#how much life is down there. swimming and hunting and living and evolving.

[bugmistake]

thinking about marine life and getting so excited i have to remind myself to breathe

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

William Afton headcanons that swim around in my brain like frogs in a pool filter

(Aka my third attempt at rewriting the fnaf lore)

(Based on the first four games, so no Elizabeth or magic life juice. Sorry.)

When he was a kid, his mother committed suicide and his father decided he wasn’t fit to take care of him, so he sent William to live with his aunt and uncle in Virginia for a while. “For a while,” turned out to be forever because soon after his father dropped him off, he stopped responding to William’s letters. Decades later, William got a letter saying that his father had passed and he left behind a note for him. William was so angry that his father had been alive this whole time that he threw the letter into the fire place. He instantly regretted it and tried to pull it out but it was already too burnt to read.

His uncle forced him to go hunting with him as a kid, to toughen him up. He hated the outdoors and guns, but he found gutting and skinning the animals satisfying. His uncle had to yell at him to hurry it along because he would take too much time doing it. This later evolved into him cutting himself, just so he could see the blood and layers of skin and tissue.

When he was a kid, he wanted to be a clown. He went to circus camp and later clown college. He had his clown college certificate framed next to his masters in engineering diploma. He could juggle, do acrobatics, and was well versed in stage acting.

He often suppressed his accent. He didn’t like people asking questions about his past, or really any personal questions for that matter.

His fashion sense was… loud. He wore colorful suits and sweaters with bright patterned ties. It was an eyesore, but he liked them.

He and his wife, Laura, met while she was a waitress at the diner. It was a bit weird, but to everyone’s surprise, they were married after only two weeks of dating. It was a small ceremony held in the diner, officiated by Fredbear himself.

He wasn’t a good husband. He was emotionally neglectful, pressured her into having kids she didn’t want, and found it funny to put her in stressful/dangerous situations just how she’d react. She left him for a man she had an affair with. Just packed a bag and drove off one day, leaving little Michael crying in the driveway. She tried to write letters to the boys later on, but William always hid them before they could see them.

William loved his sons. He wasn’t the best dad, but he did love them. They were part of him. He spoiled them with toys, but he was emotionally distant and often harsh, particularly towards Michael, who he had unreasonably high expectations for.

Evan was a sweet boy, but he was scared of people, including William, which bothered him a lot. He made a Fredbear plush with a mic and speaker so he could talk to Evan without him getting nervous.

William knew Michael bullied Evan. He put up security cameras in the house after Evan “fell” down the stairs, and he would ground Michael and tell him he wasn’t allowed to hang around his delinquent friends anymore. But all of William’s punishments seemed to just make Michael’s behavior worse. And it didn’t help that William was so busy with work, he was hardly around enough to enforce his punishments.

After Evan’s death, William kept the broken bloody Fredbear animatronic in his basement office. He knew Evan’s ghost was trapped inside the animatronic, and rather than destroying the animatronic to free Evan’s soul, he kept it and tried to make Evan happy inside the suit. Evan was sad, so he surrounded the suit with toys and sweet treats. Evan was cold, so he put Evan’s favorite blanket over the animatronic. Evan was lonely, so he stuffed children into the other animatronics and brought Evan/Fredbear to the restaurant, so he could play with his new friends.

The people who knew him always knew he had a screw loose. He was known around the neighborhood as, “the man in the bright purple suit who walks his pet bunny on a leash,” and, “the guy who got his ass beat and banned from the local bar, because he got too drunk and threatened the owner’s daughter,” They never suspected he was dangerous, but when the news broke that kids were missing at Freddy’s, everyone knew it was him.

William didn’t say a word the entire time he was in police custody. He barely even moved. The police said a corpse would’ve been more responsive. He just stared blankly into space and drooled down his shirt.

Henry defended William when he first got arrested, because he couldn’t believe his friend would ever do something so heinous. He only realized he was wrong after William got released and he witnessed William scream at Michael and try to stab him in anger. Henry took Michael to his house and agreed to let him stay there. When William came to get his son back, Henry told him to fuck off and slammed the door in his face.

William didn’t plan on killing Charlie. He was just going to use her as a bargaining chip to get Micheal back. Plus, Henry would have to be grateful that William saved his daughter from the cold and rain, right? He only got violent after Charlie refused to leave with him. He got angry and choked her until she stopped struggling. In her efforts to fight him off, she covered his hands in tiny red scratch marks that would never heal.

William went into hiding, but was plagued by nightmares and visions of the animatronics. It drove him mad. He couldn’t eat or sleep. Every second of every day was spent in constant paranoia that the spirits of Charlie and the others would find him and kill him. It got so bad that he decided he didn’t care if he was caught by police, he had to go back and destroy those things.

He he didn’t know the animatronics would move at night. They weren’t supposed to do that. When he saw it, he panicked and tried to flee, but they cornered him and overpowered him. They stuffed him in the Spring Bonnie suit, the suit he had worn to kill them. William tried to stay still to prevent the springlocks from going off, but the suits broken down condition, along with his heavy breathing and trembling, worked against him.

He was impaled by dozens of rusty metal bolts. He laid on the ground, writhing in pain, desperately hoping and praying for it to be over soon. But he wouldn’t die. They wouldn’t let him. He didn’t deserve to die, he deserved to suffer.

He was in that room for thirty years. Isolated, starving, and in torturous pain. By the time he was found, everything that once was “William Afton” was now gone. All that was left was a soulless feral zombie like monster that attacked anything it came across.

[mzoyagon]

Some lore (which can also double as a headcanon) for my SABA AU!

Note for this post: I will be using any pronouns for Vex, due to headcanoning him as genderfluid.

Based off of @dognightmare4 's idea that Vex takes different forms based on what is feared the most at the time, I began imagining what a prehistoric Craftworld would look like for him (ignoring Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves since I know nothing about it + I think it takes place during the age of dinosaurs while this is more about the beginnings of humanity). I pictured a cold and dark time ruled by a creature commonly known as the saber toothed tiger (which is actually just called a saber toothed cat, they’re not related to tigers). This must have been the first thing to be widely feared right? So I doodled up a baby version of Vex, basing him off of that creature…

Meet the greatest predator of early Craftworld. Though yet to be known as the master of the Uproar, Vex already had a reputation from kittenhood to the point of being considered the strongest creature of the Uproar. They would hunt smaller creatures for food and sport, their attacks being considered a natural part of Craftworld's life cycle. These hunts, which would supposedly go on for days and nights on end until Vex was satisfied, instilled terror and wonder in the denizens of Craftworld, compelling them to revere and even worship them. Research by the modern-day Institute of Craftworld Knowledge (ICK) has shown a possibility that when someone was caught by Vex they would bow down and pray to them, not for mercy from death but peace in the afterlife.

"But Mzoya, who were these 'someone's?"

Hang on, I’m getting there.

Vex's favorite snacks were none other than the ancestors of what we now call Sackpeople. Back in the day, they were made from leaves, petals, and stems from various plants, earning them the name Plantlings. Because of Vex's predation, they were always on the move, the slowpokes being the ones that would become its next meal. This made the ones that survived evolve to become agile both on land and in water, but they still had one major weakness: the cold. Each winter, they would huddle up to whatever warmth they could find, but many would still wither and die. Once plentiful all throughout Craftworld, Vex and the cold combined caused their numbers to dwindle until they became endangered. However, they were an intelligent and crafty kind, one day learning the key to their descendants' survival: fabric. They had observed that emerging species made of various fleeces and fabrics could survive the winter much easier, even if many were unable to swim like Plantlings could. With this knowledge in mind, the first Sacklings were stitched. The following winter, the last Plantlings died out, but Sackpeople live on to this day, carrying with them the legacy of their flowery ancestors.

As time went by, Vex's innocence would be whittled away by her peers, who wanted to bring a fate crueler than death to other kinds. They would convince her of things that can only be left up to imagination, with the goal of influencing her to push the balance of dreams and nightmares in favor of nightmares (see my previous post on the subject). The young feline, impressionable and knowing little about her prey, accepted their "guidance", leading the Uproar to become more and more cruel. Eventually Vex took the form of a demon as demons became more feared than the now-extinct creature she was born as, and by that time she was acting the part too. This series of events changed not just the Uproar, but all of Craftworld for the worse. In order to combat Vex, a brave Sackling would wield the energy of dreamer orbs to dispel to Uproar and protect Craftworld. Such began the legacy of the Knitted Knights.

(Side note: My gods I love using she/her pronouns for Vex.)

So yeah, that’s how Nightmares (uproar creatures) and Sackpeople became what they are today lol

[madcom-mer-au]

Mer Biology

General Appearance of Mers Regardless of Species, Mers have many similarities among each other, to the point that in some cases, they could be mistaken for each other. In regards to anatomy, it's generally the same for each species, a humanoid-esque upper half that allows for free use of their limbs, granting easy manipulation of objects and social interaction, as well as their lower half turning into a tail that allows for efficient swimming in their environments. The basic structural make-up of a Mer does not change too much between the species, generally only changing based on biological needs, such as a Kau'masu having fins made of a rigid cartilage to help with smooth, silent swimming that aids in hunting, while the Damakan'ia tend to not have much structure in their fins other than flexible spines, that, while they may not be as streamlined, are much more flexible than that of a Kau'masu.

Unlike stereotypical Mers, these Mers are not half human-half fish, instead being a species evolved separately, however in a similar path, but in a watery environment. Their bodies of are a solid color with no separation between their top and bottom half. -- -- -- -- --

Breathing Mers have gills on the sides of their chest, as well as a set of pseudo-lungs. Gills are their main source of receiving oxygen, absorbing it through the water flowing through the gills after every intake of water. Gills are useless on land, as they require water to hold their structure and function, meaning if a Mer was to accidentally beach themselves, they would suffocate fairly quickly. However, Mers have evolved a set of Pseudo-lungs that, while are not as strong as true lungs, grant a Mer extra time if beached on land. A Mer can survive on land up to about an hour with their pseudo-lungs, however they do not absorb as much oxygen as true lungs and after that hour time period, a Mer may be too exhausted to last any longer than that and would suffocate soon after.

The Ka'maina are the only exception to this rule as they do not possess gills and have a pair of fully functioning lungs. They are the only Mer species capable of spending an extended period of time on land, however they too would eventually succumb due to direct exposure to sunlight resulting in their bodies drying out. The Ka'maina could live at most maybe 2 days stranded on land given the right conditions.

-- -- -- -- -- Growth and Aging Mers grow at a similar rate as humans, if not ever so slightly slower. For example, a Human is considered a full grown adult around 18-19, while a Mer is considered a full grown adult around 21-22. The difference is only slow by about a year and is not very noticeable. The most notable difference would be sexual maturity, which is talked about in detail further down the page. As an infant, Mers are helpless, unable to move much or have a sense a balance strong enough to allow swimming until they are about 6 months of age, and even then it is quite sloppy. It is usually around 3 to 4 years old when parents start to allow their child to venture outside the home and interact with other children, under the supervision of an adult or teacher to allow them to learn how to socialize and form bonds. It's during childhood that a lot of crucial points in development are reached that can shape the future for the child and greatly effect how they are as an adult.

Adolescence is generally regarded as a difficult time in a Mer's life as not only are tribal responsibilities being given to them, their body is undergoing changes that can effect their emotional and mental health. Like humans, Mers go through puberty and can have moody and rebellious phases during this time as their body is preparing itself for adulthood. Even once they are considered adults, this phase may still be finishing up and emotions can still remain wonky for some time.

Adulthood in Mers lasts the majority of one's life, starting around 21 years of age and going on well into the 80s and 100s, which they are then considered elderly. A Mer's lifespan can reach up into the 130s sometimes 150-160s, which Mers are generally frail and do not have the energy to live independently. elderly Mers are often at risk for illness and disease due to a compromised immune system. -- -- -- -- --

Sexual Dimorphism The term Sexual Dimorphism relates to the fact that there are visual differences between a Male and Female in a species. This can be in their size, coloration, or other attributes. For a common example, Male Lions have a thick mane, while Lionesses have no mane at all. In regards to Mers, there is quite a bit of Sexual Dimorphism that visually separates a Male and Female. For starters, Males tend to be larger than Females in both height and body mass, males naturally having more muscle mass. Female Mers also develop protruding breasts as they reach sexual maturity, similar to that of human females as they both serve the same purpose in caring for young. Sexual Dimorphism is generally the easiest way to differentiate the two sexes, though there are situations where the sex is not immediately obvious. For example a Female could grow larger than average and have noticeably smaller breasts. Or a Male could be shorter than average and not have as much muscle mass as another. -- -- -- -- --

Sexual Reproduction Mers sexually reproduce in the same way as most mammals do, requiring a male and female partner to produce offspring. Mers give birth to live young and generally only give birth to one infant, on very rare occasion, twins. Mers do not reach sexual maturity until around 16 years of age and are usually incapable of giving birth before this time, though socially it is viewed as unacceptable for Mers to become parents until at least 24 years old. Giving birth to one child gives the parents plenty of time to focus on raising a single infant and rarely do couples have children multiple times unless desired. For most tribes it is socially acceptable to only have at most 2 children, generally born a couple years apart to give parents time to raise one child through the important first couple years before adding another to the mix. -- -- -- -- --

Kau'masu Specific While the majority of the Kau'masu skeleton is bone, the fins are made of a rigid cartilage. The tail of the Kau'masu is identical to that of a shark in structure and can resemble many shark species already discovered, or appear unique to the Mers themselves. Kau'masu tails are noticeably more rigid than that of other Mer species, removing some flexibility in favor of speed, allowing them to easily out swim other Mer species. The skin and scales of a Kau'masu tend to be rather muted in colors, often being unsaturated tones closer to gray. However, their colors can be of any hue on the color wheel and can sport many different patterns across their body. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

Damakan'ia Specific The Damakan'ia skeleton is made of bone with only small amount of cartilage. The tail and fins of a Damakan'ia are fish like, often translucent with a thin layer of skin webbed over the spines. This species of Mers are known for their flexibility, which while this hinders their speed, it allows them to bend and weave through tight spaces with much more success than other Species. The skin and scales of a Damakan'ia are relatively large and can be all sorts of bright and dark colors with large amounts of variation per Mer. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

Ka'maina Specific Ka'maina are unique in regards to their body structure compared to the other Species. Thick bones with minimal cartilage, a thin layer of blubber underneath their skin and no scales at all protecting their body. The skeletal structure of their pectoral fins resemble that of hands, rather than a fin shape like the Damakan'ia or Kau'masu, as well as their dorsal fin lacks any bone at all and is simply connective tissue. Ka'maina are very dull in regards to their skin's color patterns, being even more limited in their muted colors compared to Kau'masu as well as almost always being very dark in colors except for some occasional light accents. As with all species the underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body.

-- -- -- -- --

Tor'go Specific - WIP

Archean Specific - WIP

Kyuraz'um Specific - WIP

[trickstyrss]

The Coral Reef

While people may be more familiar with my Madcom Mer AU, it is technically an offshoot of The Coral Reef, a verse of mine surrounding Mers.

Below I will be sharing info about my Mer species, this may answer some questions people may have about the Madcom Mer Au as well, though do know that The Coral Reef is more than just that AU.

💧General Appearance of Mers💧 Regardless of Species, Mers have many similarities among each other, to the point that in some cases, they could be mistaken for each other. In regards to anatomy, it's generally the same for each species, a humanoid-esque upper half that allows for free use of their limbs, granting easy manipulation of objects and social interaction, as well as their lower half turning into a tail that allows for efficient swimming in their environments. The basic structural make-up of a Mer does not change too much between the species, generally only changing based on biological needs, such as a Kau'masu having fins made of a rigid cartilage to help with smooth, silent swimming that aids in hunting, while the Damakan'ia tend to not have much structure in their fins other than flexible spines, that while they may not be as streamlined, they are much more flexible than that of a Kau'masu.

Unlike stereotypical Mers, these Mers are not half human-half fish, instead being a species evolved separately, however in a similar path, but in a watery environment. Their bodies of are a solid color with no separation between their top and bottom half.

💧Breathing💧 Mers have gills on the sides of their chest, as well as a set of pseudo-lungs. Gills are their main source of receiving oxygen, absorbing it through the water flowing through the gills after every intake of water. Gills are useless on land, as they require water to hold their structure and function, meaning if a Mer was to accidentally beach themselves, they would suffocate fairly quickly. However, Mers have evolved a set of Pseudo-lungs that, while are not as strong as true lungs, grant a Mer extra time if beached on land. A Mer can survive on land up to about an hour with their pseudo-lungs, however they do not absorb as much oxygen as true lungs, after that hour time period, a Mer may be too exhausted to last any longer than that and would suffocate soon after unconsciousness.

The Ka'maina are the only exception to this rule as they do not possess gills and have a pair of fully functioning lungs. They are the only Mer species capable of spending an extended period of time on land, however they too would eventually succumb due to direct exposure to sunlight resulting in their bodies drying out. The Ka'maina could live at most maybe 2 days stranded on land given the right conditions. 💧Growth and Aging💧 Mers grow at a similar rate as humans, if not ever so slightly slower. For example, a Human is considered a full grown adult around 18-19, while a Mer is considered a full grown adult around 21-22. The difference is only slow by about a year and is not very noticeable. The most notable difference would be sexual maturity, which is talked about in detail further down the page. As an infant, Mers are helpless, unable to move much or have a sense a balance strong enough to allow swimming until they are about 6 months of age, and even then it is quite sloppy. It is usually around 3 to 4 years old when parents start to allow their child to venture outside the home and interact with other children, under the supervision of an adult or teacher to allow them to learn how to socialize and form bonds. It's during childhood that a lot of crucial points in development are reached that can shape the future for the child and greatly effect how they are as an adult.

Adolescence is generally regarded as a difficult time in a Mer's life as not only are tribal responsibilities being given to them, their body is undergoing changes that can effect their emotional and mental health. Like humans, Mers go through puberty and can have moody and rebellious phases during this time as their body is preparing itself for adulthood. Even once they are considered adults, this phase may still be finishing up and emotions can still remain wonky for some time.

Adulthood in Mers lasts the majority of one's life, starting around 21 years of age and going on well into the 80s and 100s, which they are then considered elderly. A Mer's lifespan can reach up into the 130s sometimes 150-160s, which Mers are generally frail and do not have the energy to live independently. elderly Mers are often at risk for illness and disease due to a compromised immune system.

💧Sexual Dimorphism💧 The term Sexual Dimorphism relates to the fact that there are visual differences between a Male and Female in a species. This can be in their size, coloration, or other attributes. For a common example, Male Lions have a thick mane, while Lionesses have no mane at all. In regards to Mers, there is quite a bit of Sexual Dimorphism that visually separates a Male and Female. For starters, Males tend to be larger than Females in both height and body mass, males naturally having more muscle mass. Female Mers also develop protruding breasts as they reach sexual maturity, similar to that of human females as they both serve the same purpose in caring for young. Sexual Dimorphism is generally the easiest way to differentiate the two sexes, though there are situations where the sex is not immediately obvious. For example a Female could grow larger than average and have noticeably smaller breasts. Or a Male could be shorter than average and not have as much Muscle mass as another.

💧Sexual Reproduction💧 Mers sexually reproduce in the same way as most mammals do, requiring a male and female partner to produce offspring. Mers give birth to live young and generally only give birth to one infant, on very rare occasion, twins. Mers do not reach sexual maturity until around 16 years of age and are usually incapable of giving birth before this time, though socially it is viewed as unacceptable for Mers to become parents until at least 24 years old. Giving birth to one child gives the parents plenty of time to focus on raising a single infant and rarely do couples have children multiple times unless desired. For most tribes it is socially acceptable to only have at most 2 children, generally born a couple years apart to give parents time to raise one child through the important first couple years before adding another to the mix.

💧Kau'masu Specific💧 While the majority of the Kau'masu skeleton is bone, the fins are made of a rigid cartilage. The tail of the Kau'masu is identical to that of a shark in structure can resemble many shark species already discovered or appear unique to the Mers themselves. Kau'masu tails are noticeably more rigid than that of other Mer species, removing some flexibility in favor of speed, allowing them to easily out swim other Mer species. The skin and scales of a Kau'masu tend to be rather muted in colors, often being unsaturated tones closer to gray, however their colors can be of any hue on the color wheel and can sport many different patterns across their body. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

💧Damakan'ia Specific💧 The Damakan'ia skeleton is made of bone with only small amount of cartilage. The tail and fins of a Damakan'ia are fish like, often translucent with a thin layer of skin webbed over the bones. This species of Mers are known for their flexibility, which while this hinders their speed, it allows them to bend weave through tight spaces with much more success than other Species. The skin and scales of a Damakan'ia are relatively large and can be all sorts of bright and dark colors with large amounts of variation per Mer. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

💧Ka'maina Specific💧 Ka'maina are unique in regards to their body structure compared to the other Species. Thick bones with minimal cartilage, a thin layer of blubber underneath their skin and no scales at all protecting their body. The skeletal structure of their pectoral fins resemble that of hands, rather than a fin shape like the Damakan'ia or Kau'mausu, as well as their dorsal fin lacks any bone at all and is simply connective tissue. Ka'maina are very dull in regards to their skin's color patterns, being even more limited in their muted colors compared to Kau'masu as well as almost always being very dark in colors except for some occasional light accents. As with all species the underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body.

Although 2 other species are included in the visual above, they are not included here as one is a WIP and the other is a Closed Species. You cannot create Kyuraz'um unless I give you explicit permission.

I will note though if anyone reads this far, Phobos does have something to do with the Kyuraz'um. It's a little secret only people who actually cared enough to read get to learn.

[the-coral-reef-archive]

Biology

General Appearance of Mers Regardless of Species, Mers have many similarities among each other, to the point that in some cases, they could be mistaken for each other. In regards to anatomy, it’s generally the same for each species, a humanoid-esque upper half that allows for free use of their limbs, granting easy manipulation of objects and social interaction, as well as their lower half turning into a tail that allows for efficient swimming in their environments. The basic structural make-up of a Mer does not change too much between the species, generally only changing based on biological needs, such as a Kau'masu having fins made of a rigid cartilage to help with smooth, silent swimming that aids in hunting, while the Damakan'ia tend to not have much structure in their fins other than flexible spines, that, while they may not be as streamlined, are much more flexible than that of a Kau'masu.

Unlike stereotypical Mers, these Mers are not half human-half fish, instead being a species evolved separately, however in a similar path, but in a watery environment. Their bodies of are a solid color with no separation between their top and bottom half. – – – – –

Breathing Mers have gills on the sides of their chest, as well as a set of pseudo-lungs. Gills are their main source of receiving oxygen, absorbing it through the water flowing through the gills after every intake of water. Gills are useless on land, as they require water to hold their structure and function, meaning if a Mer was to accidentally beach themselves, they would suffocate fairly quickly. However, Mers have evolved a set of Pseudo-lungs that, while are not as strong as true lungs, grant a Mer extra time if beached on land. A Mer can survive on land up to about an hour with their pseudo-lungs, however they do not absorb as much oxygen as true lungs and after that hour time period, a Mer may be too exhausted to last any longer than that and would suffocate soon after.

The Ka'maina are the only exception to this rule as they do not possess gills and have a pair of fully functioning lungs. They are the only Mer species capable of spending an extended period of time on land, however they too would eventually succumb due to direct exposure to sunlight resulting in their bodies drying out. The Ka'maina could live at most maybe 2 days stranded on land given the right conditions.

– – – – – Growth and Aging Mers grow at a similar rate as humans, if not ever so slightly slower. For example, a Human is considered a full grown adult around 18-19, while a Mer is considered a full grown adult around 21-22. The difference is only slow by about a year and is not very noticeable. The most notable difference would be sexual maturity, which is talked about in detail further down the page. As an infant, Mers are helpless, unable to move much or have a sense a balance strong enough to allow swimming until they are about 6 months of age, and even then it is quite sloppy. It is usually around 3 to 4 years old when parents start to allow their child to venture outside the home and interact with other children, under the supervision of an adult or teacher to allow them to learn how to socialize and form bonds. It’s during childhood that a lot of crucial points in development are reached that can shape the future for the child and greatly effect how they are as an adult.

Adolescence is generally regarded as a difficult time in a Mer’s life as not only are tribal responsibilities being given to them, their body is undergoing changes that can effect their emotional and mental health. Like humans, Mers go through puberty and can have moody and rebellious phases during this time as their body is preparing itself for adulthood. Even once they are considered adults, this phase may still be finishing up and emotions can still remain wonky for some time.

Adulthood in Mers lasts the majority of one’s life, starting around 21 years of age and going on well into the 80s and 100s, which they are then considered elderly. A Mer’s lifespan can reach up into the 130s sometimes 150-160s, which Mers are generally frail and do not have the energy to live independently. elderly Mers are often at risk for illness and disease due to a compromised immune system. – – – – –

Sexual Dimorphism The term Sexual Dimorphism relates to the fact that there are visual differences between a Male and Female in a species. This can be in their size, coloration, or other attributes. For a common example, Male Lions have a thick mane, while Lionesses have no mane at all. In regards to Mers, there is quite a bit of Sexual Dimorphism that visually separates a Male and Female. For starters, Males tend to be larger than Females in both height and body mass, males naturally having more muscle mass. Female Mers also develop protruding breasts as they reach sexual maturity, similar to that of human females as they both serve the same purpose in caring for young. Sexual Dimorphism is generally the easiest way to differentiate the two sexes, though there are situations where the sex is not immediately obvious. For example a Female could grow larger than average and have noticeably smaller breasts. Or a Male could be shorter than average and not have as much muscle mass as another. – – – – –

Sexual Reproduction Mers sexually reproduce in the same way as most mammals do, requiring a male and female partner to produce offspring. Mers give birth to live young and generally only give birth to one infant, on very rare occasion, twins. Mers do not reach sexual maturity until around 16 years of age and are usually incapable of giving birth before this time, though socially it is viewed as unacceptable for Mers to become parents until at least 24 years old. Giving birth to one child gives the parents plenty of time to focus on raising a single infant and rarely do couples have children multiple times unless desired. For most tribes it is socially acceptable to only have at most 2 children, generally born a couple years apart to give parents time to raise one child through the important first couple years before adding another to the mix. – – – – –

Kau'masu Specific While the majority of the Kau'masu skeleton is bone, the fins are made of a rigid cartilage. The tail of the Kau'masu is identical to that of a shark in structure and can resemble many shark species already discovered, or appear unique to the Mers themselves. Kau'masu tails are noticeably more rigid than that of other Mer species, removing some flexibility in favor of speed, allowing them to easily out swim other Mer species. The skin and scales of a Kau'masu tend to be rather muted in colors, often being unsaturated tones closer to gray. However, their colors can be of any hue on the color wheel and can sport many different patterns across their body. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

Damakan'ia Specific The Damakan'ia skeleton is made of bone with only small amount of cartilage. The tail and fins of a Damakan'ia are fish like, often translucent with a thin layer of skin webbed over the spines. This species of Mers are known for their flexibility, which while this hinders their speed, it allows them to bend and weave through tight spaces with much more success than other Species. The skin and scales of a Damakan'ia are relatively large and can be all sorts of bright and dark colors with large amounts of variation per Mer. The underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body, as well as having no scales protecting it. This leaves their underbelly more vulnerable to attacks.

Ka'maina Specific Ka'maina are unique in regards to their body structure compared to the other Species. Thick bones with minimal cartilage, a thin layer of blubber underneath their skin and no scales at all protecting their body. The skeletal structure of their pectoral fins resemble that of hands, rather than a fin shape like the Damakan'ia or Kau'masu, as well as their dorsal fin lacks any bone at all and is simply connective tissue. Ka'maina are very dull in regards to their skin’s color patterns, being even more limited in their muted colors compared to Kau'masu as well as almost always being very dark in colors except for some occasional light accents. As with all species the underbelly tends to be lighter in color than the rest of the body.

– – – – –

Tor'go Specific - WIP

Archean Specific - WIP

Kyuraz'um Specific - WIP

[inamindfarfaraway]

My Pokémon Part Two

Aquakit, Sealine and Reserval, a Water-type cat Pokémon line.

The first stage is Aquakit (‘aqua’/‘aquatic’ and ‘kitten’), the Fishing Pokémon. It’s a medium blue tabby cat with light blue and white stripes, creating a coat that resembles a still image of waves rolling up to the shore as seen from above. A protruding tuft of white fluff on the top of its head is shaped like the foam crest of a wave. It has amber eyes and webbed paws. Its tail ends tapering to a point at half the length of a usual cat tail; but enveloping and extending beyond it is a long, prehensile, undulating tail of water that thickens toward the tip. Aquakit can control any body of water the liquid tail connects to. Though its raw power is limited, so the more water there is, the less of it it can move, or its power its spread thin and the movements become sloppy. Wild Aquakit lives on and swimming just offshore of beaches. It has an incredible sense of smell and uses its tail to catch fish, grabbing them and pulling them back to shore where it eats without spilling blood that would attract rivals. It can even add more force to waves to wash several fish up onto the beach. While it eats, its tail lashes fiercely behind it to defend its meal from bird Pokémon. These successful hunting strategies do not stop it begging humans for food like it hasn’t eaten a day in its life. Fishers commonly employ it. It’ll happily agree to the food, shelter and care provided by an owner, but maintain an independent spirit.

There are two divergent second stages: Sealine, the Immersed Pokémon, and Reserval, the Landlocked Pokémon. Both have amber eyes with round pupils. Sealine (‘sea’ and ‘feline’, also sounds close to ‘sea lion’) evolves when Aquakit reaches level 25 in the sea or on a beach. In the wild, this form is nomadic and solitary. It spends most of its life travelling the ocean and only leaves to mate and raise its children to self-sufficiency. It’s about the size of a leopard with very graceful, streamlined proportions suited to swimming frequently and for long periods of time. It has a sleek coat similar to a clouded leopard’s, rippling light blue blotches on a mostly obscured white background mimicking the pattern of light on the surface of water. Its paws are bigger relative to its body with white socks and more pronounced webbing. The white fluff has transitioned to a buoyant mane around its upper neck, helping to keep the head above water when Sealine is tired or asleep. When it does dive underwater, this mane traps air that can be breathed in. Notably, Sealine’s biological tail has grown to be the ordinary length and strong and supple to better swim with. It no longer needs a water appendage because it can telekinetically manipulate any water in its vicinity with much greater power and precision. It is wary and distrustful of humans, chance sightings rare.

Reserval (‘reserve’/reservoir’ and ‘serval’, also ‘reversal’ with just the S and T swapped much like how it’s the inverse of Sealine) evolves on any dry ground further from the ocean than the beach, as the name implies. This means it can’t rely on external water like Sealine and has lost the ability to control it. Instead it specializes in using water appendages. It doesn’t need to be an efficient swimmer but rather walks and climbs, so its build is larger and stockier. It’s white with medium blue tiger stripes, only they bend at random points as if refracted by water. The lower legs are plain beige like wet sand or earth is stuck to them. Aquakit’s crest persists in this form turned blue, thinner, longer and continuing down the back of its neck. Tufts of the same blue fluff are on the outside of its ears. Its biological tail is now a mere stub, while its water tail doubles in size. It additionally has sheaths of water covering its legs down to the ankles that can be extended to contain the non-webbed feet too, allowing Reserval to move faster and more creatively and hit harder with sharp, intense water strikes. In nature, Sealine is preferred and Reserval less common and born out of necessity in undesirable circumstances; but since people of course mostly live on land, the latter is the form the majority of tame Aquakits evolve into. It is therefore bolder and more sociable toward humans.

Part One

Part Three

Part Four

Regional Forms

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Humans 101.”

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I have had the WORST motivation the past few weeks, but I thought you might like to see some more of Krill. Hope you all have a great day!

Krill walked up the university hallway turning his head to look out the window at the vast expanse of space before him. It had been a very long time since he had been to University, in the Vrul sense of the word, which was less like University and more like on the job training, but he had recently accepted an assignment at the Intergalactic Institute of Biological Science. Granted, he wasn’t a real professor, not fully, but an adjunct who had signed on to do a series of lectures for the next few months while he waited for Admiral Vir’s return. 

Since Simon had become acting Captain of the ship, it seemed that there was less and less reason for him to be there. She wasn’t experienced enough to take on the real dangerous assignments that the Admiral had excelled at, and due to her rule following nature, and the assignments they were sent on, mostly diplomatic and exploratory in nature, Krill had found less and less use for himself on the ship. He didn’t expect to be gone forever, and he doubted he would be able to leave at this point.

He couldn’t return to his home planet, not now there was a standing order for his termination, which he was planning to avoid with great prejudice. Though he found it wildly Ironic that they had asked him to come teach, when many of the professors at the school were, in fact, other Vrul.

It was with this small piece of amusement that he scuttled into the lecture room: Large and circular with seats rising on all sides and a projection hub right in the middle. The room was already packed full despite him being five minutes early. He had been told his lecture series would be popular, but he hadn’t expected there to be standing room only, and even then, there were students sitting on the floor, and a few Vrul floating in the air high above other students' heads.

He moved to the center of the room to set up his projections and, from the corner of his eye watched as a few of the front row students shifted back slightly. The Tesraki, Rundi and Finnari students didn’t seem to notice, but the Vrul students certainly did, sarong at him like he was some sort of freak.

He  could hear the whispering, and he reveled in it.

It was nice to be intimidating sometimes.

Overhead the lights flashed once, and then twice, and the entire room went quiet expectantly looking down at him with their wide eyes.

He drew himself up Resting two of his hands together and another two behind his back as he began pacing his way around the projection field. Students Continued to whisper quietly, “Good morning class, My name is Dr. Krill Galaxy renowned trauma surgeon, and the galactic leading expert in xeno-medicine with an emphasis in humanity.”

There was a uiet muttering around the room.

“I have been acting medical officer aboard the UNSC Omen once Harbinger for more than two years, and I have practiced surgery in hospitals From Andromeda and Irus to the milky way and Earth.”

More shifting wide eyes and some nervous muttering.

He looked around the room shrewdly at all the new faces, “How many of you are interested in working with the intergalactic community.”

A slow raise of hands.

“Then I should probably let you know. Humanity has begun to profuse through all the major sectors of space, business, government, shipping, sales, medical. Humans are everywhere, and humans can do anything. If you wish to work in the wider intergalactic community, you will be working with humans, and many of you will work extremely closely with humans.”

Nervous expressions all around.

“I noticed many of you, the Vrul students especially have noticed the strange effect that spending time with humans can have on an individual.”

He looked around and saw some acknowledgement.

“The colloquial term for it is called the humanizing phenomenon and it will happen to you no matter how hard you try. Scientists have said that you will become more aggressive in order to interact with humans, your movements will become more predatory, you will come to focus on facial cues and the pitch of voices to determine emotion, and soon,you will even begin to utilize human body language in order to communicate better with them.” He motioned to himself, “Out of all the alien species,I have spent the most time with humans, and as you can see, I communicate primarily in a way that humans would understand, mostly with nonverbal body cues. I don’t often use my helium sack as I get in the way with keeping up with humans.” he turned to look around at the room, “Human’s no longer scare me. As pack animals, your social influence is often more important than your physical influence. Given the fact that I have built myself up in social influence within a human pack, I no longer worry myself with being round humans. In fact, I Have never been safer in my entire life.”

His antenna vibrated slightlin amusement, “In fact it is well known that I already have a termination order placed on my head by the Vrul council.”

There was a shocked gasp from certain Vrul parts of the room.

He swaggered about the room a little smugly. He didn’t usually get reactions like this from people.

“They actually took me from an assembly meeting with the GA and brought me back for termination, but one of my humans, as I certainly do consider them mine as much as they consider me theirs, came and rescued me single handedly.”

Another murmuring from around the room.

“How did he do it?”

They waited.

“He used his complex human vocal cords and clapping to simulate a beat. In that way he disabled all the guards, and climbed his way up the guiding rope to the council chamber.”

More soft muttering.

“If you make friends with a human, you are probably as safe as you are ever going to be, especially if you happen to become friends with a very audacious human=, in which case there is nothing that they will not do for you.” He spun on the spot, “Enough for introductions, I will please have you open your files to page one of the textbook, and we will go over a brief discussion of human mechanical anatomy.”

There was a shuffling around the room as Data pads were produced.

Krill brought up an anatomical projection of a human. Looking up it amused him to know that this anatomical model, the one used in almost every nonhuman textbook, was modeled on one single human, that being Adam Vir, all accept for the right leg of course, which was modeled on another human of similar height.

“Humans are are omnivorous bipeds with an endoskeletal structure supported by a vascular system. I know a lot of you have been wrongfully told that humans are primarily carnivores, though that is not true, while human can eat a variety of foods, there are humans that choose to live without eating meat, and they can be sustained on a herbivore diet if they wish. As you can see here, the front facing eyes of the human mark them off as a predator species, though this isn’t always the perfect indicator. Vrul eyes are on the front, but, as we know, Vrul also have prismatic vision that is more closely related that of insects on an earth-like planet.” he glanced around the room, “These predator classifications only exist for a class of alien known as the vascular type, which uses a pump to push fluid through the body. As you know Vrul, Burg, Gromm, and Lumins as well as a few others are not represented in this category.”

“Can anyone tell me which species ARE classified as the vascular subtype.”

There was a raised hand and he pointed, “You there.”

“I can provide a short list sir, Tesraki, Rundi, Humans, and Drev to name a few, but the Drev are a notable outlier for this rule because their war-like culture has supported the slow movement of the eyes towards the front of the face despite them being a herbivore species.”

Krill nodded, “Very good. Yes, humans are in fact a REAL predator species, however it is important to note that the greater 80% of human diets are supported by fruits and vegetables. Based on the amount and distribution of consumed foods, humans are actually closer to herbivores in their dietary choices than they are carnivores.”

There was a soft muttering around the room. Either disbelief or interest, he couldn't tell.

“Historically, humans would have evolved from tree dwelling omnivores, though their diets would also have been primarily fruit, and maybe insects as hunting only really came after they moved to land based travel on two legs. As far as earth animals are concerned, humans are not a top tier predator, and years of life in padded habitats using technology have actually dulled their hunting senses and abilities. A human COULD take a chunk out of you with their teeth, but they certainly wouldn’t WANT to. It would definitely be a last resort. Following that, humans only eat cooked meat as they can grow very sick on consuming certain raw products.”

The class shifted and whispered to each other.

“Yes, I know you have been told many strange and odd things about humans, but most of those are heavily exaggerated. However, it is true that humans are more versatile than most of us. Humans can run, walk, climb, throw, jump and swim, and while they don’t do any of those particularly well, their ability to do all of them  to some degree makes them the most versatile alien in the GA. Furthermore humans also have a multitude of senses, ones that are common to most of us balance, heat cold, pain, etcetera, but there is one sense that they have which is very uncommon in the galaxy, and that is a sense of smell.”

All around him, students were taking notes, “This is the ability for a human to detect particles in the air and, often, identify their sources. Everything sheds particles, and the human nose can pick up those particles. For instance humans generally like the smell of Iotans because Iotins shed compounds similar to foods that humans like to eat. Once upon a time it might have been used to help humans detect poison or other predators, but like I have said before, a human is a middleman in abilities. All of a human’s senses are relatively dull in comparison to some of their earth counterparts.”

He turned to his projector and flipped it to the anatomical structure of a dog, one that had been oddled off the only dog that many aliens had ever met.

Waffles the admiral’s dog.

“This creature’s sense of smell is powerful enough,they have been known to track a sent trail for miles through densely wooded forests. They can smell a change in hormone and pheromone levels on other creatures, and are even being used to detect certain diseases. The best a human can do is smell a cooking meal.”

He walked in a wide circle looking out at the students, some of them looking excited, others staring on in trepidation.

“Human eyesight is on a similar level to their smell. Humans have binocular vision which makes their depth perception quite good. A human is perfectly capable of snatching a flying object out of the air as their predatory instincts draw them to movement. This also makes humans very adept at navigating through obstacles like they might once have had to do in trees. Furthermore, it allows them to guess distance to prey during hunting.” He switched to a picture of a drev, “However humans do not have the best vision out of all aliens species. While the acuity of a human and a Drev are similar, Drev can detect Ultraviolet wavelengths where humans can only see the visible spectrum.” He looked at some of the Vrul, “Take solace in the knowledge that you can see thermal where humans cannot. They have relatively poor night vision, but better than that of you or I and far better than the Drev who traded the use of multiple cones to very frew light sensing rods.”

He looked up from his lecturing, “Are there any questions so far.”

Every had in the room shot into the air.

He paused to look at them faces lit by the glowing bluish light of the hologram behind him and sighed, he supposed this is what he was here for.

“Let’s star in the back then, shall we.”

One of the hands went down.

“Sir, is it true that humans are capable of surviving cortical tissue damage.”

Krill snorted, a sound he probably shouldnt have been able to make since he didn’t have a nose but one he had learned how to make because it expressed a very important emotion when interacting with humans. The entire class looked at him funny.

He sighed, “Yes, The first surgery I preformed on a human involved removing an eight inch steel rod from an eye socket which had gone into cortical tissue. To this day that human… well hes been doing fine, a bit of a dumbass sometimes, but I think that was a part of his personality before brain damage.”

They stared at him confused until Krill realised that dumbass probably wasn’t in their vocabulary. It probably translated to silent butt or idiot butt which didn’t have the same kind of ring to it.

Krill waved a hand, “In certain cases humans have been known to survive with only one hemisphere of their brain.”

A chorus of disbelief, “It is true, in certain cases where electrical abnormalities n the brain cause convulsions, surgeons intentionally remove half the brain to increase quality of life. There are a couple of downsides to this of course, like the inability to play musical instruments, but most humans still live a productive and fulfilling life after the procedure.”

More hands shot up again.

He turned and chose one at Random.

“Can humans smell fear”

Krill frowned, “No humans can’t smell fear. Whoever told you that was smoking something.”The class stared blankly at him until he picked another hand.

“Are you worried that the humans will ever…. Turn on you?”

Krill raised his hands into the air in exasperation, “They are SENTIENT beings not wild animals  Humans have strict social rules like you or anyone else. It would be illegal for them to hurt me , and I doubt they would let it happen at all. Humans aren’t feral. In fact my partner aboard the ship is Doctor Katie Quinn, and she is just as experienced in the field of medicine as I am. SHe can match me in almost any medical procedure and she only has two cortical hemispheres, and less than half the amount of hands.”

He frowned at the room, “I have no idea where ou all got these ideas from. Humans are thinking creatures not animals. The reason they survived on their planet is not because they are the strongest predator, but because they are the smartest, just like you or I. the only difference between us is that the Human planet is so hostile, they have been forced to keep some of their more instinctive tendencies.”

More hands raised.

“Have you seen one of these larger earth animals, sir?”

“Yes on plenty of occasions.” He flipped his diagram back to that of a dog, “This animal here is called a dog, the ancestral  evolution of the wolf, which is just a much larger version of this animal here. These animals are higher on the food chain that humans and have the ability to easily outrun, attack and rip the throat out of a human.” He paused as the class pulled back, “Which is why humans often use them in security, protection and law enforcement, because no human wants to fight one of these creatures.” He smiled a bit grimly, “Also humans just love to keep them as pets.”

There was an uproar around the room.

How could anyone want to keep something that could rip their face off as a pet.

Krill raised a hand to quiet down the room, “I know, I know, it all sounds very strange, but you must understand, humans and dogs are both descended from highly social pack groups. At one point a human took wolf cubs and began raising them and breeding them for desirable traits. As wolves are pack animals they slowly would have begun to see humans as members of their own pack family. In this humans molded a creature into being one of their greatest allies. Dogs rely on humans and humans rely on dogs for many jobs. Humans love dogs and dogs love humans. In fact, humans have bred this animal so extensively that dogs are one of the only creatures on their own planet capable of reading human facial expressions.”

He pulled up an image from his personal files, one where Adam sat on the floor, and the dog Waffles sat next to him. He made a face as her long, pink tongue ran up the side of his cheek.

The class gasped.

“She could easily use this opportunity to kill him.” krill said, “But she never would.” He turned to another image of himself standing next to the dog, a hand resting on her back.

More gasping.

Krill was somewhat amused. “Humans, as I said are social in the extreme, and this fact is going to be our best ally when meeting them. Anyone and anything can become part of a human pack. In fact, this instinct in humans is so strong that inanimate objects can easily be accepted into a human’s pack. They routinely name plants and attribute personalities to them. I once conducted an experiment where I placed fake eyes.” Googly eyes to be exact, “On a waste receptacle, and the humans named him Mr. Rubbish and began throwing away their items exclusively in that specific receptacle as ‘Offerings’ to Mr Rubbish….. That is not a joke, that actually happened.” He appraised them with a stern look, “Befriending humans is the most important thing you can do, and probably one of the easiest things as well. If you find yourself incapable of making friends with a human, its probably time to look at yourself personally because you must be horrible.” he pointed to himself, “I will openly admit that my personality isn’t exactly the easiest to be around, and yet I still managed it on accident.”

His lecture continued for some minutes, covering more anatomy, bone structures and some interesting facts about their internal organs.

However he was forced to stop as little lights began blinking overhead, and he went to dismiss the class, “Next week we will be discussing the effects of adrenaline on humans as a special treat to those who decide to return after this first lecture. And for your assignment, I want you to find one news article that perpetuates a myth about humans and write a short essay debunking it. Since this is the first week I am going lenient on assignments but by the end of the term I do expect full essays at publishable quality.”

Everyone in the class stood, and he found himself suddenly swarmed by a mass of figures.

It seemed as if he was going to be here for a while.

Little did Krill know that his lecture series was becoming so popular that the administration was going to have to upgrade his lecture hall two more times in the concurrent weeks.

Everyone wanted to know about humans.

[giorno-plays-piano]

I LIVE for your exophilia Bucky and Steve fics, Drider/spider Bucky is my LIFE, if you could do centaur, naga or mermaid, please. I just love this so much!

Okay, it was supposed to be a short request, but it had somehow evolved into a oneshot. Thank you for this awesome idea!

Blood in the water

Pairing: merman!Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: yandere, obsession, attempted kidnapping, non-grapic depiction of violence.

Words: 2125.

_________________

You had never truly believed in the existence of fantastic creatures despite all those rumors about mermaids living in the Triskelion sea. Sure, at some point people thought they shared the Earth with centaurs, sirens, griffons, and all those divine beasts, but you lived in the era of rapid scientific progress, Internet, and space-based technologies. No one in the right state of mind believed in fairies and unicorns.

However, you did like this little town: there was something charming in its narrow streets and a hundred years old buildings, lovely hydrangeas in flowerpots standing outside of the houses and small family cafes here and there. It was a nice place to have a vacation, especially after a crazy year in a big city where streets were always full of people, regardless of time.

You rented a nice little cottage close to the seashore for a month and were now enjoying your morning coffee, sitting on a wide wooden windowsill. The sun was barely up, and you smiled, wrapping a blanket around your bare shoulders. It was such a beautiful morning when the sky was a lovely shade of pink, the sea so unusually quiet. There definitely was something magical in it.

Watching the sea with your window open, you inhaled its smell deeply, closing your eyes. When you opened them in a second, you suddenly saw something glowing far away from you, on a small rock surrounded by water. Your eyes grew wide - it was not something, it was someone. It was a living being. You just saw its enormously huge scaly tail when the creature slipped back into the sea as if it knew you were watching it.

Oh dear.

You immediately left your half-emptied cup on the windowsill and jumped down, hurrying to the door while keeping the blanket wrapped around your shoulders. What was that? How huge was that fish? What could it even be? All those questions were making you speed up, and you rushed to the small pier right next to your cottage, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious creature again.

But once you were standing on the wooden boards barefoot, shivering from the sudden cool sea breeze, the waters were quiet just like before, not a sound coming from that direction. The creature had disappeared as fast as it emerged, and you were staring at the dark waters again, thinking of whether you saw that enormous fish at all or was it some trick of the light. Maybe you really watched too many fantasy movies on Netflix yesterday. Smiling at the though, you fixed the blanket, covering yourself some more, and inhaled the cool morning air deeply. Whether or not there was a huge fish, it wasn’t really important. You didn’t know how to swim anyway and wouldn’t get into the water far.

When you went to the town to have lunch, you did ask the elderly lady serving customers whether there was some peculiar type of marine animal living in the waters of Triskelion sea, but she just smiled at you and asked you not to come too close to the shore at night.

“It’s not good you live so far from the town,” she said quickly before moving to the other table, gathering empty dishes.

Did she mean it was unsafe to be out of the house at night? Was there like a gang gathering close to the sea or something? You nervously nodded to her, growing a bit concerned. Your landlord didn’t tell you anything about that.

Well, in case of emergency you could barricade the door and call 911. The phone worked perfectly, you thought while walking the streets, buying nice little souvenirs for your friends and colleagues. You actually bought a baseball bat just in case.

Hurrying home before it got dark, you clenched the big bag with a takeout. You asked the girl behind the counter about being on the shore at night, and she confirmed it wasn’t wise. Unfortunately, she didn’t specify, and you thought that speaking of that gang aloud wasn’t appropriate. The girl was probably scared.

Damn, and there you thought it was a perfect quiet place, ideal for a lonely young woman. Was it really better to leave before you got into any real trouble?

Locking the door and closing the windows, you huffed, irritated neither the agency nor your landlord mentioned this to you. It was unfair and even illegal to do business like that. Thinking whether to call your friends to ask for an advice, you sat in the kitchen, unpacking the amazing carbonara that was still warm and smelled heavenly. Well, it least the cafes here were absolutely awesome.

Once you finished your meal and were drinking tea with milk, still sitting in the kitchen - now you were a little afraid of sitting on the windowsill with an open window where anyone could see you - you suddenly heard some noise from the outside. It was a loud sound of fins crushing the water surface. Was it that odd giant fish again? Still, you were aware of danger of being outside late in the evening, so you simply stayed inside the house.

But then you heard someone screaming.

“Please, help!” The voice was pleading, and you stood up quickly, grabbing your bat. “HELP!”

The next moment you were running to the sea shore with a life preserver in one hand and a bat in the other. Someone was drowning in the sea, and you couldn’t fucking swim. Blood rushed to your head when you saw a man tangled in a large fishing net attached to the pierce, and you immediately run to him, dropping to your knees.

“Please! I can’t-” He was fighting the ties binding him, almost screaming in hysterics when you approached him. “I can’t breathe! HELP!”

In complete darkness when the only source of light was the moon shining high up into the sky, you were struggling to see how the man literally wrapped in the net, striking about in the water like a stranded fish. When you got close, throwing your hands to the stranger, he jumped at you right away, leaning closer and trying to climb to the pier. He almost made you fall into the water, but you managed to grab wooden pole with one hand and stand on your knees.

“I’m here! Wait, wait!” You were hurriedly grasping the net, seeing literally nothing in the dark. “I’ll help!”

You could hear the stranger crying, his huge figure shaking terribly, and rushed to tug on the ties, desperately trying to untangle him. You spent a few minutes like that before you had finally freed him, pulling the net up and throwing it on a wooden boards - it was so big you could literally cover the whole pier with it. How did it end up here?

Deadly tired from all the pulling, you gave the stranger your hand again to drag him to the pier, but suddenly he moved away from your arm. He was neither crying not screaming anymore, strangely silent, and you stared at his handsome face, still red from tears. How come? He was able to swim, wasn’t he? Breathing hard from all the struggle, you blinked, wiping the sweat from your forehead.

“Thank you,” the man finally said, coming closer again, and you realized there was something huge in the water right beneath him - you saw an enormous scale tail gleaming in the sea when the moonlight illuminated the waters.

It wasn’t some fish. It was the man’s tail. You saw the scales covering his hips when he got up, getting on the pier where you sat. Instinctively, you crawled back, both charmed and horrified with what you were seeing.

Dear god, he was a merman.

While you stared at him, opening your mouth as if it were you who was suffocating, the man smiled widely, watching you gawk at him. He wasn’t concerned at all, flashing his tail carelessly. “Thank you for saving me, human woman. You are truly fearless.”

Well, you weren’t so sure anymore, gazing at the unbearably handsome merman whose voice was so deep and silky it could drive any girl crazy. You were still scared of him though, knowing little whether he wanted to thank or hurt you - you even read some tales where mermaids were eager to eat sailors if they stumbled upon them in the sea.

But he looked so magnificent. His clear blue eyes were shining bright in the darkness, cheeks a lovely shade of pink, hair like a pure gold in the moonlight. His shoulders were wide, and you could see he was athletically built with his tufty, solid arms. Besides, how could a man with a smile as kind as his be a threat to you, the one who had saved him from the net? Reluctantly at first, you slowly got closer to him, watching his cheerful face. He was happy you weren’t afraid of him.

“What is your name?” He asked, suddenly getting closer so you ended up nose to nose with him.

The merman smelled like salt and seaweed, and when he wrapped his long fingers around your wrist, you whispered nervously, “Y/N.”

“I am Steven.” He grinned at you, rubbing the tip of your nose with his wet one. “I will be forever in your debt.”

“B-but how did you end up in the net? I’ve never heard of people fishing here.” You mumbled, your face flooding with embarrassment at being so close to the handsome stranger.

“Oh, they don’t fish. They try to catch us, the merfolk.”

His gaze turned sad as he touched your cheek with his nose and backed away, getting into water again while you crawled closer to him. So, that was it. That’s why they didn’t want you on the shore late in the evening - they were starting the mermaids hunt. God, how could they? Why did they try to harm these gorgeous creatures, unmistakably as intelligent as people were?

You felt sorry for the man, bending over to him as he stared into your face, still smiling. Gently cupping your cheeks with his wet palms, he rose up to give you a quick peck on the lips, apparently, having very little shame to do it to someone he only met a couple of minutes ago. Feeling terribly embarrassed, you thought that maybe it was merfolk’s way to thank someone and just nodded.

“Are you going to be okay, Steven?” You asked him, barely realizing you were leaning closer and closer to him while he kept getting down in the water.

“Yes.” He answered barely audible, kissing you again while gently touching your hair. “Come closer, love.”

You went even deeper, enchanted by his lovely voice.

“Closer.”

You didn’t realize the merman was luring you into the water until he pulled your face down, and your head ended up in the sea. As you opened your mouth, the water rushed inside it, and you were quickly becoming suffocated. But was scaring you more than drowning was the face of the most handsome man you had ever seen - the sclera became dark, making his eyes looking extraterrestrial, frightening. The next second you saw Steve opening his toothy mouth, and the world turned pitch black.

The pain shooting through your neck made you scream, gulping down salty sea water, and you fell down from the pier completely. You couldn’t breathe, kicking and fighting and struggling in merman’s arms until he let go of you, and you immediately grabbed the life preserver that fell into the water along with you. Keeping kicking furiously to keep Steve away, you clenched the wooden pole.

You didn’t know how you managed to pull up, getting back to the pier while merman was hissing something behind your back, trying to get closer to you. Despite you had no strength left, you were crawling to the shore on your knees, crying from the pain - blood was still seeping from your neck.

“You can’t get away from me!” Steve grinned wickedly, shouting to you. “I’ve marked you, love! You won’t have a mate other than me!”

Deaf to his shouts, you kept crawling until you felt the ground beneath your palms.

What did you know about the merfolk living in the Triskelion sea? Why didn’t you think it was them who were hunting people, luring innocent souls into the water with their pleas and crying? Of course, you didn’t know it was the mating season, and the mark Steve left on your neck would never fade away, scarring your gentle skin.

Why didn’t you leave the town, knowing you were in danger? Now you were bound to him, the cold, merciless creature who would stop at nothing to have you.

_______________________

Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki   ​@helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin ​@void-hoechlin @abyssaint @heeeyitskay @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @brattycherubwrites @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lovelydarkdaydream @soleil-dor @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny

[tribbetherium]

So I've been clearing out my old files and stumbled upon this old scrapped concept I had all the way back since 2017, a seed world project inspired when I first started reading Serina. It was just some random stuff I ended up doing just for fun but I was surprised at all the notes and sketches I'd made of it a long time back, and looking back four years later there may have been quite some really unrealistic evolutionary paths and a rather...pessimistic and kinda misanthropic outlook on sapient species repeatedly evolving and inevitably destroying themselves and the world around them.

But hey, thought it had some interesting ideas so without further ado: "Hamster's Paradise".

The timeline all begins on a suitable, habitable Earth-like planet, orbited by two moons and in a binary system with a yellow sun-like main star and a small orange dwarf that orbited further out and sometimes left nighttime as illuminated as nautical twilight. It was seeded with Earth organisms in preparation to human colonization and all the necessary organisms to maintain a sustainable, habitable biome, with various plants, fungi, decomposers, insect pollinators, marine algae, plankton and the like. However, there were no vertebrate life on the planet save for one test organism introduced to monitor the habitability of the biomes: the Chinese dwarf hamster, Cricetulus griseus.

But for one reason or another, humans never returned to the planet: whether they became extinct, abandoned the project, or managed to colonize another planet, it didn't matter: all that did was that this world was never visited or interfered upon again by human hands. And so, the planet was left to its unlikely colonists: they flourished for the first few million years, experiencing massive boom-and-busts in their population as they repeatedly bred out of control, starved en masse when food dwindled, and the few survivors left to repopulate in the next cycle. Eventually after about 10,000 years the hamsters and the ecosystem began to hit a sustainable equilibrium, and as niches gradually became established, the processes of evolution began to do its work.

The first major epoch of the planet's history would be the Rodentocene Era, where the hamsters, still small but diverse, would begin to diverge into numerous different forms as they came to adopt new lifestyles and occupy new niches. Among these would be running mara-like herbivores, gopher-like burrowers and shrew-like insectivores, while one lineage, evolving longer tails and limbs, would give rise to squirrel-like climbers and jerboa-like hoppers. The biggest creatures at this time would be cavybaras, capybara-sized plains grazers, but throughout the Rodentocene Era, lasting from 1-20 million years post-establishment, none of the rodents would grow particularly large, remaining in small-mammal niches that modern rodents, shrews and lagomorphs would occupy on Earth.

However a world occupied solely by small critters was not to last long, as 20 million years PE the first megafauna began to evolve, occupying bigger and bigger niches. By the 50 million year mark the next epoch, the Therocene Era, was in full swing: large rodents occupying big-mammal niches are widespread throughout all the continents at this point. The cavybaras soon give rise to the buffalo-sized mison and the omnivorous pig-sized bumbaa, the arboreal squirrel-like forms grow into lemur-sized squimians, and aquatic otter and beaver-like species also emerge. The jerboa-like hoppers give rise to the dominant plains grazers of this period: bipedal hoppers resembling macropods, such as the kangaroo-like boingo and its smaller wallaby-sized relative the oingo. Larger predatory forms have also evolved by this point, preying upon their distant relatives: the canid-like hamyena specializing on smaller prey, and the saber-toothed daggarat, which targets larger game such as the mison.

Meanwhile, a different sort of life flourishes in the oceans: in the absence of fish, small swimming krill-like crustaceans evolved into larger aquatic forms, eventually becoming the dominant aquatic lifeforms on the planet: the shrish. The shrish evolve into a diverse array of aquatic species, such as the schooling open-water shrardines, the centipede-like shreel that hunts in coral reefs like a moray, the venomous trilobite-like shringray, the predatory shrark, and a migrating freshwater species, the shralmon, which swims upstream to spawn.

The Therocene Era ends with an ice age that creates large areas of permafrost and tundra, bringing about the Glaciocene Era: 80 million years PE. New forms adapted to the cold develop in the northern continent: a relative of the mison, the rakatusk, grows to elephantine proportions and sprouts a shaggy coat to insulate against the freezing cold, with tusk-like extensions of its incisors serving to dig for food and defend itself from its main predator: the snabre, a lion-sized descendant of the daggarat that fused its upper incisors into a single stabbing blade. Another beast of the ice ages is the lumbering drundle, a nine-foot relative of the boingos and oingos that, having become too heavy to hop, became a plodding bipedal browser, adapting its spine and hips to support such a means of locomotion.

The climate would soon become milder 10 million years later and the icy tundras would shrink, but these cold-clime giants would persist throughout the Glaciocene, and some would later move down to the temperate regions and evolve into new forms. Most notably were descendants of the drundle that would become smaller and nimbler but retain their ancestor's bipedal walking: balanced by horizontal tails and with shorter forelimbs for grasping food, they became the hamstheropods, producing running plains grazers, alpaca-like mountain climbers, and one group of carnivorous predators, the ratptors. The ratptors, however, would be relegated to scavenger and mesopredator status, as the top carnivore niches were filled by the descendants of the hamyena: the carnohams, which sported Thylacoleo-like dentition, with conical stabbing incisors and meat-shearing first molars, and subdivided into two clades, the pack-hunting dog-like gringoes and the stocky, short-legged, strong-jawed bajas.

Other, smaller clades would become widespread in this era. Small, flying ratbats are abundant in the skies, feeding on insects and fruit, the aquatic otter-like species move out to sea and become shrish-eating seal-like phockas, and some of the burrowing gopher-like species become fully subterranean diggers known as horlocks, adapting to the low-oxygen environments underground by having slow metabolisms that lead to them becoming effectively cold-blooded, losing their pelage and converging with naked mole rats.

And then, at the end of the Glaciocene, 95 million years after life was first seeded onto the planet, an intelligent species evolves- a species that may very well represent the worst of the worst that sapience had to offer: the harmsters. Descended from pack-hunting ratptors, they were adaptable fast learners and eventually learned how to fell their prey with tools and weapons. The harshly-competitive environment selected for the smartest, most cunning and fiercest of the lot, and soon the harmsters attained self-awareness and soon began to construct a civilization: a civilization centered on war and violence.

As predators selected for both intelligence and ferocity, the harmsters were mentally geared to be incredibly vicious and cruel, displaying a penchant for genocide, bloodsport and even cannibalism, being promiscous breeders that eagerly feasted upon the weakest of their surplus young in bloody rituals. Though they were able to cooperate with each other to some degree, which aided in their construction of a civilization, their culture revolved around a sense of social darwinism, where the strongest were to rule and the weak were killed and devoured. Their violent ways spurred the rise and fall of numerous kingdoms during their brief reign: they engaged in massive wars between kingdoms with casualties numbering in the millions, breeding at rates expected of rodents and thus churning out legions of expendable troops that aided them in invading each other's territories and plundering their enemies' resources. Some of the kingdoms of the northern continent began enslaving rakatusks and comandeering them as weapons of war, living siege engines that trampled the opponents palaces with ease. This strategy would eventually lead to the rakatusk's extinction, as their already-dwindling populations were dragged into battle where they were felled without mercy.

Such a violent, merciless and brutal species was surely not long to last in this world, as they plundered and slaughtered their way across the northern continent driving many species to extinction in their wake, as the harmsters hunted them for food and sport with as much reckless abandon as they did butchering their own kind. Eventually the harmsters would briefly reach an industrial level of technology-- and unsurprisingly, use their newfound technology to create weapons of mass destruction that they turn against their own species. Too bloodthirsty and barbaric for their own long-term good, the harmsters would eventually bring about their own eradication, a mere 13,000 years ever since the first of them discovered the use of tools and began their bloody empires.

The brief rise and fall of an intelligent species ultimately was inconsequential to the grander scheme of life, and it was not long before geological processes swept away all traces of the harmsters' civilization, to be forgotten in the sands of time. In their absence, life simply began anew, in the Temperocene Era: 100 million years PE, a time of mild climates and new diversity that rebounded in the wake of the extinctions brought by the harmsters. The arboreal squimians diversified into monkey-like frugivores and gliding insectivores, while in the seas the phockas, nearly hunted to extinction by the harmsters, rebounded and became fully-aquatic hwhels, some which evolved multi-crowned teeth for catching small swimming prey, and others developing sieving bristles from modified whiskers to filter out zooplankton and krill from the water. On land, the hamstheropods reclaim the lands once ravaged by the wars of the harmsters, their own kin, and become ornithomimosaur-like runners of the savannah, with one group, the nenks, becoming twelve-foot long-necked browsers.

It was also during this warm and humid clime that one of the strangest lineages of the planet would arise. Descended from the burrowing horlocks, some of these unusual new species returned to the surface to exploit vacant niches, regaining their keen eyesight as they came to live above ground once again. The bristly remnants of their fur coats, no longer needed for insulation, would later evolve into overlapping pangolin-like scales to help protect their exposed hairless skins, and their decreased metabolisms, coupled with a long, fat-storing tail, helped them thrive as ambush hunters of insects in warm climates that needed far less food to survive than a typical rodent, using up less energy. With tough scaly skins, a nearly-cold-blooded metabolism, and sprawling limbs as a remnant of their burrowing ancestry, they became the ratptiles: a diverse clade of superficially lizard-like rodents that eventually diverge into long-bodied, flexible short-legged carnivores known as snerpents, herbivorous slow-moving species called biguanas, and even a clade of hopping stocky-bodied insectivorous toadents, which converged heavily on Earthly frogs save for their independence from water when breeding. Like all mammals, ratptiles gave birth to live young: however, they birthed up to thirty tiny but well-developed infants per litter, which were immediately independent from birth and needed no further parental care, simply being born in numbers great enough to ensure at least some would survive by sheer chance.

(Part 2 to be continued...)

[kylosgenesis]

Teardrops on fire

Synopsis:

Steve Rogers is the last Alpha of the an almost extinct Lycan pack. With only less than 100 members left. Steve must produce an heir to ensure the species survival and reduce the chance of attacks from others. Omegas are rare, and betas have a hard time producing children. Steves reality is finally setting in as his obligation of producing an heir faces a major set back.

Reader is the last suitable omega to mate with Steve, due to the fear of her daughters fate in the pack, her mother kept her hidden from the pack after her own exile. Only her mother, and Bucky's family know of her existence. Bucky is Steve's right hand man, and the packs best warrior! He and the reader developed a friendship and bond over the years, but age forced them to become distant.

What happens when she presents and her first heat cycle comes? Her body is in excruciating pain and a strong fever quickly overcomes her body. Facing the fear of her daughters possible death, her mom calls on the only person who can save her at this point, Alpha Steve! Bucky and the alphas friendship will be tested. The reader will be faced with her love for Bucky or her duty to the pack.

Warnings: Mentions of death , A/B/O dynamics

Chapter 3: Leave a light on

Bucky and Steve packed a suitcase of supplies, they both knew it was a race against time at this point. Her body would become weak without the pheromones of an alpha, her changing hormones wouldn't be able to adapt for her body's transition into her designation. Her own body would become her worst enemy right now, and if they didn't make it in time she could die in a pool of her own slick and sweat as her body struggled to accommodate the change.

That was one of the reasons omegas became so rare! Over the course of thousands of years their bodies began to change.Even with an alpha, sometimes the transition was too much on their bodies! Not many would make it. The omega’s that did were meant to be the strongest women the packs had to offer, their wombs strong , healthy, and ready to accommodate an alpha.

There was an old wives tale that would travel around the packs about a perfect mate, a bond so strong that would turn two souls and bodies into one. Soul that have been meant to be together since the beginning of time, like a puzzle piece waiting for it’s perfect match .Always calling for each other! One way or another prevailing.

People stopped believing in those kinds of stories a long time ago!

“Steve,Is that everything?” Bucky was loading up the bags into the truck. His mother and Katerina had headed back to the cabin, hoping to get a head start and try to explain to her what would be going on. I believe so! We still don't know what we're walking into… Steve furrowed his brow with his hand. His free hand on his lower back. “Hell Buck! I don't even know what i'm supposed to do! Hey I'm Steve, you don't know me but i'm here to take you away from everything you've ever known… also I kinda have to mate with you to save your life.``

“I know it doesn't sound like the best plan! But it's all we can do right now.” Bucky wanted to reassure his friend, tell him it was all going to be alright. Deep down he himself was feeling uneasy. He wanted to crawl out of his skin. Why did their nature have to be like this? He felt like they were not that evolved from animals when it came to heats. She was probably scared, he wanted to reassure his friend that she would be okay with him.

Bucky remembered leaving her all those years ago. It broke his heart! Deep down Bucky didn't even want to see her. He couldn't live with the look of disappointment she'd give him. Or worse what if she wasn't disappointed, what if it was like the years didn't go by between them. How could he handle seeing her gentle eyes, knowing he couldn't return the same look back.

It wasn't even a question anymore! Any dream involving her he's had for the past ten years had to be thrown away! He had to forget her smile, her laugh, her smell! She was never meant to be his and now more than ever he had to put his pack first.

Bucky gave Steve a reassuring smile and motioned to the truck, they were losing daylight and they both had a long night ahead of them. Both lost within their own thoughts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She felt like she was being torn apart!

Yes, she's had some bad cramps during her cycle, but this pain was different! If felt like she was being completely ripped apart from the inside. She felt weak and both terribly hot and freezing at the same time.

She had this strong feeling to just stay in bed at the back of her mind, but she just couldn't let herself waste away in bed waiting for her mother. Her mom had called winifred after this morning, within the hour they were both gone! They said they'd be back my sundown with some supplies and someone who might help her. As the pain intensified she readied herself to go get some things that could help alleviate her. She remembered her mom taught her this recipe with mint, nuts, and berries, back when she had first gotten her period; many years ago. Sometimes when she was out fishing or hunting and she felt her body start to feel strange, she'd look for those, and boil some water for a tea. It provided instant relief for her, and she'd go back to her day like nothing happened.

Gathering the strength and courage; she walked out of the comfort of her cabin for a quick trip to get those three things. If only she could just have that tea ready, it would make the time waiting for her mom to get back bearable.She knew the woods like the back of her hand, she'd done it countless times where she knew where everything would be.

As she trekked further and further into the woods! She remembered she'd spotted a new mint bush a few days ago, with the old one in the opposite direction she decided to just to just go with her memory and find that one.

Even though she knew these woods by heart, her pounding head and aching body made it a struggle for her focus long enough to orient herself.

She stopped to catch her breath and suddenly felt aware of the heat taking over her body. In the distance, the sounds of the running current of the creek, screamed for her to just get in to find some relief. All she wanted was just to dip her feet in and feel the water run beneath her feet.

The icy water prickled through her skin and it showed her more than the heat did, eventually her body and mind relaxed and she just closed her eyes for what felt like two seconds.

Suddenly the floor beneath was overtaken by a current, she was too weak to swim or fight .So she just let the current run its course; dragging along her weakened body.

In just an instant! She was harshly dragged away from the little bit of forest she knew!

She woke up hours later in the darkness!

The current had dumped her near the bank.

She could tell it was still territory, but it was all unknown and new to her. She definitely did not have the strength to follow the stream, so with what little strength she had, she started a fire! She laid down next to it hoping that morning would come soon, and give her the strength she needed to return home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they exited the car they could smell her, but it was lingering and faded. Bucky’s senses were on fire! That smell drove him insane. It awoke every muscle in his being, he’s partially glad that it wasn’t fully her, just the lingering trace of her scent.

He couldn’t do that to Steve. He had to mask his face, pretend she didn’t smell like air after you’ve been holding your breath for ten years.

“Where is she ?” Steve was worried, not only was this his omega, but she was a part of his pack now. His Alpha nature led him to worry about her, even if he didn't fully know her or understood her yet.

All Steve knew is that he felt drawn to her! He needed to protect her and care for her! Seeing the small cabin was like a punch to his gut! He couldn't believe that there were people in his pack living like this.

The roof needed work, the inside was just enough to be considered cozy, but not comfortable!. It was all patched together! He understood that it was the best that they could do with the circumstances, but his heart was swelling with pride at the idea of bringing his omega to his home. For her to finally know comfort, and not want for anything, he'd take better care of her than his own self. Her smell told him everything he needed to know about her, it was like she was made for him, and he was made for her,

Steve looked to Katerina and back to Bucky.

He couldn't understand how this place had been here for such a long time without him knowing about it, Steve remembered his dad's cruel nature. It wasn't beneath him to cast out a pregnant woman to fend for herself, but why hasn't she tried coming back once his father had died. Steve would have let them back! He knew why she was scared and distrustful of him. He probably reminded her of the person who took her life from her.

As the sky grew darker it became impeccably evident that something had gone terribly wrong. Bucky knew it! He had a bad feeling sinking at the pit of his stomach. No experienced hunter, like herself would be out past sundown. The woods become too dangerous and unforgiving even to experienced people.

Bucky taught her to know the woods. She could track.! If she’s out there she’s probably injured and in a bad situation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ Clint, Nat, you guys will take the northern side of the river, there's a lot of territory there so I trust you guys will be okay as a team!,” Steve was guiding them to a spot marked on the map, he drew a circle through the section with with finger the over caressing his chin in thought.

“Tony, you will cover the west end on the river… over by this side” Bucky said over Steves planning and was pointing Tony to his designated research area.

Bucky and Steve had gone into a full missing persons mission. They had mapped out the territory and had called the strongest members of the pack. Most of them were a part of the packs defense team. They were all loyal to Steve and led by Bucky as the commander of the pack's small army.

Bucky’ s mind was not at the best place! He was slowly becoming more feral with desperation. “What if an outsider smelled her and crossed territories?” The thought was just too dangerous to entertain and Bucky kept going!

After hours of searching, the search party grew cold, hungry, and tired! Steve was called off the search party as the weather grew harsher, he was worried about his pack. They had families to tend to, and needed rest.

Steve was going in by himself, and Bucky wasn’t about to let his best friend do it alone. Going in just by themselves would be a risk, but they both knew how strong they had to be! They could rest later! She was all that mattered right now!

He wouldn’t stop searching till he had turned every rock on the territory! Every little corner if this damn reserve would be searched! He would find his ... Steve’s mega.

Bucky was the best tracker in his pack and even neighboring packs. If anyone needed anybody or anything found, Bucky was the best in the business. He was strong, determined, and could be ruthless with deserters who would try to run away from the pack after stealing or injuring a member!. Nobody had made it past the territory without Bucky catching them first.

They called him the Winter Soldier! While others found the harsh temperatures, and unforgiving terrain hard to navigate and specially survive; Bucky seemed to read the wind and knew how to use the weather to his advantage. He was the best there was.

If he could not find her he might as well never find anybody else in his entire life. He count fail her. He needed her!...She needed him!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her whole body ached!

She couldn’t get up from this one. She knew she’d only survive a few hours, maybe a day or two without food, and in this weather. She just placed herself inside a hollow trunk, and cradled her body to preserve as much heat as possible. She was thankful that the fever was a bit of a heat source, but cursed at the cold chills it gave her. Soon her body relaxed and she wondered what death would feel like.

She thought of her life.

Her mom.

It hurt so much when she thought of him! As she thought of him, her heart was agonizing in longing, but her body was slowly responding. Her fever had subsided, and she tried stepping out of the trunk. She stumbled and lost her footing, but just as she was about to collapse near the now extinguished fire, she felt a pair of strong arms break her fall.

She thought she was probably dead now!

Looking at her, where the most piercing blue eyes she’d ever seen! His hair now at his shoulders, and a beard forming around his face. He looked different than her mind had imagined him all these years. She allowed herself to relax in his arms, and her eyes filled with tears as she passed out; surrounded by his smell , and waiting for this delusion to be over.

They said death had a way of making people feel comfort, and happiness before the light at the end. But this seemed so real! she wasn't scared of dying anymore, she was scared he wouldn't be there if she woke up again.

Tags: @austynparksandpizza @connie326 @nerdgirljen @exposition-belongs-somewhere

[convindreamer]

Mermay (Convin)

There are two types of merfolk: one that lives in the warm clear blue of the carol reefs and the other that lives in the colder darker depths. The ones that live in the warm waters look closer to human, apart from their tails; the ones that live in the cold waters have evolved to have webbed hands and scales on their torsos to help them swim faster. Connor is one of the warm water merfolk. Gavin is one of the cold water merfolk. They don’t mix. Cold water merfolk think the warm water dwellers are weak and soft and way too full of themselves. Warm water merfolk tell stories to their children at night that if they’re very bad the cold water dwellers will come and drag them down into the depths never to be seen again.

So ...

Gavin is out hunting for lunch, and he spots a particularly tasty looking red snapper so takes chase, his perfectly streamlined body torpedoing through the dim cold water; he snags his tail on yet another sharp rock outcrop, potentially adding to the numerous scars he already had along his tail and torso, but doesn’t stop until — he realises the water around him has got warmer, instantly making him uncomfortable. He looks up and realises that he’s closer to the surface than he should be and very far out of his own territory. The red snapper has gone and he’s surrounded by fish he doesn’t immediately recognise.

Needing to get his bearings he carefully climbs the nearest rock formation, his webbed fingers perfect for adhering to the craggy surface. The sun is hot and he closes his eyes and turns his head away from the blinding bright light. He shouldn’t have come up here. It wasn’t safe. He was too close to the land. Shielding his eyes from the sunlight he moved higher up out of the water and stopped, his heart beating a scared rhythm. There on a sandy rock, basking himself in the suns rays, was not only a warm water dwellers, but also the most breathtakingly beautiful mer he’d ever seen. Gavin could only stare, lifting himself higher on the rocks to see better. The mer was oblivious, enjoying the sea spray crashing on his tail and body.

Gavin caught sight of his webbed hands splayed on the rocks in front of him and shook his head, angry at himself for wasting his time daydreaming about this pretty poser. The twofers (this is what Gavin calls humans bc they have two legs) hunted in this area and if that dumb mer wasn’t careful he’d find his tail on the end of a hook, and himself carted off to some aquarium or other.

Gavin slunk back across the rocks and dove back into the too warm water. He was still hungry and the fish swimming around him were too small to do anything but dull the ache in his stomach. Damn that red snapper for getting away and leading him so far away from home. Gavin dove deeper, leaving the surface far below.

Several weeks later, Gavin’d almost completely forgotten about the pretty posing mer, with his perfect tail glinting into the sunlight, and his perfect smooth torso unmarked by a single scale, and his perfect hair swept back from his face — and then Gavin spotted a flash of movement above him, and it was him. The same mer he’d seen sunbathing beautifully on the sand, and he was swimming against the current, struggling to put distance between himself and the dark shadow of the twofer hunting vessel above. Gavin had seen this too many times not to know what was going to happen next. The twofers had obviously tagged the mer while he was on the surface and now they could pinpoint him with almost perfect accuracy. The harpoon came out of nowhere and pierced straight through the soft flesh of the mer’s tail, the hook catching and starting to drag him back and up. Gavin took chase, gaining speed, but the mechanism dragging the mer out of the ocean was faster. And then the mer grabbed onto a nearby rock outcrop and held on for dear life, the only problem being his stupid unwebbed fingers were useless at gripping and holding firm and soon he was only stopping his ascent by the skin of his finger tips.

Gavin saw the moment the mer saw him, he saw the instant flash of fear, but that didn’t stop him from pulling out his blade and hacking at the metal coil attached to the harpoon. The mer screamed in pain as the harpoon ripped deeper into his flesh but Gavin was intent only on getting him free. The metal quickly dulled his blade and Gavin threw it aside using his razor sharp teeth to bite through the last the few strands

The mer was free but had passed out due to the pain and Gavin did the only thing he knew to do and wrapped his arm around the mer’s waist speeding them away from the surface and down into the safety of the dark. Gavin couldn’t bring the top dweller home, he couldn’t be seen fraternising with their sort, so instead he took him to his private hideout.

The cave was small but they were still able to fit at a squeeze. Up close, this mer was even more beautiful than Gavin had thought, but he was bleeding out and Gavin went to work cleaning and disinfecting the wound, and he continued to keep the wound clean for the next day, only leaving to catch food, until the mer finally woke up.

Again Gavin saw that fear flash in his eyes, and his anger spiked.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna eat you.”

The mer looked around them, taking in the cave, the supplies, his bandaged tail and finally looked back at Gavin.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“Whatever,” Gavin snapped and went out to catch some fish.

Connor, that was the pretty mer’s name. A pretty name for a pretty mer, and he liked to talk. He found everything of interest. All the unfamiliar fish that swam by, and their unfamiliar tastes. He marvelled at the lichen on the rocks and almost got his fingers caught in a few oyster shells as he reached in to get the pearl and they clamped shut. In the end, Gavin got him a pearl and Connor beamed at him so happily, it made Gavin’s stomach do funny little backflips. Connor almost died with happiness when Gigi, Gavin’s catfish, turned up to say hello.

“You’re not what I expected from, well, from a cold water dwellers.”

“You were going to say ‘webber’, weren’t you?’

Connor looked chastised.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, I’ve been told my whole life that your kind are dangerous. I was told your webbed hands were slimy. But they’re not. They feel so nice on my tail.”

Connor blushed and then so did Gavin.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you’re told.”

Connor was able to swim a little now without too much pain, his tail was healing nicely, and they’d swim together, their tails sometimes touching, Gavin showing Connor all his favourite places; but oddly enough, whenever Gavin brought up the idea that Connor could probably go home soon, a subject both of them had been avoiding, Connor’s wound would suddenly feel much worse and he’d go back to hiding in the cave.

“We both know you’re fine now.” Gavin bit out reluctantly.

“No, it still hurts.”

Gavin levelled a look at him.

“I don’t want to go.” Connor admitted. “I like it here, with you.”

“You can’t stay here, Connor.” Gavin muttered. “You don’t belong here.”

They both fell silent.

It was true.

Their kinds didn’t mix.

This was just a fluke.

An accident.

It was never supposed to happen.

But it had happened.

“We can carry on seeing each other.” Connor says hopefully. “I can come down, you can come up, and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle.”

Gavin did want that. He really did. But if his kind found out, he’d be ostracised. They already lived in a delicate balance and it wouldn’t take much to tip things over into the worse.

“It’s dangerous.”

“I like you.”

“We shouldn’t.”

“I want to keep seeing you.”

“Connor.”

“Please.”

“I’m sorry.”

Connor looked heartbroken but nodded, accepting Gavin’s decision.

“If you change your mind, I’ll be waiting.”

Gavin couldn’t take the risk despite how much he still wanted to see Connor, and he endured the next few angst filled weeks mourning his loss until he couldn’t take it anymore.

Going against his better judgement he swam as fast as possible to the rendezvous point Connor had given him, convinced that Connor wouldn’t be there, and his heart leapt when he saw that he was wrong. Connor was there, just as he’d promised to be, waiting patiently for Gavin. Gavin stopping, and did nothing more than float for the next few moments, just staring at his pretty mer, with his perfect tail and perfect torso and perfect hair that swept back from his face, and was just thankful that Connor hadn’t given up on him.

Gavin uncertainly approached and Connor turned slowly towards him and the smile that lit Connor’s face told him he’d made the right decision. Whatever came next, they’d face it, together.

And so they enter into a secret relationship, where they both have to be careful not to let anyone else know. Like Romeo and Juliet only in this one nobody dies and they all live happily ever after in the end.

[thatradfailure]

I’m super interested!!! What’s the lore behind the bioshock mermaids??

There's some more lore for certain species than others, but I can give you an overview that I hope to be somewhat even between them all.

First off, some taxonomy!

....................................|--- [Beau Moqueur] ...............................|---| ...............................|    |--- [Red-Spotted Seducer] ..........................|---| ..........................|    |   |--- [Revolutionary's Serpent] ..........................|    |---| .....................|---|         |--- [Ocean Prowler] .....................|    | .....................|    |--- [Shepherd's Shark] Mermadae---| .....................|    |--- [Bemähnte Jägerin] .....................|---| ..........................|--- [Alpha Glowfish]

[Edited: Added a ton of dots to make the taxonomy tree easier to read]

True Sirens: [Beau Moqueur; Red-Spotted Seducer] - True Sirens are characterized by their diets consisting of primarily humans, a lack of claws, and their gills on their neck. They tend to be much smaller than False Sirens and Non-Sirens, and found within bodies of fresh water.

False Sirens: [Revolutionary's Serpent; Ocean Prowler] - False Sirens are very similar to True Sirens, but are quite taxonomically and biologically different. Their fish-half bodies appear more like aquatic reptiles from the age of the dinosaurs, which can be attributed to convergent evolution. Much unlike True Sirens, their diets comprise of anything they can get their clawed hands on, be it humans, other mammals, fish, birds, and, in some cases, plants. Their gills are found after their arms, unlike more other mermaids- most commonly on the area that would be equivalent to a human's hips. They vary in size, from medium lengths to small lengths, with few species being smaller than the largest of the True Sirens. They are found both in the ocean, such as Ocean Prowlers, or in bodies of fresh water, like Revolutionary's Serpents.

Non-Sirens: [Shepherd Shark; Bemähnte Jägerin; Alpha Glowfish] - Non-Sirens are the most fish-like of all mermaids, and only found within the vast ocean. They have a variety of shapes and sizes, but are barely human-like, compared to their True- and False-Siren cousins. They often have the longest claws and most diverse hunting methods. Their gills are often found on their necks, but certain species that are closer related to True- and False-Sirens may have their gills appearing after their arms, such as on Shepherd Sharks. Non-Sirens also have the largest species of mermaid- the Alpha Glowfish, which convergently evolved traits that are also found in anglerfish.

Man-made Mermaid: [Jack's Ace] - There is only one species of man-made mermaid, that being the Jack's Ace. There is only one member of this species, being comprised of the DNA from many species of mermaid, including Shepherd Sharks, Beau Moqueurs, Revolutionary's Serpents, and more. And even perhaps some human DNA... He can survive in all types of water, and eats many kinds of food, minus humans. His gills are found on his neck, and he lacks claws, but is rather large compared to True-Sirens.

More Info about each species under the cut because this is getting long lol.

- Alpha Glowfish: + Size: Large [30 feet long, 20,000 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: Possibly hundreds of years. + Intelligence: Being studied. + Location: Deep Ocean, Saltwater. + Based On: Subject Delta. Alpha Glowfish are the largest species of mermaids, and are found deep within the ocean. They exhibit stunning displays of bio-luminescence. Though, instead of using it to catch prey, as they seem to be a filter-feeder species, the males use their beautiful lights to keep offspring nearby. Offspring are rather different to adults, as they are far more social and curious, while the adults become aggressive whenever an animal comes near their child. Often, they are only found with one child, but pairs of twins has been documented.

- Bemähnte Jägerin (Translated from German to Maned Huntress): + Size: Medium [15 feet long, 300 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 75-80 years. + Intelligence: Unclear + Location: Mid to Deep Ocean, Saltwater. + Based On: Brigid Tenenbaum. Bemähnte Jägerin are named for their unique hunting style, and for the first few found specimens being female. For a while, they thought to be sexually dimorphic, but found not to be. Their most stunning trait unique to their species is the vast number of tentacles on their back. When not in use, they curl up to the body, presumable to conserve body heat. When in use, they stretch out to ensnare any fish that may swim by, or through the mane for protection. The fish is then passed to the arms of the Bemähnte Jägerin, where it can be brought to the mouth and eaten.

- Shepherd Shark: + Size: Small [5-6 feet, 190 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: Incredibly varied; 35-90 years. + Intelligence: Moderate. +Location: Tropical climates around Central America, saltwater. + Based On: Booker DeWitt. Shepherd Sharks are named for a rather unique behavior. They are a strictly carnivorous animal, and hunt the predators of schools of a fish that they have taken as their charge. Through this, they often get roughed up, and it is rather rare to see a specimen in the wild with little to no scaring from battles. This also contributes to their vastly varied lifespan. Shepherd Sharks are rather isolated animals, but they mate for life when they do find a mate. Though found in the Non-Siren family of mermaid, they are a link species that have been around for a very long time, and are thought to be the species, or heavily related to the species, that True- and False Sirens evolved from.

- Ocean Prowler: + Size: Medium [10-15 feet, 200-400 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 120-220 years. + Intelligence: High + Location: Artic Circle, Freshwater and Saltwater. + Based On: Lonnie. Ocean Prowlers are closely related to Revolutionary's Serpents. They can be found in various bodies of water, fresh or ocean, near the Artic Circle. Their hair-like tentacle structures are similar to that of human hair, like with all mermaids. However, their uses for this hair-like structure is diverse, from insulating body heat to filtering food from their surrounding waters. This "hair" isn't quite hair, as it's thicker and has blood circulating through it. Along with filter feeding, they will hunt for meat or graze on plants. They have been frequently documented picking up on human languages, with certain specimens eventually conversing in exchange for food. While they do not commonly hunt humans, it's advised against to enter waters where even just on Ocean Prowler is found, as they have been known to take a human down into the depths of the water to feed on, never to be seen again.

- Revolutionary's Serpent: + Size: Large [20 feet long, 5,000 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 100-150 years/ + Intelligence: Moderate-High + Location: Mainly Ireland, Freshwater. + Based On: Atlas. Revolutionary's Serpents used to have another common name, but that was replaced with their current name when Irish revolutionaries would commence large offensive attacks to force the opposing soldiers into waters containing just a few individuals of this species, who would make quick work of the humans. Their diet comprises of many sources of meat, and they often mimic the sounds of their prey to lure them close. Revolutionary Serpents especially pick up greeting words and expressions of distress to lure humans. There was a documented specimen from the 1950's that learned to speak fluent English because of a human that seemed to tame him. This specimen that called himself Atlas gave many insights into the species, and would freely converse with many, though especially the man that taught him to speak.

- Red-Spotted Seducer: + Size: Small [4-5 feet, 200 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 60-70 years + Intelligence: Moderate + Location: Central America, Freshwater. + Based On: Augustus Sinclair. Red-Spotted Seducers are the most common of True-Sirens, though that does mean they're still rather rare. Their voices are said to be suave and charming, instilling a false sense of safety that the animals take advantage of. Like all sirens, they have only been documented in the wild to consume humans, though in captivity, other meats have been imprinted on young. Lacking most ways to hunt, the Red-Spotted Seducers will lure their prey into waters and then drag them down to drown, using their weight to keep the prey pinned down.

- Beau Moqueur (Translated from French to Beautiful Mocker): + Size: Small [3 feet, 80-100 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 35-40 years. + Intelligence: Varied. + Location: Northern North-East United States; France, Freshwater. + Based On: Frank Fontaine. Beau Moqueurs are an invasive species in the US, after someone allowed a few specimens to get loose. They enjoy swimming near ledges that lead into deep water along paths that humans commonly trek, and use their whiskers to detect the vibrations of steps. Like other True- and False-Sirens, they use their voices to lure prey to their doom, but are especially exceptional at copying voices, accents, and languages. They are said to "mock" their previous prey by using their voices, accents, and words to mess with new prey. This, along with having remarkable patterns and vibrant, though dark, colorations that are rather striking, gives them their name.

- Jack's Ace: + Size: Medium [13 feet and 7 inches, 1,697 pounds (one living specimen)] + Lifespan: Unknown. + Intelligence: High + Location: Lab, Freshwater and Saltwater. + Based On: Jack. Jack's Ace, or Jack, was created by a lab team that was given too much freedom to "experiment how [they] please" when commissioned to clone the child of one Andrew Ryan. Instead of making a human, they combined the DNA of various mermaid species. After one look, Ryan refused to take the specimen and commissioned another scientific team, with more rigid rules. Now, the team that has Jack give him intelligence tests to see just what they've created. He is highly intelligent, but cannot speak due to an accident that severely damaged his vocal chords. Jack has never expressed a desire to hunt humans, being well-fed on a primarily fish-based diet. Instead, he seems to express a desire to see the outside world. If you were stuck in one bedroom of a home for your entire life, wouldn't you?

[minecraftorigins]

Background lore to the classes: ⚠️Long paragraphs ahead⚠️

Please keep in mind this is my perspective of the lore to the Origins mod and is absolutely not 100% canon. This is just written for fun. Thanks! <3

【Table of Contents】 Ⅰ. Short background information ⅰ. Enderian ⅱ. Merlings ⅲ. Phantom ⅳ. Elytrians  ⅴ. Blazeborn ⅵ. Avians ⅶ. Arachnid ⅷ. Shulk ⅸ. Feline ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                 ⅰ. Enderian Enderians is a species that barely any books have knowledge about, even those that are very old and dusty. From what is known so far, Enderians are born in the End by the Ender Dragon. How they are created by such a being is unknown, and researchers still are unable to find the answer. Enderians life cycle is quite fast, and are able to grow from an egg to a toddler in the span of a month. Though their life cycle is fast, they can live up for several years if not decades. Enderians are known for their tall and lanky appearance, and frightening eyes. They can also grow to 7-8 feet tall. During the OverWorld War Enderians were kept in their homeland,the End, unable to travel to the other two worlds. After the OverWorld War passed, the Ender Dragon finally allowed her children to explore and seek the world. Therefore, why Enderians appear both in the Nether and OverWorld. Enderians still do not like to make eye contact or contact with water. If unlucky, an Enderian can accidentally spread a curse to you. A curse called the Enderman Curse. The Enderman Curse is not contagious towards other people and is instead spread by contact, the curse also leaves the victim in agonizing pain as they transform into an Enderman. If lucky, the curse will sometimes stop halfway or a quarter way from the body. The curse can also not be spread by or to hybrids; meaning half Enderman and Human can’t give the curse to anyone, and any hybrid won’t be affected.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                  ⅱ. Merlings The Undersea Kingdom is where most Merlings are born, since the kingdom hasn't opened their gates after the Overworld War. No one is allowed to swim beyond the Kingdom unless they are a Merling of buisness or a guard on patrol. Of course there are Merlings that left the borders illegally and created families beyond them. But, the majority of the population is within the borders of the kingdom. Merlings when they are born have tails that stick with them up until their early teenage age. Usually around ages 13 through 15 is when their tails would shed. The shedding would last for about a week, before the Merling has a new pair of legs. Once the Merling has a new pair of legs they are given a ceremony where they receive a crystal. The crystal is a rare gem that allows the wearer to from legs to tail when they please, and is only found inside the Undersea Kingdom. The crystal can only be obtained by a Merling therefore anyone seeking the crystal would need help from one or be one.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                    ⅲ. Phantom Phantoms are manifested by a strong feeling in a dream or nightmare, therefore allowing the Phantom to have a physical form and exist in the Overworld. Phantoms digest dreams and nightmares but can be sustained with regular food for a while. Phantoms can not be in direct sunlight due to the fact that they are photoallergic, but going invisible allows them to walk in the sunlight without being burned. Though, it causes their hunger to go up quicker. Phantoms also have a hunger for dreams, being able to consume mobs and players dreams when they sleep. Consuming ones dreams will allow the Phantom to not have to eat for some time unless they go invisible. Phantoms would mostly be in large houses and forests during the daytime to avoid the sun, then during the night they will be most active to hunt down those who sleep. And though Phantoms did not partake much in the OverWorld war, those who have been around those times have great knowledge about the war.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                    ⅳ. Elytrians Elytrians we’re a normal group of Overseekers before the Overworld war. They were the natives of the Overworld not yet evolved into the modern era. Their camps were located on top of hills and large plains, this way they could have an advantage against those who try to take their territory. It wasn’t after the Overworld war when their culture was changed like all the other origins, it was changed before the Overworld war and it was the starting point of the war as well. The Elytrians invaded the Avians territory and villages, but they weren’t stealing anything of value or anything that is advanced beyond their time. They stole the Avians wings, ripping them straight from their bodies. Later they would mutate their body to these wings and soon it would be evolved into them. This caused the war between the Avians and Elytrians, soon involving most of the other origins. After the war, the history of what they have done been altered to make it look like the Avians were the villian. Kids grew up with false history saying that the Avians invaded and wanted to steal the Elytrians wings that they’ve been blessed with. The true books have either been burnt or buried deep into the soil, alongside the author of the book.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                    ⅴ. Blazeborn The Blazeborns have been a seperated tribe since the Overworld war, and now are an even more separated as a civil war arises. Before the Overworld war they were known as a powerful military empire that supported their allies during the war. But after the war was finished their former leader was assassinated. Not knowing what to do without a leader, and those who want to be the next leader fighting for the position, the empire soon fell apart. Some Blazeborns that are still loyal to the old ways of the empire, and is trying to rebuilt it, formed a group called “The New Flame”. They believe that the empire claim back the old territory, and then take over the Overworld next. “The New Flame” also supports dictatorship and agrees that one person should have absolute power over the people. Other Blazeborns that are still loyal to their origins but do not agree on the idea to rebuilt the empire, formed a group called the “Burnt Outs”. They support the idea of having a court system instead and have selected representatives from votes.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                       ⅵ. Avians Avians now in modern times have their homes on mountains or elevated places, though there are some who still prefer tree houses. Before the Overworld war the Avians didn’t all have their homes away from a forest or jungle, their villages were always way up in the trees. This was because they had their wings back then, and could fly like the birds they were. But, it was when the Elytrians attacked when their ability to fly was stripped away from them. Of course being attacked by an opposing origin would lead into some conflict, and is what started the war between the two. The two origins still has not recovered from the tragedies and bloodshed, and the tension still has not been lifted. Avians still have the most accurate recorded history from the war, their evidence can easily be backed up. They kept their books, kept the evidence, and plenty of retired Avians still have stories to share about it. The only problem is to know the firsthand knowledge of the Overworld war, you would need to get the trust of the Avians, yet alone convince them your not a threat.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                     ⅶ. Arachnid Arachnids we’re not involved with the war and instead we’re kept in their caves during it. The Queen at the time did not want any Arachnid to fall victim of a murder, or get themselves stuck In between conflict. Arachnids would make their nests in underground railroads, mine shafts, and large caves. They had their own systems of communication and specific rooms for different objects or groups. The largest room in the system would mostly always be the fresh-prey room. The education system was taught in separate caves with more rooms for different classes. All younglings would go to a sister/brotherhood school where they will become closer to their tribe mates. They will take the school up till the end of elementary and then have the choice to take it again during high school and graduate. If they choose to graduate from a sister/brotherhood school then they can not mate with another Arachnid. If they don’t choose to graduate from a sister/brotherhood school then they would go to a regular high school and have the option to mate with another Arachnids that graduate from a regular school as well.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                       ⅷ. Shulk Shulks we’re also not too involved with the war. Shulks were born in the End alongside the Enderians, and the Ender Dragon wasn’t letting anyone out of the End during the war times. Shulks are raised on End ships or End Cities, usually by a single parent. It’s very uncommon to see a full family raising a child in Shulk culture. After the Shulk is grown up, around age 13 or 15 they are sent out of their homes to the real world. This is a common tradition that most Shulk families would do, claiming that it toughens their shell and makes them less soft. Sadly most Shulks do not make it, or survive in the End with all the dangers lerking around. The rate of deaths are very high in the End, so most Shulks would seek refuge in the Overworld and try make a home there instead of their homeland.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                        ⅸ. Feline The Feline culture remained the same even after the war, they were involved with it but it didn’t effect them as much as the other tribes. Felines before the war were known to handle rough jobs or tasks, such as an assassins or being a body guard. Of course with the right price you could convince a Feline to work for you. The only major change that happened to their culture after the war, was a lot of Felines were rich off the products they were making to support the war, or was rich due to the amount of body guards or extra soldiers needed. Therefore this created first class Felines that depend on their social status and their position in economy. Roughly 2% of the Feline population is above the middle class mark, but that doesn’t mean that they are still not rich. The higher classes expect much from heirs and children to make an example of their families, therefore not making Felines the best at families or parent advice.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃                                                               【Credits】 》The Origins mod does not belong to be and belongs to creators. 》Check out https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/origins/files to download the mod.

[anabantoid]

The Ubiquitous Betta Care Guide

Literally everyone and their mother has written a care guide about bettas, but I felt like I could provide a care guide based around my opinions and experiences in keeping bettas. I’ve kept bettas since I was about 15 years old, they were one of my first fish, and I fell in love with them and at one point I had over a dozen bettas at one time! That’s ridiculous now, but this was 2005/2006, bettas were cheaper and not as disposable then, definitely lasting for the oft-quoted “2-3 year” lifespans that people struggle to see today. Nowadays, I struggle to be able to get a betta to live past 6 months. So, what’s happening? Am I suddenly taking worse care of bettas than I did when I was 15? 

Well, no, all of my most recent bettas were kept in tanks that were over 50 gallons, well planted, my tap water is soft (kH of 5), my pH is neutral (7-7.4) and my water is easily modified with botanicals or wood to be about 6 if need be. They live in filtered tanks with 80 degree water, eat nothing but live or frozen food, and never fall ill with disease or parasites. That’s more than I can say about teenage me. I dealt with a lot of issues, obviously, from bacterial to fungal infections because of my ignorance, but nowadays I can’t say I’ve had to treat a betta for anything, they just sorta..die, and at seemingly random too. What’s going on? 

Today, bettas come in every color, shape and variety you can think of, which wasn’t the case when I was 15. The reason for the huge variety is the desire for more ornamental fish, but for commercial selling, there’s mass breeding on an industrial scale which leads to poor stock, inbreeding, and deformed fish and genetic issues we just can’t see. It doesn’t matter if it’s a local breeder or from a store, they’re all coming from the same stock now. 

I’ve touched about betta problems in the past, and if you’ve followed my blog for a few years or see me in my discord server (Fish Tea), then you already know how I feel. That’s not what this post is about! This post is about caring for your betta, what I’ve learned in my experiences with them, and how to treat and care for the common ailments that befall them.

THEIR CARE:

Min tank size: 10 gallons. Why 10 gallons? In all my time keeping bettas, they do best in larger tanks that allow them to move, they get proper muscle tone in larger tanks because they’re able to move, and I’ve never had an issue with constipation in bettas when placed in larger tanks because movement makes it easier for animals to pass their waste. I can’t think of any other 2 inch-3 inch, active fish that anyone would suggest for a 5 gallon, but for some reason people all say 5 gallons is fine. This is MY recommendation, this is something I will tell people to follow, but whether or not you agree is up to you. You can keep them as you wish, but I prefer having bettas in larger tanks.

Temperature: 80+. In the wild, the Betta genus comes from hot, humid environments in Southeast Asia, living in shallow bodies of water that can be over 80 degrees in temperature. Wild Betta splendens have been observed living in rice paddies with an average temperature of 84 degrees (Jaroensutasinee & Jaroensutansinee, 2001). While it can be argued that domestic bettas are different from their wild counterparts, we have not bred them for cold resistance, and bettas display poor health in colder temps, lethargy, loss of appetite, bloating and constipation. 

Water Params: My position about water parameters has evolved over time, but I still think a betta does best in neutral to acidic waters, because a betta in a pH of 8+ will not have a great time. Essentially, most people’s tap water will be fine, you don’t need RO water to keep a domestic betta.

Feeding: I feed my bettas live food in the form of blackworms, fruit flies, random small bugs I find, a spider….anything that’s an invert and they can swallow, they can eat it. I also feed them frozen foods such as bloodworms, krill, mysis, cyclops and sometimes just cut up cocktail shrimp. You can feed them live and frozen, and you can also give them prepared foods, like New Life Spectrum, Bug Bites, or Bug Pro. They have excellent sources of protein that are not derived from soy like other brands such as Hikari, Omega One, Tetra, Aqueon and such. You can also make repashy grub pie and feed them that. 

Furnishings: Bettas naturally come from environments that are dense with vegetative growth (Jaroensutasinee & Jaroensutansinee, 2001), which means your bettas should also be in tanks that are filled to the brim with plants! I like live plants, but you can use soft silks too, anything that can provide them some cover that they can serpentine and swim through. My rule of thumb usually is if you can see straight through one end of the tank with no broken lines of sight, you don’t have enough plants. Lack of proper coverage can make them stressed out, lethargic and more susceptible to illness and refusal to eat.

Tank mates: If you want to keep bettas with other fish, I suggest a 20 long as a minimum. If your betta has long fins, avoid getting any boisterous, nipping fish like tetras. Kuhli loaches make wonderful tankmates for bettas because they tolerate the high temps a betta likes, as well as Hypancistrus plecos, some corydoras, smaller spiny eels and more. I don’t recommend ever putting shrimp in with bettas, aside from larger shrimp like amanos, because shrimp are a betta’s natural prey and they will hunt them all down!

WHAT IF MY BETTA GETS SICK?

Bettas can and will get ill, you will most likely encounter an issue with your betta one way or another, but what can you do to help? In most cases, the problem is lack of proper care and poor water conditions. The best way to insure your betta remains happy and healthy is to have a clean tank. The easiest way to do this is to make sure your tank is cycled and you do regular, weekly water changes of 25%-30%. 

When you buy a betta, make sure you are picking out an active one, don’t try to be a saint and pick out one laying on its side, half dead. The likelihood is that it will just die, you’ll feel upset, and then you’ll go out and try it again. I’ve been there! It doesn’t work! Get a fish that wiggles at you and looks like it wants to kick your ass. That’s a good betta.

Here’s some common betta ailments:

Popeye: This happens because your water quality is poor and a bacterial infection brews up, causing fluid retention that can pop the eye out. Your best course of action is to address the water quality issue, then use an antibiotic such as kanaplex or metroplex. 

Bloat and constipation: The betta is fed too much, the tank is unheated, the water quality is poor, the tank is too small, and more. This is a symptom of an underlying issues, and it needs to be addressed by seeing what you’re doing wrong. To treat it, give your betta a soak in an epsom salt bath for 10-15 minutes in a bucket or other container, with 1 tbs of epsom salt per gallon. Feed them some frozen food like daphnia or brine shrimp to aid in passing their waste. 

Ich: This can literally happen to anyone, and it sometimes just. Happens. Inexplicably. Whether or not it’s introduced or always in the water, it can crop up in even the warmest of tanks, as ich nowadays seems to have gotten particularly strong. Up your temps to about 86, your betta can handle temps into the 90’s, and use an ich treatment, I usually do Ich X, follow the directions on the bottle. You can also do a salt dip on the betta at the first signs of ich, 1 tbs of aquarium or table salt per gallon in a separate container, do a 10 minute soak. Up the temps and see if the ich subsides, if not, follow through with medication.

Fin rot: This is a water quality issue, you need to address this first before proceeding with treatment, as usually providing clean, warm water is enough to stop fin rot. If you do this but notice the fin rot is especially aggressive or starting to proceed onto the body, treat with an antibiotic such as kanaplex.

Velvet: This is a parasitic infection like ich, though for this one it comes from yet another water quality issue. It can happen in the store they come from, or it can happen in your home if you’re not up and up on your care. You would treat it the same way as ich, however shut your lights off, as it appears to be light sensitive.

Lethargy, bottom sitting, loss of appetite: These are symptoms of a bigger issue, be it water quality, age, or simply just something going wrong internally that we can’t see. If your tank is too cold, you’re not feeding enough or you’re not on top of water changes, you can help by adjusting all of that. If it’s from age or something else, all you can do is wait and see how much longer the betta has left, or euthanize if you feel he won’t get better. You can attempt an epsom salt bath, raising temps, and feeding live or frozen, but at that point it’s palliative care rather than a solution.

What if you just got your betta, and it seemed fine, and then one day it didn’t look good and the next you found it dead? Well, circling back to my long winded intro, you can see that the answer is in the poor breeding practices. Bettas are not as strong or hardy as they used to be, in fact they seem to just be about as durable as tissue paper nowadays and will die after a few months or a year, with some exceptions. It can be disheartening to feel like you’re failing at a fish that’s touted as being one of the hardiest fish out there, but I promise you that if you’re providing the best care for them, they’ll still die early, and you’re not at fault. I still get bettas, but I only buy one after another passes, and I try to not spend more than $15 on one. I settle with the fact they won’t live as long, and I enjoy them while I have them, and if you feel the same way, go for it.

If you’d like to learn more about bettas, their alternatives and more, the best way to reach me and a whole community of experiences keepers is through Fish Tea, an lgbt+ friendly discord server dedicated to all things aquatic.

(reference: Jaroensutasinee, M., & Jaroensutansinee, K. (2001). Bubble nest habitat characteristics of wild Siamese fighting fish. Journal of Fish Biology, 58(5), 1311-1319. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2001.tb02288.x)

[caffernnn]

i saw your tags so LET'S TALK ABOUT POLAR BEARS AND WHAT THEY SYMBOLIZE FOR HIYORI

OOH OOH OOH I’M READY

I think one of the biggest connections I draw between polar bears and Hiyori is how much of their existence is defined by adapting survive seemingly under-the-radar. Polar bears over time have developed to become absolute defensive tanks, from their thick skin all the way down to their fur color (or lack thereof). Their fur looks white because of how it absorbs and reflects light, helping it to blend in with the snow (their actual skin color is close to the deep black color of their noses). Despite being powerful and at the top of their food chain, so much of them has changed from their brown bear ancestral roots to make them the most threatening wallflowers. Furthermore, unless they are mating or a mother raising their cubs, polar bears are creatures that live solitary lives (i.e. not traveling in packs or socializing beyond mating as adults, not having a den, going on long solitary swimming trips, etc). All of this is interesting when looking at Hiyori because it’s easy to see that he learned early on how to hold himself and respond to his environment in a way that is extremely calculated, polite and unobtrusive unless threatened. Also, Hiyori hesitates to get attached or place down roots, the one big exception seeming to be the Kirishimas and Ikuya specifically. He is a guarded person who has built up walls to survive hardships alone, but he is protective and covets the few close relationships he has deeply.

HERE’S SOMETHING INTERESTING: Polar bears, also known as sea bears, are classified in this liminal space between land and sea because of their strong ties to the water. Despite being bears (land mammals), their powerful swimming and extensive time spent in the water to hunt has earned them the classification of being marine mammals, similar to whales and seals. Considering how heavily Hiyori’s story goes back to The Little Mermaid and the symbolism of mermaids being tied to two different worlds, this felt like an important polar bear fact to consider. When looking at the totem animals of many of the free! characters, they are usually marine creatures that are undoubtedly a part of that category (orca, dolphin, shark, etc). When a character’s totem breaks that mold, however, it stands out and seems to signify a peculiar/complex relationship with swimming (like rei being a butterfly). Even though Hiyori’s totem initially stands out, he doesn’t technically break the mold. Polar bears have evolved over time to have the sea become an integral part of their survival and livelihood (I mean dang, they grew webbing to help them swim), and I feel like Hiyori has let swimming become a more defining part of his life than he ever thought it would.

This is getting long, but it comes down to this: polar bears are stealthy, yet powerful. They are built to conceal their own darkness, survive in bright yet frigid environments, and have every tool in their arsenal ready if one of the few others they care about is threatened. They possess an interesting duality where they are undoubtedly bears, but bears that stand out for their many quirks (they don’t even hibernate) and their strong ties to the water. Sitting and chewing on Hiyori’s character in comparison to many of the things that make polar bears unique, the totem makes so much sense to me.

I’d love to hear about anything you’ve noticed with Hiyori and polar bears (or any other character’s totem, honestly!!) because it’s just so INTERESTING 🐻‍❄️✨