, dogs were domesticated to guard a camp, and cats were domesticated to keep vermin away. Has this relationship evolved over time?

What are their uses? Are they bread for a specific purpose, like to eat or to be work animals? Is this animal a threat to your MC’s way of life?

Of course, it is important to tailor the type of animals you have for the world you’ve built. For example, if your MCs live in a water planet, there probably won’t be fluffy creatures or they would drown.

  Here are some blogs I found:

https://eledris.com/creating-fantasy-vegetation/

 https://eledris.com/creating-fantasy-animals/

 https://randyellefson.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/how-to-create-plants-and-animals-for-your-fantasy-setting/

 https://arimeghlen.co.uk/2016/07/02/how-to-build-your-world-flora-plants/

 https://arimeghlen.co.uk/2016/07/08/how-to-build-your-world-fauna-animals/

  Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/rachelramey318/for-my-book/north-american-wildlife/

[songzhong]

💧🔶 @narvvhal​​. 

His smile is bright when he approaches the other, his hands holding a bowl full on his very own trademark dish; tentacles adorned the surface, sprawled across the reddish soup in a very monstrous fashion and framing the crab almost as if it were the host body of the beast. Truly emulating the legendary stories of sea monsters at peak. The taste was, of course, far better than the looks―not excessively salty, yet with the iconic touch that would make you think of a small restaurant sitting by the beach, washed by seafoam and breeze.

"I made this for you, Xiansheng! I hope it's to your liking～!"

“Ah―Thank you, Childe...”

Despite the savory aroma, the appearance of the meal itself was absolutely repugnant. Even if someone were to find seafood appetizing, the way this was presented like some form of grotesque creature, with no delicacy to it..?

Zhongli (internally) took a deep breath, bracing himself as Ajax was giving him his brightest smile, clearly proud of himself to have made his signature meal. Despite the aesthetic being so dire to the man’s eyes, a ton of love and care had clearly been put into it, from how carefully diced the ingredients were and the scent of the broth already showing how it was patiently simmered to develop flavors...

“A Prize Catch you say. Let’s see...”

The adepti delicately picked up his dark Liyuean spoon, holding his small bowl underneath it to catch any drip while helping himself to some of the shared, gigantic soup. A good help of broth, catching in some bits of mushroom, fennel, onion and tomato.

Zhongli focused on his spoonful as he sipped silently, gently blowing unto the red hot broth before bringing it to his lips. He let the liquid slide on his tongue and palate, analyzing its flavor before swallowing.

The consultant pondered a moment upon the large dish before speaking up his thoughts.

“I cannot stomach seafood. Let’s just say... that my memory is too good.”

Zhongli put down his bowl and spoon for the time being, crossing his arms, hand reaching for his chin as he was searching for the right words to express his thoughts in full.

“That is, I am just fine eating meals akin to seafood tofu. And the way the broth is meticulously mixed in, the crustaceans aftertaste is balanced by the mint and petals on top of it being remarkably fresh. It adds layers to the taste... I tested Calla Lilly Seafood soup before, but never something like this. Those are techniques I’m not familiar with, but there is clearly talent and care put into it. It is far from pretentious, but it does not lack finesse. Only good, heartful food.

The flavors are bolder, which both marry and mask the flavor I usually dislike without removing it―I can say it would not be the same if there was no mollusks cooked into it. I might just be able to eat some of the crab meat, since it is soaked in the broth. Have you ever experimented with Jueyun Chili and Bamboo Shoots ? I think that having it even spicier would make it even more unique.”

He looked at the large bowl... and coughed, eyes darting back at Childe.

“I see you have a taste for flashy presentation even in the kitchen... now I’m just wondering which type of apparel and instruments you use for this.”

The corner of Zhongli’s mouth slightly raised despite his stern looks, reaching for the wine bottle to serve a cup. The consultant’s delicate fingers then grabbed onto his utensils once more.

This time, chopsticks reached for the prize catch’s cracked head. The adepti carefully making a small ball out of the tomalley, picking it up and bringing it to his mouth... before giving a softer smile.

“Thank you for the meal, Xīngān. I shall enjoy it in full. I hope you do too.”

[peridots-pixiwolf]

~Mostly Mollusk~

Part 3 - Part 4 Here - Part 5

Daily Life (and Language, as it’s not officially included) and Veneration.

-Daily Life

The daily life of bugs in and out of Taranoake and Citadell.

---Diet

In seaside settlements, varies based on species, individual and city but tends to consist of other bugs, and plants, including species of seaweed and algae. Frequent travellers like wasps or ants often bring back food from other places as a semi-permanent source. The former will occasionally bring a chunk of stolen honeycomb from a far-off honeybee hive, or a cap of sugar-water (alternately, a cap of dried sugar to mix with strained seawater, though this is not preferred as many non-marine creatures tend to hate the taste of salt.) Larvae and aphids are sometimes used as sweet "kegs" for adult wasps.

An experimental substance has been produced in Citadell for use mostly in battle, made up of digestive enzymes to greatly reduce time spent digesting food, and antibiotics to quicken the rate of wounds closing, to use as a sort of literal "quick-heal".

---Housing

Taranoake

Most terrestrial bugs in the city live in the Fort but some prefer to live elsewhere, such as the ants who have forged small hills of sand nearby the outskirts. Aquatic species make homes in the sand of the bay, or simply lay or float around in the general area without protection.

While there are no rules in the Outpost, Fort Taranoake is generally diurnal. Those citizens who are most active during the night actually sometimes take up residence in the former. As most of the city is asleep at night, the ones who aren't are meant to either be quiet or congregate in areas away from the Fort and Outpost.

Citadell

Unlike in Taranoake, residential areas are scattered throughout the town in rooms along the basins, though certain types of buildings such as these are often localized to one area. The city is noticeably less welcoming to outsiders, having no free place to stay (unless of course you want to camp on the floors of the craters, in which case be ready to wake up early or be washed out to sea by morning). The homes of aquatic citizens are located on the lowest levels, along the permanently-flooded alleyways connecting each basin. The city is naturally dark and peaceful (excluding the scientists, of course), with the dim bioluminescent algae used for food and lighting lining the waterways, so the times most sleep isn’t an issue.

Nocturnal and diurnal residents still get much interaction, as most bugs sleep for only a third to a quarter of the day.

---Games

Bored children and even adults must have something to do, especially those who don't appreciate the violence of Taranoake’s Colosseum, so many games have been developed. The list goes roughly in order of more simple games, often played by children or travellers, to the more advanced.

Tick Tacks

Both bugs get a type of shell and a 3 by 3 grid, with the first to put three in a line being a winner. Normally, different colors of shell will be collected for the two players, however some will simply be marked with notches or paints.

Stick Kick

As the name implies this is simply a game of kicking a piece of driftwood. No objective, only kick

Clammy

A rather idiotic pastime typically engaged in by children who have nothing better to do and no sense of self preservation. This game involves sticking one hand into the mouth of a clam and seeing who can remove their hand before the clam removes it first. A slightly less dangerous alternative is who can annoy a clam the most without getting bitten. Sometimes this is done with horrendous puns, including the common phrases “don’t clam up!” or “don't be so shellfish!” Clams, of course, do not appreciate this game at all.

Victims of this game will often say they lost the limb in a battle of some sort to hide their idiotic childhood. However, due to the fact that many arthropods regenerate parts of their limbs after each molt, it can be obvious just exactly how long ago the injury was sustained...

(One attempt to play tag was made, before it was concluded the game gave an unfair advantage to creatures not bound to land or sea.)

Rainbow Shell

A simple game, yet almost always played by explorer parties. The first person to find a complete rainbow in order of shell colors wins. The same shell can not be used by multiple players. This game may be more difficult for those of us with fewer cones.

Driftshell

A board game played with bits of shell and driftwood dice. An attack or defense would be labeled on the dice, and these would be used to take down an opponent's health (around ten pieces of shimmering shell) or defend against their attacks. Last one to lose all ten health tokens wins. Alternative, more complex versions can be played but this is most agreed upon.

---Economy

Sea glass is used as currency in marine/coastal settlements with differing colors being worth different amounts based on rarity.

In order of worth:

Clear/white - 2

Brown - 3

Green - 4

Amber - 7

Blue - 8

Purple - 10

Black/gray - 12

Yellow/orange - 15

Red - 17

Mixes in between are simply rated based on their alikeness to each color--for example, even on the official color chart as shown here, amber is rated midway between brown and orange. Occasional barters modifying the exact worth based on the color of seaglass, and the value of the goods they’re paying for, do occur relatively often.

---Causes of Death

It wouldn't be a Life section without death! This world can be treacherous, most especially out of the law-bound Cities, so there are a wide variety of ways to die. However, some of the most common are listed below.

Taranoake

-Colosseum

-Dehydration

-Sickness

Citadell

-Old age

Outside the Cities

-Being eaten

-Ironically, starvation

--Government

Laws, leaders, and enforcement in the Cities.

---Laws

-Those alive will not be considered as a food source until they have died of their own accord.

-Resources should not be removed from the care of the owner unless permission is given.

-(Taranoake Exclusive) Children are not allowed to participate in the Colosseum.

--Taranoake Leaders

(Citadell has not had any leaders, in its present or past.)

Current

Arbiter Len

Facilitates discussions and resolves conflicts between groups or individuals in the city. Not an official leader exactly, more of an ambassador.

Past

The Nobles

A family of tyrants and fake rulers who dubbed themselves royal, living in the Fort once a grand castle and leaving all its other citizens to rest in crudely made sand-huts, tunnels and Outpost rooms. All were exiled after this true glory was discovered, and were told they would not be harmed within Taranoake--but the moment they left the city limits, they were killed by mobs of angry citizens, as laws don't apply outside the bounds. >:)

One exile did survive however, see “Pard”.

-Language

Most bugs use three languages, though some only have the first two: audible language (spoken through mandibles, wing buzzing, and sometimes tymbals, covering of the spiracles, etc.), written language (carved into things, much more complex than the audible language and resembling hieroglyphics) and species language (spoken through pheromones, and is mostly only understood by those of the same species or sometimes related ones).

Additionally, some terrestrial bugs have learned to understand the language of fungi. 

A subgrouping of the words in the audible and written languages are universal “basic phrases”: while in audible speech most words or phrases are spoken using one “letter” at a time and may include more complex actions, these are simpler and designed to be recognisable with the most basic information (e.g. holding sounds for longer by putting more space in between each one).

-zt zt zzt (pronounced “ze-ta ze-ta! zehhta”) “Come” or “Come here”. Zs are long while Ts are short.

-tttt tKtt (pronounced “tetetete teKEtete”) “Hello”, can be shortened to “tKtt” for an informal “hi”. Ts are short while the K is long and/or loud.

-t trr rr (pronounced “te te-rrr rrr?”) “Eat”, such as “Where’s food/when we eating?” Rrs are usually vibrations, the longer sound, while Ts are short clicks.

-ktktkk (pronounced “ketekete krr krr”) “Danger” or “Stay back”, such as “danger up ahead” or “I’m dangerous, stay back”. The first two Ks and both Ts are alternating short taps/clicks while the latter Ks are long.

-ttkttt (pronounced “tete-kr-tetete”) “Travel”, “Go” or “Traveller”. The Ts are short but the K might be a bit longer and/or a different sound (such as scraping).

-ztzz (pronounced “ze-te-zehh”) “Yes”. The Zs may be longer than the short T (especially the latter Zs).

-tK (pronounced “te-KA”) “No.” T is short while K is longer and/or louder.

Basic phrases can also be easily converted to written, with each noise having a respective counterpart:

-“Z” is made up of a vertical line, with two dots vertically positioned on the right.

-“T” is made up of a horizontal line with one smaller vertical line positioned beneath each third of the large line.

-”K” is made up of a vertical line with a short horizontal line/dot positioned to the left of its top half.

-”R” is made up of two parallel horizontal lines, the top having a short vertical line connecting to the top side of the right edge.

One dot will be shown above the letter for each time it’s repeated.

--Telecommunication

Just found a cool looking rock and need to tell your friend immediately? Why not ask your local mushroom to send the message for you! Almost every grounded mushroom around you is connected to the mycelium network running through town and beyond, so all you have to do is tell them the message and where to send it (oh, and also learn an entire language). Just make sure you can trust your messenger--mushrooms can be quite the pranksters, and I’m sure you don’t want your message being sent to the wrong person or “accidentally”, ahem, “mistranslated” to tell the recipient how much you hate them.

--Actual Communication (With Bugs)

Without speaking or writing, there are still a myriad of ways invertebrates communicate.

In insects and many other arthropods, antennae make up a large part of body language. Held straight up in the air the bug could be considered surprised or alert, and one holding them straight frontally usually conveys anger, frustration or boredom (depending how far above the eyes they’re held, and the position of the mandibles). More relaxed positions (of varying degrees) like the resting arch of ant antennae signify positive and neutral emotions, like calmness or enthusiasm.

-Veneration

Traditions and lore regarding the Gods.

---Ven

Associated with the dead and living, Ven is a god of verdant groves and seeping blood, the patron god of Taranoake. While they don't inherently demand death as a part of their worship, they consider the Colosseum enough sacrifice.

They are said to look plant-like while still retaining arthropod aspects, having six legs like an insect but with four claws on each end. This may or may not be an accurate depiction as only those close to death through battle have claimed to see them--those and, interestingly enough, travellers who have not learned of Ven’s nature and have seen them as a distant mirage near the settlement’s gates.

Only those on the brink of death, who cannot return, have seen them under their mask, and even bugs who have seen Ven before are unable to dream of the god unless they are visited intentionally.

Those who are not from the City still pay respects to the deity, as is custom.

---The Kindle of Souls

A celebration of life and death, of those who made it and those lost along the way, The Kindle of Souls is this town's way of honoring the dead and their god Ven, encouraging them to guide the souls of the dead to whatever lies in wait.

The festival is an ancient and time honored tradition, and has many accompanying customs including the hanging of green banners painted with yellow through blue all throughout town, the displaying of lights on the tree that has come to be known as The Guardian of the Dead, the traditional food of the red lantern jellyfish that tend to wash ashore around the time of the festival, and the painting of stripes on one’s face to resemble the aspen-God Pando. Overall, the celebration is not as gloomy as one might expect a festival of death to be, but instead more a time for stories and rememberance of those passed.

---Pando

This twisted -- and rather creepy-looking -- tree-god is actually quite benevolent despite their appearance, and is known as the Deputy or Second-Hand of Ven. As the entity formed from such fierce belief in the tree known as The Guardian of The Dead, Pando guides and cares for the spirits of the deceased and has also taken on this epithet. Don’t forget to thank your local tree, because the message will surely travel back to Pando, through the complex system of roots and mycelium this wisdom god uses to spread and obtain knowledge.

---Beforgers

Those who were claimed to have built Taranoake and Citadell long before any inhabited them. Also called The Ones Cloaked In Shadow, rumored by old clams to be dark titans with their heads scraping the clouds. The mite-crabs were some of the only to witness them, though it's said the mole crabs know more and refuse to share.

---God of the Path

See “Bidibi”.

---Hearth

A welcoming god to all wanderers, floating freely amongst the other jellyfish.

---Tydin 

Ever noticed how the ocean is at different places at different times? Well, you can thank this giant sea god for that! Rumor has it that Tydin has been stuck in an eternal state of sleep since… well, only Gods know for sure. Most assume since the beginning of time, but none can back this claim up. Tydin’s breaths and snores create the changes in the tide named after them. No one has actually laid eyes on this ocean god and therefore their appearance remains mystery (though they're depicted as a sea slug), but their existence is generally agreed upon, as no one has a better answer.

---Ne'Mon

Ne'Mon is the god of knowledge and archivists, the patron god of the quiet Citadell. The lower half of their true form resembles that of a jellyfish, with uncountable tendrils used as arms for unending research. However, while Ven more or less follows mortal anatomy Ne'Mon is largely cryptid, with floating appendages and a face resembling a golden bell.

---The Blighted One

Referred to by those of Taranoake only in epithet for fear of invoking their wrath, the deity called Truth of Pestilence or Dreaded God, among other names, is the god of illness and therefore considered by mortals to be the sacred enemy of Ven. Feared more than death itself, for what good are you if you will only spread your darkness?

(Their true name is Ganellak, though only the other Gods are confident and powerful enough to use it lightly.)

---Lemar

The creator and inventor of the Anchors carried by Bidibi, this god was born as a mortal mite crab. But instead of opting for a life of violence in the Colosseum, they dedicated their life to anchoring the gods to this mortal plane, in a time when everyone was just becoming aware of The Drift. Ven granted them godship immediately after all the gods were successfully pulled back to the world.

---The Drift

A period of time in history when the gods began to involuntarily drift away from the mortal plane, causing strange events such as a still, waveless ocean, travelers mysteriously disappearing, and even a pause to death.

Some believe a second wave of The Drift may be coming in the near future, or is perhaps upon us now.