#long spined sea urchin

[styllwaters]

The kiki and bouba of urchins. if you even care

[kabii-kins]

Allow me to implicate something devastating in two images.

[kyreniacommentator]

“Go ahead and eat”, Lionfish and Long-spined sea urchin tasting event

“Go ahead and eat”, Lionfish and Long-spined sea urchin tasting event

[just-jordie-things]

just like my crush - fushiguro megumi

word count: 3.8k warnings: swearing, reader is doped up from anesthesia summary: confessing that you have a crush on someone really isn't that hard. all it takes is anesthesia clouding your judgment. a/n: brought to you by my lovely nanami flowershop anon's beautiful brain !!!

___

Injuries in this line work wasn’t unusual.  Someone was always occupying Shoko’s little infirmary and keeping her busy.  Nasty gashes, sprained wrists, broken bones- it was practically a part of the job description.  No, it wasn’t pretty, but at least with a master of the Reverse Cursed Technique on site, the mishaps that came with assignments never lasted too long.

Because of this expectation, Megumi had never been put in a position where he worried over someone’s well being after an exorcism gone awry.  He’d had life threatening wounds get healed more times than he could count on both hands, hell, Yuji lost a hand and got that back! 

So why did he feel sick to his stomach when she took a bad hit during an assignment? Why did his throat close up too tight for him to explain the situation to the manager on the assignment? Or to Ieiri when he got her back to campus? Why was there a cold sweat racing down his spine, but his insides felt like they were on fire? 

Despite all of Ieiri’s insisting that (y/n) was fine, that she’d gotten here just in time, that she was healed and would wake up at any time- likely without the memory of what happened- and that she would still be fine then… Megumi didn’t tear himself out of that room in the infirmary even once.  

When she does wake up- two days and a couple hours later- he doesn’t look too good.  He’d pale and he’s been bouncing his leg for so long it’s gone numb, but the relief that washes over him brings some color back to his face.

Her eyelashes flicker about a few times before she finally opens her eyes, but his attention is drawn to the way her hand twitches above the stark white sheets.

“Hey,” He murmurs, as quiet as he can stand to speak.  He didn’t want to startle her, and he thinks that if she were to flinch back at him, he’d flinch too.  “(y/n), you awake?” He asks when she doesn’t say anything right away.

Then her eyes finally find him, and with a hazy gloss over her blown pupils, she smiles.  It’s slow, and so, so impaired, but it’s pretty nonetheless.

“Oh, wow,” 

Her voice is strained, likely from not having been used for a couple days, but the light and breezy way in which she speaks is enough for him to know that her anesthetics haven’t worn off.  The stoner-like smile also tipped him off pretty well, but Megumi’s sure now.

“You know who you look like?” 

It’s not the question Megumi’s expecting, and his confusion is obvious in the way a tiny knot forms between his brows.  He would’ve thought  ‘where am I?’ or ‘what happened?’ would be in order, but maybe the anesthesia was more on top of her than he would’ve thought, so he hums in response and waits for her explanation.  Surely she’ll have something silly to say, it wouldn’t be the first time she called him a sea urchin for his messy hair.

“You look jus’ like my crush” (y/n) half-slurs back.  She tilted her head in his direction, trying to get a better look at him from where she was laying, but the rest of her body felt too heavy to move.

Megumi’s eyes widen, and before he can stop himself a small laugh comes out.  Confusion, humor, and disbelief blend into the overwhelming relief in knowing that Ieiri hadn’t been lying to him to protect his feelings.  (y/n) would be completely fine.

Maybe a little bit high, but still, completely fine.

Her shoulders shake in the slightest when she laughs in response to his own little chuckle, delighted purely by his reaction.

“I’m serious,” She mumbles out, eyes falling heavy for a minute the longer she stares at him.  “And it’s a compliment too, b’cause he’s, like, really cute”  “I didn’t know you were crushing on anyone” Megumi hums, leaning his elbows against the edge of her cot so that he could prop his chin in his hands.  Amusement flickers in his eyes when her expression noticeably shifts.  Her eyes widen and her lips part but no words come out.  Was he actually making her nervous? Who the hell did he look like in her eyes right now that had her reacting like this? 

Megumi can’t recall a time she’d ever talked to him about crushing on anyone.  Nothing of the sort, not even a hint.  And he’d definitely never seen the ruthless sorcerer appear so… 

Well, she looked like a girl with a crush.  A blush was forming on her cheeks the longer he held eye contact with her, and the way the corners of her mouth twitched and betrayed her as she tried to bite back a smile.

“Y-yeah, duh,” She stammers back at him with a sassy roll of her eyes.  Megumi’s quick to push his hand against his mouth to stifle his laughter.  “The point of a crush is it’s secret” 

“So you’re not gonna tell me then?” He asks curiously.

She probably didn’t know it, but (y/l/n) (y/n) was the only person in the world that got to see the playful side of him.  It was hard not to act on his intrigue, though.  It was too entertaining to see her in this state… and the rapid beating of his heart in his ribcage made him ache to know more.

But she shakes her head against her pillow, sealing her lips shut to further prove her point.  She’s still smiling, though, and she hasn’t torn her eyes off of his since she woke up.

“How’re you feeling, anyways?” Megumi decides to steer the topic back to one of more importance.  “Anything hurt? Can I get you anything-?” 

“Even your eyes are pretty like his,” She interrupts him, and then sighs as though this was a large inconvenience for her.  “You must be related,” She says matter-of-factly.

He hopes that when the drugs wear off she doesn’t remember this moment, because Megumi knows his face is as red as a tomato with how fiery his skin feels.  A nervous laugh bubbles out of him before he could choke it down, and her whole face lights up in response.

“You must not get compliments often, huh?” She teases in a slow drawl.

“I… I guess not,” He says, followed by more nervous laughter that happens against his will.  “But thank you, (y/n).  That’s very… kind” 

He’s painfully awkward, and he knows that as soon as he leaves this room he’s going to overthink this entire interaction, but for now he tries to bask in the warmth that sparks from knowing she thinks he has pretty eyes.  Or at least, she does when she’s so doped up she can’t quite focus on a conversation.

But at least she's obviously not in any pain.  Megumi’s worries begin to melt away, but that might just be the work of her flattery.

“You’re welcome,” She grins back at him, but she just as soon furrows her brows and regards him curiously.  Even after staring at him so shamelessly, she suddenly doesn’t appear to recognize him one bit.  “I thought Megumi only had a sister, though”

It comes out in a mumble, and he’s sure that she’s talking to herself in her deluded state, but the rush of heat that floods his chest and shoots up his neck is nearly too much to bear.

She actually didn’t recognize him this whole time? Was she talking about him this whole time? Was the flattery not a drug-induced misconception and actually-?

Before he can settle on a question to ask her to clear his confusion, she’s settling back into her pillow and her eyes are falling shut.  Megumi opens his mouth, ready to force out the first thing that comes to mind, but she drifts off almost immediately.  Her chest rising and falling in slow, steady movements.

It felt like a cruel prank.

Now he was left sitting and gaping at her unconscious form.  His heart is racing and his leg is bouncing again, and Megumi thinks he might be even more anxious for her to wake up this time.

He decides then and there that when she does, and when she’s of sound mind again, he’ll ask her about it.  Because if she really did have a crush on him he’d have to finally get over his ridiculous anxiety and make a move. ___

A week after making a full recovery, (y/n) comes to the decision that if she wants Megumi to talk to her, she’ll just have to corner him.

She’s not sure why he hasn’t been talking to her- hence her cornering plan- but ever since her last assignment had gone awry and she’d been put on a minor hold, he’d been dodging her.  And sure, Megumi wasn’t always the most sociable guy, but he was a friend and even if he didn’t feel like hanging out, he wouldn’t completely ghost her like this.

Of course she’d tried asking Yuji and Nobara about it, but they were a dead end.  They’d been just as surprised as she was that he’d been avoiding her.

I thought you were best friends, Yuji had frowned at the idea of a falling out between his two friends that he cared about so much.

Maybe he realized you have a crush on him and pussied out, Nobara had cackled at the scenario, not feeling an ounce of worry that this weird bump wouldn’t get resolved.

Needless to say, (y/n) was quick to steer her investigation far away from them, before the blabbermouths could do what they do best and blab around the wrong people.

She corners him while doing laundry, of all things.

“Hey,” 

And when she walks into the room while he’s tossing his freshly washed laundry into the dryer, Megumi hits his head on the lid when he swivels around in shock to see her there.

“Oh god, are you alright?” 

“I’m fine- it’s fine,” He answers all too quickly, before she’s even finished her question.  “I’m almost done with the washing machine” 

(y/n) can’t help but chuckle a little bit, seeing as she wasn’t currently holding a basket of laundry, but Megumi’s already back to filling up the dryer.  It appears every piece of clothing he tosses in is monochrome- mostly black, but a few gray pieces here and there.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it is a bit funny.

“I actually was looking for you,” She tells him, leaning against the doorframe.  It’s half casual, and half to block his only escape.  Megumi responds with a small hum, still putting all of his focus on moving the laundry.  “Are you upset with me?” 

The question has him swiveling again, finally giving her his undivided attention.  It’s a bit unnerving, the way he straightens up and goes rigid as he stares back at her in bewilderment.  She wants to be annoyed that he has the audacity to look confused when he was the one that had been avoiding her for days, but she gives him the benefit of the doubt 

“Upset? No.  No of course not” He answers, and his words are so certain, that she believes him straight away.  But the small bit of truth doesn’t provide much relief.

“Then how come you’ve been dodging me?” She asks, unable to help her frown.  What other reason could there be? If he’s not mad at something, why would act so flaky?

“I haven’t been dodging you” 

“That’s a lie” 

“It’s not?” 

“It is,” She crosses her arms defensively.  “You haven’t been answering your phone and you always have some excuse to not talk to me.  Did I do something?” 

“Not really” 

He winces as soon as the answer leaves his mouth.  It wasn’t like him to get so careless- but it also wasn’t like him to avoid her.  Really, he was falling apart at the seams and trying quite desperately to appear as though everything was normal.  

It wasn’t working.  (y/n) could see the panic in his eyes as clear as day.  Not to mention the way his lips twitched like he was holding back further explanation.  She narrows her eyes as she studies him carefully.

“Not really?” She repeats his lame answer.  “So sort of? So I did do something?” 

Megumi’s certain that she chose to stand in the doorway so he couldn’t make an easy escape.  Would it be immature to summon the rabbits? 

“(y/n) it’s- it’s fine.  It’s me, alright?” He’s not very convincing.

“So you did something?” Another question he doesn’t want to answer.

“No- just- not really- it was just-” He stammers, and then groans, tilting his head back and glaring at the fluorescent light hanging over him.  

He recalls the way he’d sworn to himself that he’d talk to her about her little anesthesia-induced confession, and kicks himself now for cowering out of it.  Megumi never really ran away from a challenge, even when he knew he was in over his head.  But something about standing before her now and explaining how she’d inadvertently confessed to having a crush on him makes his heart beat out of sync and his throat go dry.

“Look I just don’t want things to be weird between us,” (y/n) sighs, giving up on interrogating him so heavily.  “So just… whatever it is, can we talk about it?” 

And he swoons, actually swoons.  His knees physically feel weak and he has to resist the urge to let all of his muscles relax and sink towards the ground.  It was so sweet, so considerate of her to want to mend the nonexistent conflict between them.  Megumi didn’t think it was possible to like her more than he already did, but she had a knack for proving him wrong.

So with an anxious breath, he thinks screw it and just lets it out.

“Do you remember waking up and talking to me in the infirmary?”

Her brows furrow, giving him her answer, and then her features soften with realization.

“You visited me in the infirmary?” She asks, almost in a whisper.  No, she didn’t remember, and no one had told her she’d had any visitors during her short stay there.

Megumi nods his head.

“Yeah, I… I stayed till you woke up.  And you did, for a couple minutes anyways, but you were pretty out of it.  Anesthesia and all” He explains.

She tries to rack her memory for any hazy glimpse of talking to Megumi in Shoko’s clinic, but nothing comes to mind.  She feels a little guilty now, having forgotten so easily.

“Okay…” She trails off, waiting for the rest of his explanation.  “So… something happened then?” 

Megumi hesitates, his expression twisted in mild displeasure, like he just stubbed his toe or has to deliver an oral presentation.  (y/n) tries to be patient, she really does, but the longer he draws this out the larger the pit in her stomach grows.

“Yeah,” The word comes out through a heavy breath, and he pauses for just a moment longer before admitting the last detail.  “You… you sort of confessed that you have a crush on me” 

“Oh,” 

Relief settles into her bones, and then a spike of panic.

“Oh” 

Her eyes are widening and her arms wrap tighter around herself, fingers digging into the sides of her ribs as if she could possibly ground herself with her anxiety reaching an all time high.

For fuck’s sake, she wasn’t this anxious when that Grade One tried to take a massive bite out of her body.

“You were really out of it, though,” Megumi says quickly.  “You were just… high.  You probably just couldn’t see or think straight-” 

“No, I wasn’t just high,” She cuts him off with surprising calmness in her voice, and a short shake of her head.  “I do.  Have a crush on you, I mean.  I didn’t… obviously I didn’t intend to tell you that, but, I guess high-me can’t keep a secret, so…” 

She trails off with a bashful giggle that would have embarrassed her if she wasn’t already filled to the brim with embarrassment.  Megumi’s lips part, but he doesn’t say anything.  The corner of his mouth twitches a few times too, and still, he’s standing in bewildered silence before her.

It’s not that he didn’t believe her, he was eighty-five percent sure that she’d meant what she said while she was still under the influence of the anesthetics, but that fifteen percent of uncertainty was his paranoia getting the best of him.  But now she was of sound mind, dead sober, and dead serious as she stared at him and awaited some sort of reaction.

No real reaction came, unless you counted the drumming of his fingers against his side, slow at first, but picking up speed the longer they both stood there and waited for the other to say something.

Megumi knows he should say something, and probably something along the lines of; well that’s a relief because I’m actually crushing on you so hard I don’t know what to do with myself… but unfortunately, he really didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Do I even want to know how badly I embarrassed myself?” (y/n) breaks the silence with a nervous but curious smile.

“You said I looked just like your crush,” He explained, heat flooding to his face as he recalled the other things she said.  “It was actually the first thing you said when you woke up,” 

She has to laugh at that a little, to which Megumi feels some of the tension in his shoulders disappear.  The tension in the room also starts to thin out, much to his relief.

“Then you went on about how cute your crush was.  And when I tried to ask how you were feeling, after, you know, surgery and all that, you ignored me and said…” He rubs the back of his neck, growing shy as he realized he was rambling and the subject matter already had his heart racing.

“Oh god… what?” (y/n) gasps, eyes widening, hoping she didn’t let out some dirty thought that she worked very hard to keep in the back of her mind.

“You said I had pretty eyes, and then you sorta let it slip that I was your crush, so I guess you didn’t realize you were talking to me the whole time… and then you passed back out” 

She’s laughing again, but this time she covers her face with her hands in a pitiful attempt to hide her blush until it goes away.  A small groan dies at the back of her throat.  The second hand embarrassment from her past-inebriated-self was just too much.

After all this time she's done so well at keeping her feelings under wraps, of never letting it be known with a slip of tongue or lingering touch, only to tell him so brazenly while in a hospital cot… it was ridiculous.

“God… I’m so sorry, that’s… wow, that’s probably the most humiliating thing I’ve ever done” She starts off looking at him, but ends up muttering to herself and looks away, still overwhelmed by the mortification of it all.

A small smile graces Megumi’s face, and in a moment of being true to his word, he musters up the courage to speak up before she could walk away and pretend this didn’t happen.

“It was more cute than humiliating,” He tells her, and she peeks back up at him in soft surprise.  “Maybe just a little embarrassing, just a little… but… still cute” His voice gets softer the longer she looks at him and he starts to lose the confidence he started out so strong with, but he still holds her gaze, hoping that she’ll know he means it.

“Cute?” She repeats in quiet disbelief.  Megumi nods back at her with absolute certainty and sincerity.

He gives into another bout of a confidence boost and takes a few steps forward, closing some of the space between them.  (y/n) practically scrambles to straighten up away from the doorframe, her shoulders squaring and her eyes widening as she watches him move towards her.

“And for what it’s worth, I think you have pretty eyes, too,” 

It’s quieter than he intends, but his words are effective in replacing the nervous tension in the room with something much more palpable.  The electricity buzzing between them was so thick they were practically choking on it.

(y/n) smiles, slow at first, processing the sudden compliment, and then all once.  Every inch of her skin warmed from the sweet words, and she’s not sure she’s ever felt flattery like this before.  She’s never taken a compliment so to heart, never known that she was going to go to sleep that night playing it over and over in her head.

Megumi’s eyes flicker between hers for a moment, admiring the way she lights up with delight before him, and then he opens his mouth again.

“They look just like my crush’s” 

Her brows furrow and despite that feeling of embarrassment spiking in her chest again, the corner of her lips curl into a smirk that gives into a smile almost immediately after.  Megumi’s clearly amused by this reaction, laughing to himself like he was so proud of his own tease.

“That’s so corny” She mutters, before stepping away from the doorway and closing the last bit of distance between them.

Despite his nerves he anticipates her movements, large hands finding purchase on her hips and practically yanking her the rest of the way that it takes to have her body against his.  There’s no extra time for words before their lips crash fast.  The kiss is surprisingly tender for how rushed their movements were, but it had them both melting into the other right away.

Her hands are gentle as they smooth over his shoulders before wrapping lightly at the nape of his neck.  Her fingers poke into the dark strands of hair that hang there, and when she curls a few locks between her index and middle finger, he presses his lips against hers with a little more fervor.

Even once they part from one another, neither one goes very far.  Gasping for air with lips still brushing each other’s, noses bumping, and hands still holding on tight all in the name of not putting an inch of distance between them.

Still no words are exchanged as they share a look before both glancing at the open doorway behind them.  It doesn’t take verbal communication for Megumi to reach behind her to grab the door by the handle and swing it shut.  The only sound that fills the room is the white noise buzzing from the dryer cycle, and the soft giggle that’s immediately suppressed by warm, inviting lips pressing against hers again.

___

a/n: thank u again my amazing nanami flowershop anon for this really fun idea. also i just love playful megumi. he's so cute n shy <3

xoxo ~ jordie

[sincerelyamee]

Your Life As A Tokyo Jujutsu High Background Student

| Megumi x Reader | Reader's third year & Gender-neutral |

You had not known Fushiguro Megumi for very long, perhaps a few months at best, but you had already grown fond of the boy. That little sea urchin, with his aloof glare and standoffish body language, was always so irritated with the world. 

He definitely didn’t seem to like you much in the beginning… if he liked anyone at all. He had that palpable “leave me alone” vibe - spiky hair hiding his face, arms habitually crossed in an invisible barrier, one-word answers to attempts at small talk. Anyone else would have taken the hint after a few rebuffs and kept their distance. But not you. 

There was a wariness there, a carefully contained fragility that resonated with your own. You recognized that cold glare all too well, having worn it like armor yourself once upon a time, before Gojo had broken through your walls with his irritating persistence and arrogant cheerfulness.

You knew—beneath the hostile exterior, Megumi was just a boy thrown alone into the cruel world of jujutsu, trying desperately to survive. You could relate all too painfully. So you persisted. Offering your quiet presence like a comforting blanket, you'd hover at the edges of Megumi's personal bubble, reading, snacking, giving him the wide berth he clearly craved. Never demanding attention. During meal time, you would add an extra pudding cup to your tray, then silently offload it into Megumi’s as you plopped down next to him, talking lightly about Gojo’s recent antics as you ate.  In the library, you'd claim the seat beside him, the two of you reading in a comfortable silence broken only by the occasional turn of a page. Now and then you simply occupied nearby space, tapping idly at your phone screen whenever he sought out an empty corner to avoid company. 

Then one day between training sessions he fell into step beside you, wordlessly holding out an ice-cold bottle of mint chocolate milk. Your favorite. From that small olive branch on, a new ease settled into your interactions. His rejection of the pudding cups turned into acceptance turned into quietly waiting for them every day. Rolling eyes at your appearance in the library softened into furtive peeks over book spines to see if you’d come to keep him company. He held himself stiffly at first when you claimed the armchair adjacent to his in the common room, but soon began leaning into your idle chatter on curse techniques.

Most times the two of you spent together were still in silence rather than actual conversation. But the quietness somehow felt warmer now, more intimate than isolating. And every so often, when he thought you weren’t paying attention, you’d notice the flicker of a barely-there smile softening Megumi’s face at something you’d said. In those moments, you felt a fierce affection and protectiveness swell brightly in your chest...

You are a third year student at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School.

You are Gojo’s most spoiled third year. Not that he has many options, since your classmates have all been suspended.

You are Nanami’s most favorite jujutsu sorcerer thanks to your mutual distaste of the jujutsu world and burning desire for early retirement.

You are Shoko’s most beloved unofficial assistant who does all her paperwork. Don’t let Principal Yaga hear about that though.

You are the first years’ most adored senpai, because Gojo has the audacity to dump most if not all of his teaching responsibilities on you.

But most importantly, you are a background character. Sometimes, they bring you along. Sometimes, you do your own things in the background while watching them doing important, heroic things.

You are no protagonist. You are just here for the ride.

[alphynix]

Strange Symmetries #03: Eerie Early Echinoderms

Represented today by starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and crinoids, the echinoderms have a characteristic five-way radial symmetry that makes them barely even recognizable as bilaterians. Their true ancestry is only revealed by their genetics and their larvae, which still retain bilateral symmetry – and the way they metamorphose into adults is bizarre, essentially growing a whole new radial body from within the left side of their larval body.

(Sea cucumbers and sand dollars are superficially bilateral as adults, but evolved this secondarily on top of their existing radial symmetry. And some adult echinoderms like starfish also seem to retain a little bit of "behavioral bilaterism", generally preferring to move with a specific arm always acting as their "front" end.)

The first known echinoderms appeared in the fossil record during the early Cambrian, about 525 million years ago, but the common ancestor of the whole group probably actually originated a few tens of millions of years earlier in the mid-to-late Ediacaran. Early echinoderms seem to have started off as flattened animals that sat on the seafloor filter-feeding, and with this largely immobile way of life their bodies started to shift into asymmetry, no longer constrained by the locomotory advantages of being bilaterally symmetric.

In fact, for these early sedentary filter-feeders being radial was actually much more advantageous, able to distribute sense organs all around their bodies and grab food from any direction without having to reposition themselves, converging on the lifestyle of non-bilaterian cnidarian polyps. The evolutionary transition from bilateral to asymmetrical to pentaradial seems to have happened incredibly quickly during the Cambrian Explosion, and all modern echinoderms probably evolved from a group called the edrioasteroids, maintaining their new base body plan even when they later began taking up more mobile lifestyles again.

But during the process of all that some very alien-looking lineages split off at various stages of anatomical weirdness.

Stylophorans had asymmetrical bodies with a single feeding arm at the front, and varied from irregular boot-like shapes to almost bilateral heart shapes depending on their specific ecologies. The highly asymmetrical forms were probably spreading their weight out over soft soupy mud in quiet waters, while the more bilateral forms may have been more streamlined to deal with stronger water currents.

Sokkaejaecystis serrata was a stylophoran that lived during the late Cambrian, about 501-488 million years ago, in what is now South Korea. It was tiny, only about 1cm long (~0.4"), and its boot-shaped body was surrounded by spines and flanges that spread out its surface area and probably also made it much more awkward for small predators to attempt to eat.

———

Meanwhile the solutes started off as immobile animals living attached to the seafloor via a stalk-like appendage. But fairly early in their evolution they switched to a more active mode of life, modifying their stems into tail-like "steles" that were used to push themselves along.

Maennilia estonica lived in what is now Estonia during the late Ordovician, about 450 million years ago. It was quite large for a solute at about 12cm long (~4.7"), with a sort of vaguely-trapezoidal body, a short feeding arm, and a long thin stele.

Both of these strange early echinoderm lineages were surprisingly successful, surviving for a good chunk of the Paleozoic Era alongside their more familiar radial relatives. The solutes lasted until the early Devonian about 400 million years ago, and the stylophorans continued all the way into the late Carboniferous about 310 million years ago.

———

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[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Pencil Sea Urchin (Heterocentrotus mamillatus)

(Photo by Scott Atwood)

Conservation Status- Unlisted

Habitat- Coastal Atlantic Ocean; Caribbean Sea

Size (Weight/Length)- 15 cm

Diet- Algae; Coral; Mollusks

Cool Facts- Instead of being sharp and spiny like their Pacific cousins, the pencil sea urchin’s goal is to look as unappetizing as possible. The 10 centimeter long spines are thick and rounded, resulting in it being simply too large for most fish to be able to fit in their mouths. Pencil sea urchins are mostly sedentary after they find a nice growth of algae to feed on. However, these urchins are capable of moving a whopping 90 centimeters a day when they feel like it. These urchins are threatened by a mixture of ocean pollution and over tourism of the reefs they call home. Pencil sea urchins are also popular for aquarists and often find themselves in the illegal pet trade.

Rating- 11/10 (Now if only they could learn how to write.)

[netegf]

love dart

pairing: ao'nung x reader

When the water beyond the reef bends against the light to make a horizontal ripple, it looks a lot like Ao’nung’s brow. All the tension of a pulled arrow, but suspended in time and space. Leaving you to wonder when it might release.

“You’re going to pop a vessel.” You say bluntly, poking a finger into his tight forehead.

For a moment, his eyes soften from their perpetual narrow. But his lips stay tightly pinned in a thin line. Hands stay fixed on the bandage wrap he intends to wrap around your knee, dried blood staining the lithe fingers.

Against the cracking of high tide, there is only the sound of his breathing, drawing out as a painful metronome. His large chest takes a long time to expand.

“Tsahìk’s son is dressing my wound.” You hum with a stupid grin. “I must be special.”

If he agrees, he certainly does not say so. Instead, his fingers gently brush away a family of urchin spines and slather a clump of light green paste over the patch of your skin where they, not so long ago, called home. When you jump at the coolness, his other hand comes down on your uninjured knee as a warm, makeshift anchor.

“What, so it’s my fault the reef wants my blood?”

Now, you are pushing. Coaxing. Like you want him to scold you. Like a ticklish kiss to his elbow with the hope that the arrow snaps forward. In a better mood, he would say that the reef had done nothing. You never heed his warnings. You always step forward without looking where your feet land.

With his thick lashes fluttering in every slow blink, Ao’nung wraps the affliction in bandage. With a surge of brilliance, you part your lips in a particularly pained “o” and feign an aggrieved moan. “Ow!”

His eyes, for the first time since his arrival, practically leap from their sockets as he looks up from his spot between your legs to meet your gaze. He’s about to apologize for his roughness in what would have been an amusing gesture considering his feather-light touch, when he notices the glimmer of mischief in your eyes.

“Got you.” You sing, but the brief acknowledgement quickly dissipates into an eye-roll. Still holding your leg, his fingers go back to their tinkering, and this time, you pout.

“You’re mad at me.”

It is so earnest, Ao’nung feels his chest pull from the inside. Slowly, he finishes his wrapping. “I am not mad at you.”

Ao'nung has learned, more often than not, that the quirk in your brow is response enough. In this case, it is quite clear – really?

He pauses. “You give me a headache.”

Not the right explanation, but he says it anyways. It was not so much matter of head as it was matter of heart. You made his heart ache.

And if that wasn’t agonizing enough, his hands were still stained with your blood. His body suddenly comes up until his chest brushes yours and those same red hands caress your face.

“I thought you needed a brain for that.” You whisper, hot air circulating the echo-chamber between you. He scowls for half a heartbeat, then sends himself forward like an arrow, chasing your lips in warm, sloppy kisses. They make his throaty “Shut. Up.” sound sweet.  

Before he pulls apart, Ao’nung presses a few more kisses to your lips for good measure - and if you squint your eyes hard enough, there is a touch of a smile playing at his mouth. Content to see you so speechless. He turns his back to you and kneels down. The unspoken is fast understood.

“I’m only doing this because of your leg.” That was Ao'nung. Always a disclaimer before his better deeds.

Happily, you slot your legs into the space between his arms and torso, and wrap your arms tightly around his neck. Together, you lift into the air. Warm and smiley against his muscular back.

“I think you just want to hold me.”

Like the tide retreats into the deep sea, Ao’nung drops his hands so they are no longer supporting your thighs, your dead-weight dragging behind him. “Keep thinking.” He mumbles.

Water is fickle, you muse, before bringing your body back onto his and hugging tightly. You nuzzle your face into the crook of his neck, pressing gentle kisses that make him shiver. “I’m sorry, I love you.” Like an arrow whizzing past his ears.

“Nuisance.”

“And?”

“And I love you.”

Away from your prying gaze, Ao’nung smiles until his cheeks hurt. The arrow hits the target, but the tip is blunt.

reblogs/tags are appreciated <333

[bethanythebogwitch]

You know what Alola has a lot of? Water. And when there’s lots of water you get lots of aquatic Pokémon. Welcome back to the series where I discuss the real-life inspirations of every aquatic, non-fish Pokémon. This time I’m covering gen VII. To see previous entries in this series see gen I part 1, gen I part 2, gen II, gen III, gen IV, gen V, and gen VI. For my previous series where I covered the origins of all fish Pokémon see here. As before, starters and legendary/mythical Pokémon will be covered in a separate series. I’ll also cover ultra beasts separately, so no Nihilego this time.

Starting things off we have Marenie and Toxapex bringing us the first echinoderms since gen I. While Staryu and Starmie were generic starfish, the Marenie line are based specifically on the crown-of-thorns starfish.

(image: a crown-of-thorns)

These are large starfish covered with venomous spines. The spines are used for defense as they (and the starfish’s other tissues) are filed with a chemicals called saponins. While there is no mechanism for injecting venom, any animal punctured by a spine will get the venom in the wound. It is hemolytic, causing destruction of red blood cells, which can lead to the injured animal suffocating or bleeding out.  In addition, the spines are brittle and can break off and get stuck in a wound. In humans, the venom can cause sharp, stinging pains, persistent bleeding, and swelling and nausea for up to a week after the sting. The persistent nature of the pain and hemolysis may be the basis for the line’s signature ability “Merciless”. The other big feature of the crown-of-thorns is its diet. They feed on coral polyps by everting their stomachs onto coral and digesting them externally. This is why the line are specifically stated to prey on Corsola. Too many crown-of-thorns in one coral reef can badly damage it, hence why Toxapex is said to leave a trail of Corsola horns in its wake. Toxapex also takes influence from the hā’uke’uke or helmet urchin, a species found in Hawaii that is shaped very similar to Toxapex’s tentacles when they are all down.

(image: a hā’uke’uke)

Dewpider and Araquanid are based on diving-bell spiders. These spiders spend almost their entire lives underwater, the only species to do so. They do still need to breathe air and so used a coating of water-repelling hairs to carry a bubble of oxygen with them when they are underwater, surfacing occasionally to refresh their supply. The Dewpider line are the inverse of that: a species that can only breathe water and need to bring a bubble of water with them while they live on land. Because of this, they may also be based on sea spiders, a group of marine arthropods that look very similar to spiders. This origin is more noticeable with Araquanid, which has the skinny body and long legs of sea spiders. In both species, the bubble over the head is based on a diving helmet.

(image: a diving bell spider with its air bubble visible)

Wimpod is one of my favorite gen VII mons and its origin is complex. It is based on a variety of aquatic arthropods. Most notably it resembles an isopod while having a head similar to a trilobite.

(image: a terrestrial isopod)

It also looks like a copepod, which are zooplankton that have prominent antennae. Fun fact: Plankton from Spongebob is a copepod.

(image: a copepod)

Wimpod’s behavior of fleeing at the first sign of danger is very similar to silverfish. These are insects with a similar body shape to Wimpod that are famous to coming out in the dark and fleeing once the lights come on.

(image: a silverfish)

Wimpod’s habit of eating almost anything and leading a clean path as it travels makes it effectively a living Roomba. As Golisopod, it is based on the giant isopod, a group of species that are much larger than the average isopod thanks to deep-sea gigantism. This is a phenomenon where animals living in the deep ocean become larger than their shallow-water relatives and has a number of proposed causes. The largest and most famous of the giant isopods reaches a maximum recorded length of 50 cm (19.65 in), which is still quite a bit shorter than Golisopod’s 2 m (6’7”). It is also based on samurai as its shell resembles samurai armor and some of its behavior (such as meditation) comes from samurai stories. Its ability to cleave the air in twain with its claws likely comes from classic exaggerations of a warrior’s ability. Golisopod doesn’t care much for a samurai’s code of honor though, as it will happily fight dirty and run from fights.

(image: preserved specimens of two giant isopod species)

Gen VII was a good one for echinoderms as coming off the hells of the starfish Marenie line we get a sea cucumber in Pyukumuku. Sea cucumbers have a pretty simple body plan, basically looking like tubes. Their most famous ability is a defense strategy some species employ where they can eject part of their guts to deter predators. In real sea cucumbers, the ejected guts will regenerate while in Pyukumuku, they can retract back into the body and even act like a hand. Sea cucumbers also have external gonads that look like strings. The fluffy tail Pyukumuku has is actually its genitals. The spikes on top might be based on sea urchins, which are relatives of sea cucumbers.

(image: a sea cucumber with similar spines to Pyukumuku)

Our final Pokemon for today is Dhelmise and it’s a weird one. An anchor and ship’s wheel bound together and possessed by the ghost of seaweed. What confuses me is that it’s a wooden anchor. It turns out wooden anchors were used at one point in early boats, but were phased out in favor of ones made of iron. Dhelmise being haunted parts of ships is reminiscent of tales of ghost ships, though on a smaller scale. The seaweed on it may be dead man’s fingers, which grows small tendrils and the name is obviously fitting for a ghost-type.

(image: dead man's fingers)

The shiny version having red seaweed could reference red tide, a type of algal bloom that can turn parts of the ocean red. Dhelmise hunts Wailord, meaning it may have been a part of a whaling ship and now the ghosts within it are carrying out their last tasks endlessly, a common trope in ghost stories. It may also reference Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab and his obsessive quest to kill the white whale.

(image: a sunken anchor from a shipwreck in Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea National Monument)

That’s all for now. Return next time when we go to Galar.

[aeriona]

I literally hit 300 followers while writing this so here you go: Here is a study I've done on the various sapient species of Splatoon! Drawing them all in their entirety would take too much time, so I've stuck to just some hands. besides, it looks cool.

Quick note: Keep in mind that the art i’ve done for each group is a generalisation, there is an ABSURD amount of variation between different species so if you want to use this knowledge for your own stuff then literally go nuts! There are basically no rules!

Anyway, This is a very long and nerdy post, so strap in.

First we have the Cephalopods. This includes Inklings, Octolings and Nautili. (I made seperate sciencey-art posts for each a while ago). These guys are cold-blooded, have no bones, blue blood and suckers on the end of each finger (except nautili, cause they’re weird.) These suckers are quite strong especially in Octolings, which can use them to cling to walls and even ceilings. Squid also have sucker-teeth, these retractable, chitinous rings inside each sucker that vary in length and sharpness between species.

Inkfish (excluding nautili) have 3 main types of skin cells;

Chromatophores, which allows for colour-changing

Iridophores/Leucophores, which gives the skin an iridescent effect

Photophores (some squid only) which can produce a blue glow.

Instead of bones, they have a unique system of muscles called a hydrostatic skeleton, which uses fluid pressure (in this case, ink) as a support structure. Blood is used too, but mostly ink cause they have so much of it (once again except Nautili, as they have no ink at all). This means that these guys are super bendy, they can stretch and contract their limbs and even turn their heads nearly 270 degrees!

Next we have both Cnidarians and Echinoderms. (I've excluded crustaceans cause idk how to draw them lmao sorry). These groups include jellyfish, anemones, sea slugs, snails and urchins.

Similarly to cephalopods, they’re all also cold-blooded and lack bones, instead having similar hydrostatic system for support with varying strength between each class. For example, Anenomes have super robust supports in their legs thanks to calcified rods in the fluid cavity, however jellyfish are extremely floppy as they have extremely weak hydrostatic muscles.

On a side note, Jellyfish and Anenome are also unique, as many species have cnidocytes in their various arms and tentacles. These are cells that when stressed, will inject a venom that varies in strength from a bee-sting to literally killing you.

Urchins are similar, as each finger is tipped with a brittle spine that can not only inject a weak venom but also break off into your skin, leaving behind nasty shards that cut you up from the inside. Fun.

And then there’s Sea Slugs/Snails which are literally the sweetest little people alive, they have no natural weapons at all apart from their poisonous flesh. They don’t even have teeth at all! They’re just slimy little buddies who love you! However, urchins are immune to their poison as they eat them. Sea Slugs are actually an urchin’s ONLY source of food (they get sick/weak eating anything else), and this has resulted in quite a lot of legal and criminal issues. It’s whole other can of worms.

And finally, fish. Fish are actually the ONLY people in the entire Mollusc Era to have proper bones and red blood, literally everyone else has either an exoskeleton or a hydrostatic system, with either blue blood or none at all. Damn fish and their weird joints.

Cartilaginous fish (sharks, manta rays) have cool, rough skin that’s kinda unpleasant to touch, whereas the most of the remaining species fall under the ray-finned fish (basically everything else) category, and they are covered in shiny scales.

Also eel, there is no hand. Because eel. I’m very funny.

And with that, I have concluded. I’ve done a lot of research on this stuff so if you have any questions at all or if you want me to draw some more diagrams/related artwork, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an ask! I love talking about/drawing this stuff so it’s of no inconvenience!

[searchingforserendipity25]

celrond, 26? 😭🥺

Thanks so much for the ask @i-am-a-lonely-visitor! Here are some kisses on some scars <3

-

Celebrían found them very appealing, particularly when Elrond took the pestle in hand.

'Do not laugh,' she demanded, laughing herself, tapping him with her fan in that light, suggestive fashion that had been all the rage in the Eriador of her youth. 'It’s all in the grip, and how clear with intent your eyes go. Such beautiful hands you have, beloved.'  

Legs round and bare, she tilted on the edge of their rumpled bed, the better to watch him play apothecary for himself; and laughed, lower in her throat, when his ears warmed at the warmth of her admiration, and he proved very easy to distract from his tasks and trap back into bed.

Celebrían was generous of heart, and strange-minded at times. Elrond's hands were accounted good, life-saving, gracious and kind, and most days he did not disdain them at all; but they were not beautiful.

There were scars in them from old battles and skirmishes, accidental prickles when picking sea urchins from the sea pools of Sirion - nicks from weapons training and sparring, from long campaigns and hunting trips.

Tough calluses littered his palm, the likes of which no elven warrior or scribe, no lord or harpist showed; and in the cold the skin broke, red and angry, chafing at the winter, even as flowers bloomed through the frost when he walked his red and angry feet on it.  

The last time he had pressed his palm to his brother's, there had been fine lines already on Elros' hands.

Since then, none remained to share his insights with, no one who cared particularly for his advice on the brewing of Peredhel remedies. He brewed his own oils, in his stillroom in Lindon; in Imladris, he taught his children to work the copper cauldron and the ladle, the grinding stone and the glass vial.

Arwen liked dying best; Elladan enjoyed sparring with his mother, Elrohir played with poisons; and all of them carried little pots of balm in the pocket of their childish aprons, in case their fingers ached in the evenings after they played outside.

In high summer he sang to the bees in their homes, led them singing when it was time to swarm, and picked the honey himself, to offer with slick fingers for Celebrían - tithe and right, to be given over to the lady of the valley.

-

Elrond remembered his mother rubbing honey on his father's hands. Earendil's hands had seemed immense to him, broad and strong and rope-burned, made harsh by salt. He was so careful when he held Elros and Elrond - 

He remembered; he was nearly certain he remembered it. The past was never as unclouded in his heart as the future.

-

Celebrían followed his movements from the sick bed for many unspeaking days.

The light of her eyes, so dimmed, was wary with terror when she lay watching him grind athelas and lavender and honeycomb - the strength of his arms turned into a threat for her to be wary of. Any strength, of any kind - any instrument might be turned into a source of violence.

She did not scream, awake or asleep; the fear was a long and horrible spell, an enduring half-dream from which his gentlest touch could not rouse her, only return her to a different form of torment. There was no safety for her, even in Imladris; no potion or cantrip to heal body or soul, and no comfort to be had. 

In Valinor, Celebrían made her own ointments.

For the tending of scars; to massage her gnarled aches, perfume her wrists and neck, the dip of her spine. Her eyes were clear, keen and keener than they had been, steadier in their vigilance. Elrond embraced this version of his lady no less tightly; he curled into her height, and laughed as he wept when she swept him off her feet.

As a patient in Lórien, and a student amidst the gardens where every dreamer walked at least once in their life, Celebrían had learned much from the Lords and Ladies of the West, and more still from elves ancient and young alive.

In his absence, she had wrought against her war-fans anew, bound them with lace and poison, ridden with Oromë's Hunters, danced among Vána's revels, wept with Nienna and spoken with her own voice the glory and grief of those that loved Midde-Earth and had lost it.

The lady of the valley, a lover of sweetness, kept her door ever-open to her kin and her husband's without differentiation - kept it open for him, when at last Elrond was gladly swept into the shelter of her love and rested there for a time, nursing new wounds and sharing his grief, weary through and through as he was. They tended to each other in the evenings, bandages and oils laid out on the same desk; Elrond wept a little more, the first time Celebrían touched him, and there was not a shadow of fear in her eyes, only the cold memory of it in his heart.

-

They grasped hands and wound their arms, walking in the twilight through the high trellises like a courting pair. Celebrían's little finger was a small stump, her braces cold against his arm; Elrond's bones, grown frail and strangely hollow after so long carrying Vilya, were nestled in hers with care as they walked up the hill to the painted walls of her house.

In the spring after Arwen was wed and lost, Celebrían taught Elrond how to work the herbs of her garden and gather them to her precise requirements, and how to work the tight aches working in the garden or standing too long left her with, even in the Blessed Land.

 The stars were the same all throughout Arda, but brighter in these skies; and some creeping ivies with potent smells and sweetly cooling leaves blossomed only at night, their petals gleaming with the very same silver of Celebrían's tresses.

Her scar-ridged palms chafed against Elrond's lips. They tasted of lavender and starlight when he pressed a glancing touch of his mouth to them, of nectars whose names he knew not yet and was only starting to learn now.

'Lovely beyond all other sights,' he said, coy and sly, when his lady pressed them against his cheeks to tilt him for a greater kiss; and Celebrían laughed merrily at his plight, because his skin ran warm with blood under her grasp, and his knees no less liable to bend like reeds when she pulled him back into her arms.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Taerfleg

Another obvious one this week, but it seems people are having fun with it. Nothing else for me to add right here, I think, so I'll get right into it. If you're confused by what this is, go check out https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

And if you want to see the entry people are working from this week, it's here:

Art below in rough chronological order:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) started with the concept of a sea urchin, but decided a face might make it more charismatic. It is a very cute face; I like its vibes a lot. Turning a sea urchin into what appears to be at least a semi-terrestrial creature brings up some interesting etymological stuff also, but we'll get into that at the end of the post. Those tube-like appendages there are an interpretation of the business about "ventilation ducts" in the post -- Silverhart acknowledges that it probably refers to the Taerfleg's nest/burrow/whatever, but that they decided to go this direction instead. The linked post explains that these are breathing tubes the Taerfleg can use when it's submerged in mud, which makes me think of this beast as a frog that's also kind of a stealth caltrop of sorts. Watch your step on those muddy banks.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) expresses that she doesn't have enough time this week to do something elaborate, but has sketched out this very good spiky bug. I like it a lot, actually -- it kind of looks like what you'd get if the Koopas from the Mario games were based on pill bugs instead of turtles. This one's got spines, so you can't jump on it. Probably rolls up into a very dangerous ball. Also, you know, everyone appreciates a good isopod. The design of the head is nice also -- there's something to the widely-spaced eyes and those two long appendages. (Feelers? Mandibles? Either way it's got a good outline I think.)

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has given us an interior view of the Taerfleg's burrow -- over on the right we can see a ventilation duct that's been blocked with some kind of plant matter. Their Taerfleg is a spiny lizard, with long limbs to help them remove the grapes from their spines after collecting them. Notable is the attention to detail -- the grape currently on the Taerfleg's back is a bit squashed from being rolled on. I think the lizard looks really cool -- that tail in particular is very well shaped -- and as often happens, I'm blown away by the amount of detailing CheapSweets is doing with a fountain pen. Also please note the babies over there on the left. For a detailed description of the design process, I highly recommend clicking the linked post.

(Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again come through with a beautiful medievally-styled piece. These Taerfleg are spiders -- Coolest-capybara notes that "spiders with plant-based diets" and "spiders with spiny carapaces" are both real things, so a type of spider that fits both of those categories isn't out of the realm of possibility. When they're collecting grapes, they wrap them in little spider-silk harnesses, which is neat. I really like the web shown here: we've got a funnel structure, which is what the "ventilation" bit is talking about, and I think the decision to draw it with that kind of knotwork motif is really cool.

(Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@pomrania (link to post here) has taken this in what I can only describe as a delightfully whimsical direction: the spiky armor is artificial. Does the little rodent build these things itself? One must assume. This also explains the ventilation ducts -- they're openings in the little armored vehicle it rolls around in. We can see one covered by a curtain on the left there. It... doesn't look pleased that its armor has been opened. Poor little critter.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has decided to maintain the balance of their bestiaryposting here: last week it was obviously an ant, so they drew a mammal; this week it's obviously a [redacted], so they drew an insect. I think what I like most about this design (besides the fact that it's cute) is that the Taerfleg appears to be doing the dung-beetle rolling thing with that grape. From past experience reading Strixcattus's worldbuilding, I'm guessing that the "attach grapes to its spines" thing is a myth in-universe, and this is its more normal way of gathering grapes. Speaking of which, as usual, it's worth clicking that linked post and seeing the full, more naturalistic interpretation of the Taerfleg that Strixcattus has written.

All right, to the Aberdeen Bestiary:

Yes, so we all know these are hedgehogs, but were you expecting to get this whole scene? I bet not. Check out that very good Stylized Plant. If I were to get a Stylized Plant tattooed on myself (which I'm starting to consider, as this whole thing we're doing has shown me how much I'm delighted by them), this one would be high on my list.

The tiny hedgehogs are very cute, though I think the illustrator didn't keep track of how much space they had in the image, because the scale seems off -- the... grapes? on the hedgehogs' backs are maybe half the size of the ones on the plant. It's like the bottom of the image was compressed.

The thing with the hedgehog using its spines to carry food is all over medieval texts and marginalia, by the way. This was apparently widely believed; I'm pretty sure it is not in fact the case, but Pliny the Elder was certain it was, so you know. Who's to say.

Now, let's talk ✨etymology✨.

So the entry lists the beast as having two names: ericius and echinus. (From my cursory look into it, this is a case of Latin borrowing from Greek: ericius is the Latin for "hedgehog", whereas echinus is the Latinization of the Greek word.) The translation dutifully translates them both, into two different English terms.

The first is of course "hedgehog" -- but that's a fairly recent word, actually. The earliest attestation is at the tail end of the medieval period.

The second is the actual etymological descendant of ericius. Latin ericius became Old French herichon, and after the Normans conquered England that made its way into the English language as hurcheon, which then over the centuries became... urchin.

This is what I meant about Silverhart taking a sea urchin and making it terrestrial being an interesting etymological move. The reason they're called "sea urchins" is because there was already a "land urchin": the hedgehog. They're one of those critters that was named after looking kind of like something on land, and it stuck. Most aquatic organisms whose names start with "sea" are a case of this. (Why do people sometimes say "sea anemone" instead of just "anemone"? Because "anemone" is also a type of flower; the creatures are named after the resemblance.)

It's one of those weird flukes that happens sometimes -- English decided to call the land animal something completely different (I think some dialects still use "urchin", but it isn't common) and the connection became less obvious. In a number of other languages, it's preserved; e.g. in Spanish, "hedgehog" is erizo -- also from ericius -- and "sea urchin" is erizo de mar. Boom, done, the etymology couldn't be more clear.

Incidentally, a weird side note: the Aberdeen Bestiary predates the first attestation of either hedgehog (1450) or urchin (1290). So the creators of this manuscript wouldn't have called them by either of the names we've just discussed, but a secret third option. Before the French loanword became standard, hedgehogs were called ile or igil in English -- cognate with German Igel. (Incidentally, in German a sea urchin is apparently Seeigel, so they also know what it's named after.)

Anyway, it's getting late. Enjoy the lovely art and the unnecessary infodump.

[nostradamus0]

as a happy (belated) birthday to my very best friend @benwvatt, i bound her AMAZING fic i'm cold-blooded love which you should go read immediately. right now. drop everything you're doing and go read it. (seriously read it. it has vampires) (and her writing is SO PRETTY AND SO EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING GUYS)

please ignore how the cover looks crooked. i swear it isn't, those lines on the bookcloth are not straight and it didn't occur to me that it would make the paper slip look crooked until long after I'd completely finished the book

this bind gave me some TROUBLE, lemme tell you. i ran out of glue halfway through and had to wait for more, and then i made the spine too big, and then too small, and then too big again, and then i had to redo the whole case because it was so bad. and then when all was said and done, the boards were longer than they really should've been but it was just too late and i'm trying to recover emotionally.

i had a lot of fun with the typeset! i've never included comments before, so figuring the formatting for those was both fun and HELL. i might never do it again but i really like how it all turned out! I am also now obsessed with footnotes.

I had SO MUCH FUN making this book for you, diane. thank you so much for over four magical years of friendship. you are my best sea urchin, and i am honored to be your best octopus <3

[life-on-our-planet]

An over abundance of crown-of-thorns starfish and long-spined sea urchins can be damaging for coral reefs. Both are covered in venomous spines, but luckily the titan triggerfish is able to take them on. BBC Earth

[dogtoling]

Do you got any goobers that aren't inklings or octos?

I'm assuming cuttlefish and bobtails don't count for this one. I do have many OCs that aren't inkfish, but pretty much all of them so far are side characters. It's more difficult to create in-depth characters out of non-Inklings due to the COMPLETE LACK of worldbuilding and any other building Splatoon has for like, every species, we don't know how many species lifespans or societies or languages or anything works. Or like how many species are out there with hundreds of eggs per clutch and how are those kids raised? Et cetera. But I'll add some of them to this post.

Al, a fuzzy Nautilus and Poppy's (Peppermint's younger sister) boyfriend, as of very recent

Finston, a Salmonid who grew up in Inkopolis raised by squid, and his adopted son Kiddo who got stranded in Inkopolis during the Wahoo World Big Run. He plays in a reggae band with some of my other OCs and comes up with random species of fish to introduce himself as when people ask about his species.

(Boy is also part of this group. he has like 3 different music careers going on at the same time.)

The Flavorful Chef of Whitefish Dam, Master of Seasoning, a Salmonid who owns a small restaurant in the Splatlands selling grilled salmon. The squids call her "Chef" for short because ain't no one gonna remember that. She was Peppermint's boss for a while.

Kala, a goldband fusilier that is Poppy's friend from middle school, and a huge photography nut

Dell, a yellowfin pufferfish working at Sweet Beak Bakery (YOU WON'T GET POISONED UNLESS YOU TRY TO EAT THEM FOR SOME REASON PLEASE DONT.) They have anxiety.

Tali, a whitetip reef shark and the producer of Deep Sea Dead Zone's first album, they made so much profit off of it that they were able to start their own production studio.

Thor, a black long-spine urchin and a tattoo artist, he's made Boy's, Peppermint's and Amber's tattoos.

Prawnette, a humpback prawn and graphic designer/artist. Squid Squad stan as well.

I have some more but here's these guys at least, I'd like to do more with them!

[ratsreading]

"It looks like... Well, on Earth, we have delightful critters named sea spiders which are mostly leg, to the extent that actual vital organs end up squeezed into those legs because the body is so small. And the legs are very long, with lots of hooks and things at the end. They exist to punish arachnophobes who thought that diving into the deep ocean would keep them safe from regular spiders, and look like the nightmare distillation of all the things people hate about them. But at least they do only live in the deep sea, and being there, they don't scitter about like monkeys in the throes of a grand mal seizure. Oh, and sea spiders have the decency to be bilaterally symmetrical and relatively flat. This thing is very big on being in the third dimension. It has a body that's all long spines like a sea urchin, with a lot of legs projecting off from this at all angles"

- Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky