#monster sunfish

[nazrigar]

Mermay 2023 - Marine Biology Influenced Merfolk: Odd-Bodied Edition

Continuing this month’s theme of Biology Influenced Merfolk, this week I did a theme of “weird-bodied Merfolk” inside and out. Be it fish with see-through heads (the Barreleye) or fish with literal urea in their systems (the Greenland Shark). There’s a lot of fun things to apply from nature!

Top Row:

- Old Man Ulrikson - Greenland Shark: The oldest person in town, clocking in at 499 years old. While most Greenlanders stay up north and act as sages, he likes it where he lives in Tridentsfall thank you very much. Also, no parasites in the eye for him!

- Bob Sunfish - Sunfish: A Sunfish Merman with a crippling fear of predators and the dark. The Sealions meanwhile think he’s an odd curiosity.

Middle Row:

- Benny and Fred - Halibut and Flounder: Criminal Masterminds, Master and Apprentice... at least in their heads. They’re more harmless than anything.

- Orville Colddweller - Barreleye: The guy who greets shallow-water Merfolk into the depths. He kinda wonders if he could have taken a different path in life, but decides against it.

Bottom Row:

Anat the Unlucky - Tully Monster: The unluckiest girl of the Primeval Age, whose unique look and looooooong list of misfortunes were something to behold. Tried to look for an apprenticeship and got one... who was the worst possible option.

“Honest Nasir” - Opabinia: Anat’s “mentor” and perhaps one of the most infamous conmen of his age... who kept his long list of complaints just because. Based on the knife one of said tablets... he may have gone too far one day.

[swaps55]

The Fusion of Stars

@katerinaalianovamindin asked about Kaidan's response to Sam's Lazarus scarring. So I wrote a thing, loosely inspired by this stunning art of Daggertongue's Amara Shepard.

~

“It’s like starlight,” Kaidan says, running gentle fingers down the scars crosshatching Shepard's ribs. In the dark of his cabin, they gleam with pale light.  

Shepard scoffs. “Hardly. Lawson said it was a side effect of the biosynthetic fusion.”

“Fusion, huh. What do you think makes stars shine?”

“If you give me a lecture about physics and nuclear fusion, I'll dunk your head in the fish tank.”

Kaidan cranes his neck to look over at the tank, where a jellyfish bobs in the corner and a sunfish darts through some seaweed. “You really think you could fit my head in that gap.”

“We could find out.”

“I think you’re trying to distract me from complimenting your starlight.”

“That’s because it’s not starlight. I’m more like Frankenstein’s night light.”

Kaidan lays his head on Shepard’s chest, fingers resuming their exploration. The scarring runs down most of Shepard’s left side. Ribs. Thigh. Hidden against the sheets, there’s a small rift across his right scapula, too, like a constellation etched right into his skin.

“It really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

Shepard shrugs the shoulder not trapped under Kaidan’s head. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I just…”

Kaidan waits for him to put his thoughts together, prodding gently when he gets too stuck in his head to actually get them out.

“Just what?”

“They aren’t mine,” he says finally. “They’re Cerberus’ scars. I didn’t get a say in it. The old me didn’t cut it, so they had to cook up something better in a lab. You think I’m joking but Frankenstein’s monster isn’t that far-fetched.”

“The new you is still the old you. And Cerberus thought you were so instrumental to the survival of humanity that they performed an actual act of god to bring you back.”

“Never believed in god.”

“No. You believe in the stars. You were born in them. Hell, you were born in the very star I used to look at through a telescope when I was a kid.”

“Died in them, too.”

“You are really hard to compliment sometimes, you know that?”

Shepard huffs. “Sorry. This past year…really sucked.”

“I know,” Kaidan says quietly, trying not to think about the last three. But those two years will never exist for Shepard, and right now, pointing that out will only hurt them both.     

Instead, Kaidan traces the fractured skin along Shepard's cheek with his lips. “The creation of stars is violent, destructive, even terrible,” he murmurs between kisses. “But that doesn't make the star itself any less beautiful.”

Shepard gazes at him, running tender fingers in Kaidan's hair. “How do you do that? How do you always find the good in something?”

Because it’s you.

“All the years I’ve known you, I’ve always seen this.” Kaidan caresses the gleam over Shepard’s ribs with feather-light fingers. Shepard jumps – Cerberus didn’t change the spots where he’s ticklish – and then tugs Kaidan closer to him. “You’ve always been a star in the sky I thought I could never reach. But then you chose me. And after I lost you…you came back to me.”

“Your very own glowstick,” Shepard says, lopsided smile on his face.

Kaidan swirls the gravity well. Shepard’s biotic field hums in response. “You’ve always been a glowstick. Brighter than anything Cerberus could ever do to you.”

Shepard’s corona kindles, like a swish of silk under Kaidan’s skin. “Yeah, but I can turn that off. These?” He cups the marks on his own chin with his fingers. “Not so much.”

“Just means I can find you whenever you get lost in the dark.” Kaidan wraps an arm around Shepard and buries his nose against his neck. “You’re no one’s monster. You’re mine. And I love you.”

Shepard exhales, content. “There are perks to resurrection, I guess. Like getting to hear you say that again.”

“I love you,” Kaidan repeats.

“Mmmm.”

“You do make a good nightlight, though.”

Shepard snickers and rolls them over, pinning Kaidan to the mattress. Kaidan gazes up at him, reveling in the whisper of his biotic field.

You have no idea how beautiful you are, Kaidan thinks. You never have.  

He strokes Shepards cheek, where the light breaks through. “I don’t care what made you. Cerberus. God. The fusion of stars. You’re here. In my arms. To hell with the rest.”

“The way you say it almost makes me believe it.”  

Kaidan pulls Shepard down to him and whispers in his ear. “C’mere and I’ll prove it.”

Shepard sighs against him, warm, solid, real, with a heart beating strong and steady under Kaidan’s palm.  Mine, Kaidan thinks. The light and the dark, the broken and beautiful. He wants all of it, wherever it leads.

He strokes the scars that Cerberus gave them with reverent fingers, and Shepard arcs into the touch.     

[brunosaderogatory]

Headcanon “Mola” (sunfish) is a sea-monster derogatory for a very ugly person.

[atsadi-shenanigans]

Feeding Alligators 49 - Idihwisvsga

You go somewhere else.

On AO3.

Muggy air sticks your shirt to your back. The tin siding you lean on is warm without scorching. That’s thanks to the pecan trees planted around. The sun hangs low and orange over the gentle hills in the distance.

You blink.

Uncle Randy ain’t inside. You can tell without checking. His plastic chair with its detritus of twigs and leaves and occasionally pecan shells sits out front. The stinky ash tray sitting on the nearby, wire frame table is cold. His truck is out front, but that don’t worry you.

It’s too nice to sit here, stretch out, and admire the view.

You family had tried keeping cows on this land. Y’all had a good fifty acres, once—courtesy of the government allotment a hundred years ago, cause land was owned by the whole tribe, and busting it up meant they could take the “surplus” away to sell to good, christian White settlers. Last you was here, it was down to ten after some dumbass cousin or another got drunk and sold off shares before the rest of the family found out and, real gentle, corrected him. Your neighbors now are rich White families who do run their cattle on what used to be Cherokee land (that used to be Osage land, because colonizers don’t really pay attention to who might already be living in a place when they shove a whole nation west and draw their own, bullshit boundaries).

This field was your favorite. It slopes down to a pond below. Might technically be a small lake. It’s got sunfish in it. The field lights up green and gold in the light. The water twinkles. The air smells of damp earth and damp grass and heat.

You’re so damn tired.

A thump next to you. A woman sits there. You can’t see her face all that clear; she seems real familiar, though. There’s something about her that pulls you in. Makes you feel safe.

“Quite the view, girl,” she says. Her accent is strange. Southern, but also dipped in something else.

“Mmm,” you say.

The two of you sit in silence a tick. A flock of birds swoops and swirls in a ball above the lake, feeding on the bugs rising up into the early evening.

“Long day?” the woman says.

You snort. “Long life.”

She nods along. “Ye-ah.”

It’s that drawl, the two syllable “yee-aww” you remember from your grandpa. You smile. This was his land, and his mama’s land, and her mama’s land. Your dad grew up here, and this was where Grandpa took you. It was where you found Uncle Randy years and years later. It’s home. You gaggle of cousin-aunties, all “yer kin” as Uncle Randy calls them. This land is what your kin held to as the world around them shattered into pieces, the family clinging to it like a life raft in a storm.

“You eat yet?” the woman says.

Your smile grows. “Not in a while.”

“Well, we can’t have that.” She holds out a folded cloth napkin. Inside, is a biscuit. Still warm.

It crumbles on your tongue, rich and buttery and filled with grape jelly. The two of you sit in the muggy sunshine. Until the biscuit is gone and you feel a little better.

A kid runs into view with a long, straight stick over his shoulder. Three others scurry after him, each with their own—it’s a blowgun, you realize.

“Off them boys go. We’ll see if they come back with any rabbits, this time,” Biscuit Woman says.

You watch them head towards the trees, content. But something niggles. Something about their clothes, their bare bellies and toes stomping through the grass as they talk and laugh.

“You thinking about getting on up?” Biscuit Woman says. You still can’t make out her face. It’s almost like it shifts. Dark eyes, light brown skin, but the features drift, change with every twitch of your eye.

“It’s nice here,” you say. It’s safe, here. It’s home, with your family, with people who won’t hurt you, with no hairy hyena-monsters—

You frown. No, there’s no reason to follow those thoughts back. That way is all dark and sad.

“Uhhh,” she drawls. It’s not an English stammer sound. It’s a nasal thing, swooping up at the end. It means…yes? “That it is. Good to be home.”

The red gravel driveway leading down to the red gravel road. The patch of corn Uncle Randy got from the Nation—“used to be,” Grandpa had said, quoting one of the spiritual teachers, “you couldn’t find no Indian without a corn patch.” The stalks are tall and green in the unchanging light. Two women walk amongst the patch, one with a toddler tagging along behind her, watching.

“But sometimes, you got to go elsewhere,” Biscuit Woman says.

You let your head thunk back on the tin siding. “But what if I get lost? What if I’m too tired?”

Biscuit Woman hums. Looks out over the field and the water.

“What will be is what needs to be,” she says. And reaches out to place a wrinkled, warm palm over your cheek, and suddenly your eyes are wet and your throat is too tight. “You’re a strong’un. Always were, girl. You got more fight in you.”

The tears spill over your cheeks. It’s so warm and soft, here. More women in old timey clothes—skirts and bare chests—in the corn, now stretching down to the water. Kids chase a scrappy puppy and a group of men emerge from the woods with a fresh-killed deer strung from a wood pole.

You want to stay. Want to rest. But there’s an itch in you. A hum beneath your skin. Your palms tingle and your calves flutter with the urge to stand. To move. To go.

“You can do it, girl,” Biscuit Woman says, only now she stands. Holds out a brown hand. Waits for you to take it.

You miss them. All of them. But she’s right. Your bones whisper that truth.

You slide your hand into hers. Her fingers look delicate, but they grip you tight as a raptor’s talons. She pulls you up effortlessly. Leads you as you cry around the side of the house, down to the driveway. Red gravel crunches beneath your bare feet, but you feel no pain.

The men with the deer call out and lift their hands. The women in the field smile and wave. A gaggle of kids comes running up to dance around and poke at you, laughing and giggling. One of them holds out a hand. Gives you something. When you look, you see seven dried corn kernels, blue and white.

“Thank you,” you say and swipe your face.

The kid beams and ducks behind their fellows. Biscuit Woman takes your hand in hers, examines the kernels.

“These could grow into something good, something strong,” she says. Looks up at you. “But only if you plant them, and you nurture them.”

Then she folds your fingers over the corn and you’re at the gate and two men stand there.

One is old, hair white underneath a worn, blue baseball cap. He’s got a hunch, a round belly, and a big smile. He holds out something. Red, small. Lifts his eyebrows.

You…know this. Know him. Like a word you’ve forgotten, the shape of it so close to your tongue. Something about his face, the smell of tobacco, the way he holds that out to you, waiting…

“Ani,” you say. Strawberry. Your favorite.

His smile lights up his whole face. “That’s right, sugar!”

It stabs you. You know this man. You know this game.

But then the second man steps forward. Tattoos ink a line across his face. His head is shaved except for a patch at the back. His face looks familiar, especially when he smiles.

You turn to Biscuit Woman, her hair long and loose, dressed in a skirt and cloak of white feathers.

“But what if I can’t find the way back?” you say. The question is a thorn piercing between your ribs.

It’s the familiar man who answers. Long nose, brown eyes. Something of Uncle Randy in the shape of his jaw and his brow.

“We got good at finding lost cousins,” he says. “Don’t worry, gehooch. We’ll find you, too.”

His hand on the rickety gate. He unlatches it, but only holds it, waiting for you to open it. When you turn, Uncle Randy’s house looks different. Longer, made of wood. Biscuit Woman in her feathered cloak smiles, and the warmth of it trickles through your veins, diffusing through your body.

She says, “Don’dagohvi.”

You nod. And you step past the gate.

***

You’re a child. Maybe five? Probably four. Grandpa stands by the door, wringing his hands as he cries. You don’t know why he cries; grandpa is always laughing about something. But you don’t know why the strange woman and the man are in y’all’s house, either. Or why the woman says your name wrong as she tries to coax you out from under the kitchen table, where you ran to when they came inside.

When they do finally manage it, she leads you over to Grandpa. He picks you up and hugs you, tight. He smells like tobacco, and the brim of his blue hat knocks the side of your head. He hugs you so tight your ribs creak.

“Stay strong, gehooch,” he says. “We love you, you hear? We’ll always love you.”

It’s so cold outside. The woman says she’s your mother and she’s come to take you home. Five other kids sit in the back of the van she lifts you into. The man is her husband, and now he’s your dad. Which makes the other kids your siblings. Mother gives you a plastic doll with yellow hair. Tires crunch over the red gravel and Grandpa stands outside, waving until you can’t see him no more.

And then one of your new sisters takes the doll away from you.

***

You live on the farmstead. It has no address or phone. None that you know. There are a lot of other families here, and even more kids. The oldest remembers going to something called a “school” but you’uns (the grown ups slap your head when you say words like that) do Bible lessons every day, and that’s better. That’s what Mother and her husband, The Pastor, both say.

***

Other kids don’t like you. You don’t know why. You’re not the oldest or youngest. Not the skinniest or fattest or tallest or shortest. You’re quiet. You try to make friends, but they all laugh at you and play without you.

Later, you’ll learn Mother’s shame of you. Her daughter, born out of wedlock and in sin with a poor, dirty Indian. You’re pale enough in winter, but in summer, when the sun touches your skin, you stand out. But all the other kids know your dad was an Indian and that makes you stupid and dirty and weak.

They like to show you this by throwing dried cow patties at you. Or by making you eat mud. By stealing the presents Grandpa sends you on your birthday and Christmas. Until one year he stops. Mother says he got tired of you, and you cry so hard you burst a blood vessel in your eye. Which brings the other kids down on you so bad you do everything you can to never, ever cry in front of someone else ever again.

You learn years and years later that Grandpa died that year, with a pink bicycle with your name on it sitting in his garage, waiting for you to come back. You’ll be in your early twenties before that happens, and far too big to ride that bike, tires all flat, pink ribbon still tied around the handlebars.

***

The farmstead is up in the hills. Surrounded by eighty acres of pastureland and woods. Good deer hunting, better turkey hunting. The locals know y’all are up there, and that y’all might be weird, but it’s good, christian country and at least y’all ain’t one of them new age-y hippie communes or some shit. Religion is a sacred thing here (but only of the christian variety), so they don’t ask too many questions.

You stand in that driveway now, and the dirt is a similar red to that of your family’s land. But it’s a shade off, a shade wrong.

You stand in that driveway and dread oozes across your skin like rancid oil.

Over there is the bunkhouse, where all you girls slept. The boy’s dorm. The chow hall, the main house where Mother and The Pastor and a few of the favorites slept. You’d only been in the main house a couple of times. Never for anything good. It leers down at you, windows empty eyes and open mouth, waiting to crunch down and splinter your bones between its teeth.

You turn away.

And there stands Sarah Greenwood.

You make some kind of aborted sound. Words get all tangled. Nothing seems adequate. In the silence, she smiles at you. It’s a soft thing. A sad thing.

“Sarah,” you finally manage. “Are you okay? Did they…do anything? After I…?”

But she holds up a hand to stop you. “You know why you’re here, don’t you?”

Sarah Greenwood, the oldest of The Pastor’s five daughters. The only one who took you under her wing (she was fifteen when you arrived and she did what she could). She braided your hair as it grew long, all the way to your waist and then past that.

The other girls hated your hair. How smooth it was, how thick and straight and how it never stopped growing, where theirs would break and frizz. So one day, two of them held you down while a third took scissors to it. And when you went to Aunt Patty May (the grown up women were all Aunts, but never aunties), she beat your backside black and blue for shaming yourself and destroying the lord’s property.

Guinea hens call from the trees around the gravel parking lot (not that there were ever many cars). The farmstead stretches off as far as you can see in all directions. Fields in the front, near the main house; they raised cows for a time before the market crashed and it got too expensive. Woods and scrub swallow the rest of the acreage. Trailer homes dot here and there—the other favorite families. Sarah and her husband and their four kids live in one such trailer, closer to the edge of the property. You’d been counting on that when you…

“No,” you say.

You want to go back to Uncle Randy. To where Grandpa took you after Dad died. Not here. Never here.

Sarah’s smile is a ghost. She looks just like you remember—a woman in her thirties, face tired, hair turning gray too-early. But it’s been almost fifteen years since then. She should look—

She holds out a hand. Points. Not at you, though, but past you. To the building you won’t turn to face. The thought of it turns your guts to ice.

The chapel used to be a barn, back when Mother and The Pastor first bought the place. But the faithful worked hard (and cheap) and turned the old thing into their house of worship.

The switching stump sits right outside the door. Perfectly placed for those within to witness.

“I’m not going in there,” you say.

“You have to.”

“I don’t want to.”

You left. You got away. You ran a thousand miles and you never wanted to see this place ever again. Bad enough it paints the backs of your eyelids when you have nightmares. Now she’s telling you to…?

Your stomach clenches. The wind shifts and it smells of sweet, raspberry jam.

“I can’t,” you say.

“You can’t run forever.”

You absolutely can.

The sweet scent gets stronger. Your guts heave so hard you stagger, have to brace yourself on your knees and swallow fast and hard to keep your insides inside.

Fuck. Fuck.

The chapel waits. The big, sliding front door is open, the inside black and ravenous.

Wisps of Sarah’s honey-colored hair escape her long braid to drift across her face. “You can do this.”

You really can’t.

But you take a step. The guinea hens above go quiet. The stump sits to your left. Pale wood worn smooth from many hands, not just your own. It’s cut in a way that you have to sink to your knees to drape yourself over it, skirt up while one of the Aunts flicks the switch still dripping sap from where you cut it (because half of the thing is making you go select your own tool; too thin and it’ll cut, but too thick, and it’ll leave nasty bruises).

Another step. The cicada chir stills.

That was the first time you ever saw the shining line. Judith Engel and her friends stole the doll Grandpa sent you that year, an Indian girl with tassel earrings. Judith and her friends burned the doll as a witch (you would later learn the term “in effigy”). Then you seen her kissing Daniel Sharpe. They were both kids—y’all were just kids—but girls were not supposed to talk to boys, let alone do that with them.

The line had hummed in your mind and you knew exactly what to do. You ran to Aunt Patty May, told her everything. And then you stood with the rest of the congregation as they dragged Judith Engel to the stump and you’d felt such hot, vicious glee. Your retribution. Not you, but her over there as everybody watched her squeal and cry. And she’d picked too thick of a switch. Aunt Patty May beat her so bad she couldn’t sit for days.

The chapel door waits. You spook like a nervous horse. But Sarah emerges from the shadows and beckons you in.

You close your eyes. Take a breath. And step in.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Welcome back to the series where I talk about evey fish pokemon’s origins and their real-life inspirations, this time covering gens III and IV.  See here for gens I and II.

Staring off with Carvanha and Sharpedo. Carvanha is based on a piranha, specifically a red-bellied piranha.

"I'm mot really that scary" (image: a piranha)

When I say “based off of” I mean that in a pretty loose way. It really looks nothing like a piranha and more like an artistic depiction of a generic “scary fish”. Let’s talk about piranha because they are probably the world’s most slandered fish. Piranha are not the hyper-vicious super-predators that roam the Amazon devouring everything in their path that media depicts them as. They’re actually omnivores rather than obligate carnivores and mostly scavenge the dead. The stories of them attacking and skeletonizing large animals in minutes come from times when European explorers would be shown displays where schools of piranha would be trapped and starved for a long time to get them to act like that. Attacks on humans are rare and usually happen when the human gets too close to a piranha’s eggs, prompting a warning bite. If you still aren’t convinced that they aren’t fishy murder machines, check this video of River Monsters’ Jeremy Wade getting into a pool of hungry piranha and not getting bit at all

(this is not me telling you to go swim with piranha. Always be cautious when around wild animals)

Like piranha, Carvanha is much more dangerous in groups. Real piranha only school part of the year while Carvanha do it permanently. Carvanha is a river fish like piranha, but it also has a lot of shark features that fit its evolution. It can smell blood from far away (a feature of both piranha and sharks) and has the famous placoid scales or denticles of sharks. Evolving Carvanha causes it to go from bony fish to cartilaginous fish in the form of the franchise’s first shark. Sharpedo seems to be a generic shark similar to a great white (it even has countershading) but missing its back half. This is similar to the ocean sunfishes of family Molidae, most famously the Mola mola itself.

(image: scuba divers swimming alongside a mola)

This is funny because sharpedo, an active and very fast ambush hunter, could hardly have a more different lifestyle than the Molas, who are slow and mostly eat jellyfish. Sharpedo is also based on a torpedo, and in later games where it’s ridable it seems to function like a jet ski. Like sharks, Sharpedo has placoid scales that are exaggerated in its mega evolution and faces overfishing from people using its dorsal fin in food. Mega Sharpedo having denticles on the sides of its snout point to inspiration from the sawfish, a shark relative.

Easily one of the fakest-looking real fish (image: a sawfish)

Barboach is a loach while Whiscash is a catfish. Barboach seems to specifically be a pond loach, which buries itself in sediment to avoid danger (hence the ground typing), can sense changes in weather (a big deal in this gen), and are common food fish and aquarium pets. Loaches are long and skinny and have barbels like Barboach.

(image: a loach)

Barboach may also draw from the loach catfish, which is a catfish that looks like a loach, tying into its evolution. Wishcash may also be based on the loach catfish, but it look much more like a conventional catfish. Whishcash’s connection to earthquakes (both causing and sensing them) is inspired by a creature from Japanese legend. Namazu is a gigantic catfish living under the islands and guarded by a god who restrains it with a rock. When the god’s guard slips, Namazu thrashes about and causes earthquakes.

(image: a depicition of Namazu)

Both loaches and catfish have barbels that are used for sensing. These barbels help both groups of fish live in very murky water by making them less reliant on sight. Because of this, loaches and catfish can live in water with very poor visibility and lots of sediment in the water column. Barboach and Wishcash can likewise be found in very muddy water and other places of poor visibility, like caves. Them being found in caves in some regions may also reference blind, cave-dwelling catfish.

Feebas is a bass, though it’s more based on the story of the ugly duckling. Just like in the story, you start out with a ugly little creature and turn it into something beautiful. I’m going to be perfectly honest, I don’t really see much bass in Feebas, I think it’s based much more on Magikarp than a bass, who are often pretty powerful predators, something Feebas isn’t. like with Mgikarp, I won’t be discussing Milotic in this as I think it’s a sea serpent rather than a fish.

Ok so there is a good explanation for why a fish evolves into an octopus. I hoped I could find a good explanation for why a clam evolves into eels, but I simply have no explanation for the Clamperl line. Huntail and Gorebyss really have no connection to their pre-evo. I won’t talk about Clamperl since (and this is some high-level biology so I hope you can follow me) clams aren’t fish. Both final form are based on deep-sea eels and eel-like fish. Huntail seems to have some basis with the gulper eel as both are sit-and-wait predators with very large mouths, though Huntail is a more active predator as it does have some powerful teeth.

Turns out gulper eels are a lot goofier than you'd think (image: a gulper eel with its mouth inflated)

These teeth may draw influence from other deep-sea predators with massive chompers, like viperfish or the fangtooth. Its use of its tail as a lure is a reference to the various deep-sea fish that use bioluminescent lures to attract prey. This is an example of caudal mimicry, where an animal’s tail mimics something else to lure in prey. A cool example of this is the spider-tailed horned viper, which you should look up if you don’t like bugs, I promise it’s definitely not really creepy. Finally, Huntail’s general longness, color pattern, and crest are references to the oarfish, one of my favorites. This deep-sea longboi is a rare sight at the surface but is believed to be responsible for stories of sea serpents because of how huge they can get.

Long, long man! (image: an oarfish)

Gorebyss similarly has a complex origin for a very forgettable Pokémon. It seems to primarily be based on snipe eels, which are deep-sea eels with long, slender jaws.

(image: a snipe eel)

Gorebyss’s jaws are fused into a needle, which is similar to pipefish, a relative of seahorses with a very similar fused snout. Some inspiration could also come from the deep sea-dwelling long-nosed chimeras, some species of which have a long, conical snout very reminiscent of gorebyss’s head shape.

(image: a long-nosed chimera)

Unlike most of its influences, Gorebyss is an active predator and its habit of stabbing its prey with its snout and injecting digestive juices to slurp its prey dry seems to be in reference to spiders and mosquitos.

Hot damn, Hoenn has a lot of fish. The next up is Relicanth, which is a pretty straight-forward reference to the coelacanth.

(image: a rare picture of a wild coelacanth)

Both are very ancient fish thought to have gone extinct until they were rediscovered in modern times. This makes them examples of what scientists call a Lazarus taxon. Ceolacanths are pretty cool fish. Along with lungfish, they are the only surviving lobe-fined fish. These fish were separated from the more common ray-finned fish by having their fins seated on fleshy lobes extending from the body, usually with bones in them (lungfish have lost the bones). Also when I say that coelacanths and lungfish are the only surviving lobe-finned fish, that’s not exactly true. It’s a principle in taxonomy (the study of how groups of life are related) that you can’t evolve out of your ancestry. You belong to every group your ancestors belonged to, even if you started a new group they aren’t part of. Tetrapoda is the clade of four-legged vertebrates skeletally adapted for life on land and they evolved from lobe-finned fish. That means every mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird, and so on, including yourself, is a lobe-finned fish. Coelacanths are most famous for being rediscovered alive and seemingly unchanged when they were thought to have gone extinct millions of years ago. They are often called living fossils for how little they appear to have changed. This term is pretty misleading and many biologists don’t like using it. In fact the coelacanths of today are different than those that swam with plesiosaurs, pretty radically in some cases. Coelacanths are often used in arguments by cryptozoology enthusiasts for why their favorite  dinosaur/plesiosaur/megalodon/whatever could still be alive and unchanged today despite leaving no fossil record. However a fish remaining relatively similar to its ancestors due to living in a very stable environment that doesn’t have the selective pressures encouraging radical change is very different than an apex predator or massive reptile doing so in an environment that has undergone massive changes and multiple major extinctions. I’ll link a video for more on why the coelacanth is a red herring in these kinds of arguments.

Finally finishing out Hoenn we have Luvdisc, possibly the most unnecessary Pokémon ever. Someone please give this poor fish an evolution so it can finally have a purpose. Paldea gave us updates to Delibird and Dunsparce so it’s definitely possible for Luvdisc to get some love. Anyway, it’s a discus fish. These are thin-bodies cichlids whose dorsal and anal fins make them kind of look like hearts, though Luvdisc is missing the tail fin.

(image: a discus fish)

Like the discus fish, Luvdisc is a social species. Luvdisc's kissing behavior draws primarily from the kissing gourami. These fish engage in behavior where they press their mouths against each other. Scientists believe that this is a form of ritualized aggression, but people think it looks like they’re kissing so these fights have become a symbol of romance.

(image: two gouramis "kissing")

They aren’t the only fish that mouth fight. Another species that does this is the sarcastic fringehead, who looks considerably less romantic.

(image: two male sarcastic fringeheads fighting)

After the piscine flood in Hoenn, Sinnoh comes along and introduces a grant total of one fish line, though I will give an honorable mention to the Gible line for being shark plane dragons. Finneon and Lumineon are based on a variety of pretty fish often seen in aquariums, though their fish resemblance to butterflies indicates they are based on the butterflyfish. They have a much closer appearance to the freshwater butterflyfish than the more popular and unrelated saltwater butterflyfish. Both the freshwater butterflyfish and the Finneon line can glide above the water if they build up enough speed. The line’s bright colors may be a reference to brightly-colored tropical fish or aquarium fish like neon tetras. Lumineon actually bioluminesces to attract prey, but risks attracting predators at the same time, a behavior seen in many deep sea fish. it is said to dwell on the sea floor and walk on what I assume are its pelvic fins, which may be a reference to the deep-sea tripod fish.

That's it fro generations III and IV. Next time I'll cover generations V and VI. Hopefully it won't take me nearly as long to get that up.

[shusei-tokuda]

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁Why do I feel so numb...? ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

▶︎•၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|။ playing crybaby by the neighbourhood...

˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦　　　 　˚　　　　 . ★⋆. 　　　.   　　˚　　 　　*　　 　　✦　　　.　　.　　　✦　˚ 　　　　 ˚　.˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　 　　 　　　　 ੈ✧˳·˖✶ ✦

hi! it's the mod of @dazai-asks, @just-a-lil-mackerel, @sunfish-regressor and @zak-is-lost!!

the mod uses he/they pronouns.

Info about Tokuda! (uncomfortable topics will be mentioned: e.g s/h, suicide, hallucinations, eating disorders etc. I will try and put a tw and put it underneath a cut. This is NOT promoting any of these things, the character suffers from them.)

Name: Shusei Tokuda Shorter nicknames etc: Toku, Sei Age: freshly 18 Pronouns: he/him Sexuality: Pansexual Height: 5'10 Tokuda is from Japan but moved to China then to France for a few years and came back. He's trying to escape his Russian side of the family due to conflict. He knows how to speak Japanese, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and Russian. Ability: The Rough Living of the Dark. What is it? The Rough Living of the Dark can summon/collect shadows from dead animals, people, monsters, plants etc. They all contribute to his own shadow, he currently has an army of shadows. He is able to swap positions with the shadows and make them do pretty much anything. If he summons too many or the shadows are all defeated brutally then he will faint or even worse, go into coma.

The ability is extremely powerful but it makes it challenging for him to sleep, the shadows all have eyes, always watching him at all times, he has somehow gotten used to this but because of this, he now hallucinates and panics easily when surprised. Lore: WIP...

Thank you @cafekitsune for the divider!

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

List of all SDV and SDV:E (Stardew Valley: Expanded) Giftable Items

Horseradish

Daffodil

Leek

Dandelion

Parsnip

Cave Carrot

Coconut

Cactus

Banana

Sap

Large Egg

Egg

Milk

Large Milk

Green Bean

Cauliflower

Potato

Garlic

Kale

Rhubarb

Melon

Tomato

Morsel

Blueberry

Fiddlehead Fern

Hot Pepper

Wheat

Radish

Red Cabbage

Starfruit

Corn

Rice

Eggplant

Artichoke

Pumpkin

Bokchoy

Yam

Chanterelle

Cranberry

Holly

Beets

Ostrich Egg

Salmonberry

Amouranth

Pale Ale

Hops

Void Egg

Mayonnaise

Duck Mayonnaise

Void Mayonnaise

Clay

Copper Bar

Silver Bar

Gold Bar

Iridium Bar

Refined Quartz

Honey

Pickles

Jam

Beer

Wine

Juice

Clam

Poppy

Copper Ore

Silver Ore

Coal

Gold Ore

Iridium Ore

Wood

Stone

Nautilus Shell

Coral

Summer Shell

Spice Berry

Sea Urchin

Grape

Spring Onion

Strawberry

Sweet Pea

Common Mushroom

Wild Plum

Hazelnut

Blackberry

Winter Root

Crystal Fruit

Snow Yam

Sweet Gem Berry

Crocus

Red Mushroom

Sunflower

Purple Mushroom

Cheese

Goat Cheese

Cloth

Truffle

Truffle Oil

Coffee Bean

Goat Milk

Large Goat Milk

Wool

Duck Egg

Duck Feather

Caviar

Lucky Rabbit’s Foot

Aged Roe

Ancient Fruit

Mead

Tulip

Summer Spangle

Fairy Rose

Blue Jazz

Apple

Green Tea

Apricot

Orange

Peach

Pomegranate

Cherry

Bug Meat

Hardwood

Maple Syrup

Oak Resin

Pine Tar

Slime

Bat Wing

Rusty Blade

Swirl Stone

Solar Essence

Void Essence

Void Pebble

Void Shard

Void Soul

Fiber

Battery

Dinosaur Mayonnaise

Roe

Squid Ink

Tea Leaves

Ginger

Taro Root

Pineapple

Mango

Cinder Shard

Magma Cap

Bone Fragment

Radioactive Ore

Radioactive Bar

Ancient Fiber

Bearberry

Conch

Dried Sand Dollar

Ferngill Primrose

Golden Ocean Flower

Goldenrod

Green Mushroom

Four-Leaf Clover

Monster Fruit

Monster Mushroom

Mushroom Colony

Poison Mushroom

Red Baneberry

Salal Berry

Slime Berry

Rafflesia

Sports Drink

Stamina Capsule

Thistle

Void Root

Winter Star Ross

Dewdrop Berry

Aged Blue Moon Wine

Blue Moon Wine

Aegis Elixir

Armor Elixir

Barbarian Elixir

Gravity Elixir

Haste Exilir

Hero Elixir

Lightning Elixir

Pufferfish

Anchovy

Tuna

Sardine

Bream

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Rainbow Trout

Salmon

Walleye

Perch

Carp

Catfish

Pike

Sunfish

Red Snapper

Herring

Eel

Octopus

Red Mullet

Squid

Seaweed

Green Algae

Seacucumber

Super Seacucumber

Ghost Carp

White Algae

Stone Fish

Crimsonfish

Angler

Icepip

Lava Eel

Legend

Sandfish

Scorpion Carp

Flounder

Midnight Carp

Mutant Carp

Sturgeon

Tiger Trout

Bullhead

Tilapia

Chub

Dorado

Albacore

Shad

Lingcod

Halibut

Lobster

Crayfish

Crab

Cockle

Mussel

Shrimp

Snail

Periwinkle

Oyster

Woodskip

Glacierfish

Void Salmon

Slimejack

Midnight Squid

Spookfish

Blobfish

Stingray

Lionfish

Blue Discus

Baby Lunaloo

Bonefish

Bull Trout

Butterfish

Clownfish

Daggerfish

Dulse Seaweed

Frog

Gemfish

Goldenfish

Grass Carp

King Salmon

Kittyfish

Lunaloo

Meteor Carp

Minnow

Puppyfish

Radioactive Bass

Razor Trout

Seahorse

Sea Sponge

Shiny Lunaloo

Snatcher Worm

Starfish

Torpedo Trout

Undeadfish

Void Eel

Water Grub

Dwarf Scroll 1

Dwarf Scroll 2

Dwarf Scroll 3

Dwarf Scroll 4

Chipped Amphora

Arrowhead

Ancient Doll

Elvish Jewelry

Chewing Stick

Ornamental Fan

Dinosaur Egg

Rare Disc

Ancient Sword

Rusty Spoon

Rusty Spur

Rusty Cog

Chicken Statue

Ancient Seed

Prehistoric Tool

Dried Starfish

Anchor

Glass Shards

Bone Flute

Prehistoric Handaxe

Dwarvish Helm

Dwarf Gadget

Ancient Drum

Golden Mask

Golden Relic

Strange Doll

Strange Doll

Prehistoric Scapula

Prehistoric Tibia

Prehistoric Skull

Skeletal Hand

Prehistoric Rib

Prehistoric Vertebrae

Skeletal Tail

Nautilus Shell

Amphibian Fossil

Palm Fossil

Trilobite

Emerald

Aquamarine

Ruby

Amethyst

Topaz

Jade

Diamond

Prismatic Shard

Quartz

Fire Quartz

Frozen Tear

Earth Crystal

Alamite

Bixite

Baryite

Aerinite

Calcite

Dolomite

Esperite

Fluorapatite

Geminite

Helvite

Jamborite

Jagoite

Kyanite

Lunarite

Malachite

Nepunite

Lemon Stone

Nekoite

Orpiment

Petrified Slime

Thunder Egg

Pyrite

Ocean Stone

Ghost Crystal

Tiger’s Eye

Jasper

Opal

Fire Opal

Celestine

Marble

Sandstone

Granite

Basalt

Limestone

Soapstone

Hematite

Mudstone

Obsidian

Slate

Fairy Stone

Star Shards

Fried Egg

Omelet

Salad

Cheese Cauliflower

Baked Fish

Parsnip Soup

Vegetable Medley

Complete Breakfast

Fried Calimari

Strange Bun

Lucky Lunch

Fried Mushrooms

Pizza

Bean Hotpot

Glazed Yams

Carp Surprise

Hashbrowns

Pancakes

Salmon Dinner

Fish Taco

Crispy Bass

Pepper Poppers

Bread

Tom Kha Soup

Trout Soup

Chocolate Cake

Pink Cake

Rhubarb Pie

Cookies

Spaghetti

Spicy Eel

Sashimi

Maki Roll

Tortilla

Red Plate

Eggplant Parmesan

Rice Pudding

Ice Cream

Bluberry Tart

Autumn’s Bounty

Pumpkin Soup

Super Meal

Cranberry Sauce

Stuffing

Farmer’s Lunch

Survival Burger

Dish’O’The Sea

Miner’s Treat

Roots Platter

Triple Shot Espresso

Seafoam Pudding

Algae Soup

Pale Broth

Plum Pudding

Artichoke Dip

Stir Fry

Roasted Hazelnuts

Pumpkin Pie

Radish Salad

Fruit Salad

Blackberry Cobbler

Cranberry Candy

Bruschetta

Coleslaw

Fiddlehead Risotto

Poppyseed Muffin

Chowder

Fish Stew

Escargot

Lobster Bisque

Maple Bar

Crab Cakes

Shrimp Cocktail

Ginger Ale

Banana Pudding

Mango Sticky Rice

Poi

Tropical Curry

Squid Ink Ravioli

Mushroom Berry Rice

Big Bark Burger

Flower Cookie

Frog Legs

Glazed Butterfish

Grampleton Orange Chicken

Mixed Berry Pie

Baked Berry Oatmeal

Void Delight

Void Salmon Sushi

[trashideas]

TW: implied suicide attempt, suicidal ideation for a bit

It's actually cottagecore vibes to the max but Joonghyuk is a sunfish for a moment.

Dokja is a demon. Because of a curse, he is unperceivable to humans.

Which is fine for him because he has always just loved watching humans. He has lived for hundreds of lifetimes and has witnessed the hunting and extermination of many species- including his own.

Dokja doesn't particularly mind because he has never been seen as a true demon.

Why?

Because Dokja doesn't need to consume human flesh to survive. If any other demon were to be put under this “curse”, the humans would have been eradicated by now. Many demons had tried their part to force Dokja’s hand to kill, but he has refused. Dokja has no need for the flesh of humans. He needs their stories their snippets of life their life. He needs that to survive.

However, throughout Dokja’s many lifetimes, there is a specific human that he keeps finding. One would think that this isn't strange since Dokja inhabits a library in the middle of the city, he sees the same people all the time. Yeah, it wasn't strange....

For the first 10 years.

But it's been hundreds of years. Dokja has watched this town grow from a thick forest to a bustling city.

And this one man has been there all the way.

The man had been one of the first hunters to enter the forest, armed with just a sword and his fists, and eraticated the inhabitants of the forest.

All except Dokja.

....

Joonghyuk was also placed under a curse.

A curse where monsters could not perceive him. However, that's not just it. Joonghyuk has found out that the more he fights, the more other humans see him as a monster. He goes from a hero to a monster in the matter of years.

He lived his life the best he could, only to be ridiculed. Now, in the very forest where he was first cursed, he has chosen to die.

Then he wakes up. He is supposed to be dead, yet here he is- alive.

There is apparently another part to this curse.

He has woken up. The grass is stained with blood around him, yet he has no wounds anymore.

It seems that he cannot die by his own hand.

So, for years, Joonghyuk hunted.

And hunted.

And hunted.

But... Even throughout the years

He hasn't aged.

Thousands of beasts have been felled by his hand yet none have ever landed a blow against him.

Joonghyuk finds himself coming back to the city that he has avoided for some years. The people have changed and they don't recognize him. The town has turned from a hunting village born of blood and bone, to one that cherishes knowledge.

Instead of a church being the middle of the town...

There is a library.

Curious, Joonghyuk goes to it. When he steps in, he immediately feels as if he is being watched with a curious gaze. However, the only people in the library all have a book in their hand and are adamantly reading.

He looks through the rows and rows of books but that feeling never subsides.

Someone here is watching him.

Joonghyuk picks up a book and sits down with it in an attempt to look normal.

The eyes don't leave him.

Joonghyuk leaves, his book still open to the first page.

....

Several years later,

Joonghyuk returns to the village- which is more of a city at this point. The library is no longer the pride and joy, but it is still well-cared for by an elderly couple.

That feeling is still here. The feeling of being watched.

....

With the modernization of new technologies, the library has been abandoned.

Joonghyuk has returned to this curious library. No matter how far he travels, this library is almost always in the back of his mind.

When he comes back to the once beautiful library, he finds all the buildings around it burned. Entire blocks of the city have been abandoned. With a quick search on the internet, Joonghyuk finds that the library- along with a large portion of the city- was caught in large-scale fire.

Because the town was made from wood, almost the entire city was burned down before mages could put out the flames. The damage was too much to fix the entire city, so people salvaged what they could and left the burnt buildings to rot- condemned.

There were many buildings that were already knocked down, but the ones not labeled as a safety issue of being blown over by the wind have been left to stand.

Apparently, this library was in the middle of the fire. All the buildings near it have been knocked down, but the library stood strong- desbute being build entirely out of wood.

Something had kept this library standing.

When Joonghyuk went into the library, his suspicions were confirmed.

Books were charred but with a quick flip through, not many were unreadable. In fact, none of the books were unreadable. The entire library itself was spotless. There were signs of a fire that happened on the floorboards in some places, but none of the bookshelves were scorched. Some of the bookshelves even seemed... New. There also wasn't any dust on any surface.

Someone was keeping this place in shape.

then he felt it.

eyes watching him.

He heard a book being flipped open. It came from the charred front desk, so he hastily made his way over.

There was a notebook opened to a page with the simple word of: “hello” the writing was scribbled, but Joonghyuk could read it.

Joonghyuk took the pen next to the paper and wrote: “are you the one who kept the library in good condition?”

Writing appeared in the book. “And if I am?”

“Thank you.”

[justaduckarts]

God of Rivers, God of Monsters

The next chapter of Below The Surface is out now!

You can read it here!

Chapter Snippet:

The gold pendant glittered in the early morning light. A star.

Moonfish knew this star. Jacob had shown it to him once.

"I'm gonna give this lil trinket to the guppy." The old man held the star up for the young mer. "Then, one day, if you two meet you'll know it's them."

It was something Moonfish had never expected, though. He'd assumed that Jacob's young had left the horrid docks behind for something better. Perhaps taking the old man along with them. Maybe that was why Moon hadn't seen Jacob in some time.

But then yesterday, he found Jacob's walking stick. And the gold trinket in his hands.

Well, 'found' wasn't quite the right word.

Technically, he'd torn it off of Sunfish's neck while the two were tussling.

[laniemae]

even more incoherent side order theories and ramble

Who is the villain of side order?

So the villain ooooh boy. To get it off simply personally I think the villain is going to be someone new, as what’s going on does not match the motives or style of any other character.

Mr grizz was already dealt with so it couldn’t be him, there’s absolutely no way it’s Octavio, but Tartar is interesting. Being an AI, perhaps it would make sense for the whole theme of side order to be digital. But the perceived motive of creating a world of order stemming from the results of the final fest doesn’t exactly seem something like Tartar would do, although it was on team order. 

To me, this seems to be the work of someone who has more knowledge of and more experience with inkling society. And was probably present during the final fest. So from my guessing perhaps the main villain could be an inkling or something, although perhaps someone new. I thought of agent 4 while writing this but it doesn’t really make sense as they were on chaos, and probably wouldn’t have the ability to do something on this scale.

Oh and speaking of agent 4, why do they appear as a silhouette with red eyes along with a bunch of other melting inkling like figures in the main art? The melting black silhouettes remind me a lot of the ink from the enemies, a black colour which resembles more of real life ink, or even oil spills. They have the same bright red eyes as all the enemies as well. Perhaps these are inklings who have been corrupted by the goop, maybe in a similar way to the fuzzy ooze. But this time they’re completely engulfed and melting apart.

So what’s going on here? Who did this and why? Uhhh no clue. But some random thing I was thinking about is that perhaps these are people who have tried to conquer the spire beforehand but ended up getting trapped in a loop, like I did a theory on earlier, and something ended up happening to them that fit them turned into this monstrosities. But for why whoever’s doing this decided to turn inklings into goop monsters to enforce order and whatever those jeletron things are is beyond me, but that’s basically how Tartar and grizz did their things with good old genetic mcfuckery.

Also in the trailers we see some weird glitching pink purple blocky thing with an octarian like face appear out of some purple mist with lightning around it. The lighting or something makes me think it’s some boss of sort. The way it’s presented makes me think it’s an AI of some sort, akin to Tartar and orca, although perhaps it’s not a human AI. It’s kinda hard to tell where it is but it seems to be in the spire of some sort, and kinda looks like a boss room to me. Or perhaps it could be another character, but it doesn’t appear in the key art.

There’s also in the first trailer some weird goop like thing with wires on top of it engulfed in a shadow which I don’t know why I’m bringing up again but we know next to nothing about it and this whole theory is just me grasping at straws so I can look back on this and laugh.

What are the jeletrons?

So I think these guys are called jeletrons idk. They appear to be fish bones in some sort of black ooze with glowing red eyes. It seems that the skeletons are artificial or sorts, looking like melded plastic. There’s also a sunfish like one on a wheel which seems to be composed of metal.

They’ve been noted to resemble dead fish in oil spills which I find particularly interesting, as side order already has a theme going for it if bleached coral so an enemy representing oil spills and stuff would be really cool.

There’s also how in the first trailer you can see fossilised remains if one but it appears to be an actual organic skeleton rather than a plastic/metal one.

So just what are these things??? Again I kinda don’t really have an idea. They look mostly inorganic so perhaps some robot thing? Or maybe they are modeled after actual skeletons like we see in the first trailer. In one of the things we can see them popping out from an orb with the black ink with skeleton parts inside of it so perhaps that’s how they’re created. Also when they appear there’s some sort of seaweed like thing appearing with colourful parts on it, so perhaps that’s how they’re made. There’s also the possibility they’re some sort of digital construct but I’m not too certain and there’s no aesthetic choices that could imply that.

But what are these guys supposed to do? Unlike the variants of the octarians that we’ve seen before it’s much more unclear. With them, it’s either their soldiers or their corrupted variants to guide a test facility or to be the starting point for genetic change but since this is a completely different type of enemy it’s unclear. The layout of the spire doesn’t exactly strike me as a test facility and I don’t believe they’re gonna pull that again so I don’t think it’s that. In general, the spire of order is an incredibly weird place. Appearing to be much bigger on the inside than the outside and we don’t even know why we want to climb it. There’s also a scene at the end of the trailer where the top of it appears to glitch out adversely and it looks like one of the buildings broke in some way with black smile coming out of it and it kinda looked like an error in the glitch or whatever? Oops off track again.

But yeah, we have no idea why we’re here and why we want to climb the spire so badly, and the jeletrons being there could imply that they’re protecting something. But going back to the cycle theory which I’m way too obsessed about maybe it has something to do with having inklings/Octolings advance the spire to no goal and these jeletrons are just to mask some sort of progression.

And thinking about the bosses, currently we’ve only seen two that we really know of. There’s the pinging Marciale, a sea urchin like jeletron with a striking resemblance to the octowhirl, and some unnamed tower like boss that appears to spawn enemies. It looks like you fight a boss on the levels on the screen with the weird glitching void. And interestingly enough there’s a key attached to it which could imply some secret area in the level or some item you can unlock for progress. And is it just me or does the yellow thing attached to the key look somewhat like agent 8’s wristband from Octo expansion?

I don’t exactly know what to say about these bosses but it’s interesting how we’ve only seen two so far and the tower one looks like it has an eye on the screen idk.

[jurgen-task]

Some silly things

My activity has dropped off a bit lately, and there's not much to publish. So I'll show you some sketches and ideas on different topics.

Psyduck. No idea why neither Psyduck nor Golduck has a Psychic type, and why they are ducks in pokedex if they look like platypuses.

Pummel. Such an underrated monster.

Ocean sunfish humanization. She has several siblings, as well as girlfriend (slender sunfish humanization).

I didn't think she would become anything more than a gimmicky sketch, unlike of the risso's dolphin hum (maybe I'll change that). The signature translation is "ex-military".

ocean sunfish's girlfriend. Translation of the caption at the bottom right - "damnpose" (i thought the character's pose was strange for a moment).

[kaykay-13]

Could you give a summary for non ORV readers

essentially there is this Sadge Salaryman Worker with a Tragic Past and he finished reading this webnovel as it releases its last chapter. he's like the only reader because the novel is dogshit and boring to everyone else but to Salaryman Worker (Kim Dokja), it gives him life. the author is like "yo thanks for always being here. it's gonna be monetised now :)" and wouldn't you know, the fucking novel comes true. there are scenarios, which mostly end in death if not completed. KDJ uses his knowledge of the novel to survive the first few scenarios, and meets up with the Depressed Sunfish Protagonist (who regresses after each life) and this is his third regression. Protag Guy (Yoo Joonghyuk) chokes the shit out of KDJ and throws him into the jaws of a monster as a friendly hello. do y'all still need more to this hot mess or....?

[gootarts]

imposter roundabout | 4.6k words | G rating | Mizuki & Bibi 

If there was a single set of words that properly described how Mizuki Date felt about those weird company parties that Lemniscate hosts, she'd probably settle on something along the lines of ‘strong dislike’ on a normal day. On a bad day, however, her mind would immediately make a beeline to the words all-consuming hatred. Yeah, sure, Renju used to host those things in order to get all buddy-buddy with the likes of So, but just because some rich weirdoes wanted to rent Sunfish for an hour for a fancy dinner party didn’t mean she was going to show up.

The only reason that her bike was being parked outside Sunfish in the first place was a verifiable siege of pleading from Iris, saying that there’s going to be some bigwig or other who worked as management for one of her favorite streamers, and if she please please please came over, there’d be a really good chance of snagging a collab with her. Mizuki was many things—genetically modified, cranky, tired—but she wasn’t a monster. So here she was, putting around in the dark outside Sunfish Pocket trying to find a parking spot for her bike.

finished aini this week and made a joke to a friend about how bibi would 100% dress up as mizuki to take advantage of free catering at lemniscate parties given how there’s flavor text about her eating garbage. this instantly raptured me to a fourth dimension and less than a week later this was on my hard drive. if you read it here and reblog and/or comment i will do my best to come up with more completely deranged rat fic for you. this is a promise

[cryptidinspace]

Dangerous Waters, Chapter 5

CW: Mentions of fatal vore, brief discussion of made-up drugs

“Atlaaaantiiiic!” Irridesse’s voice rolled through the empty corridors. The inside of the school was like some ancient fortress, carved from stone, and hung with faded tapestries. Where do all of these come from, anyway? She swam a bit closer, inspecting one woven from seaweed ropes. A depiction of a mermaid, holding a dead human on a rocky shoal, beneath the gloomy moonlight. Her eyes flicked to the plaque beside it, confirming that this was, indeed, a mermaid. “Savior of Humans,” they call it. It could easily be mistaken for a siren though, and then the whole meaning changes… Tearing her eyes away, she hurried through the corridors. Another thing she noted was the odd shaping of the halls…the width and height of the hallways seemed to fluctuate slightly, some likely a bit too small for the larger sea monsters. Interesting. 

“Atlantiiiiic…” She sighed, not really believing in her chances of finding him. Atlantic was the son of Mayor Mura, the leader of their small community. Sunfish Vale. Her family was close to them, and so Atlantic had been her unwanted playmate since they were only fry. And he had always been a coward. This school was no different…he was too weak to stand up to Magna, too weak to stand up to his own pest of a father, too weak for this ridiculous school…but he was a pretty good swimmer.

He was probably halfway home already. 

As she turned a corner, Irridesse suddenly halted. There was someone else up ahead…at such a late hour, with everyone still meeting their counselors, there shouldn’t be anyone else here…peering at the stranger, she recognized the Headmaster. The same buffoon who had been talking to them all about an hour ago. He still had his sash on, and he was hovering outside a pair of doors labeled “auditorium.” He appeared to be reading something, a long scroll, and looked rather confused by it’s contents. Maybe he’s illiterate. 

“Scuse me.” She swam up to him, folding her arms with a bored expression. “Have you see a young merman, long blonde hair, blue scaled and blue eyes, wearing a jellyfish leather shirt? He ran off, and I was sent to look for him.” 

The principal looked up sharply, wide gray eyes blinking slowly. He looked puzzled for a moment, before softly gasping. A hint of a smile flickered over his face, before he looked back down at his scroll. Irridesse scowled at him suddenly, feeling distinctly off. There was something strange about him, and about the way he was hiding behind the roll of paper. “Ah, yes, I think I saw that young man head toward the main entrance. Appeared that he was in quite the hurry.” His voice had a creaky quality to it as well, like an old door with unoiled hinges. She stared at him for a moment more, before nodding and darting off. Creepy…But most old men were creepy, that was nothing new. Still…it wouldn’t hurt to keep her guard up. 

—------------------------------------------------

The swim to the front entrance was a surprisingly long one, and Irridesse found herself incredibly bored by the time she finally reached it. The constant pausing to study maps didn’t help, of course. But it was clearly a waste of time, as no one was there. The doors were shut tight, the glowfish still floating in lazy circles near the ceiling. Maybe he just went to bed…? 

A sudden swish of movement behind her made Irridesse flinch, before spinning around with a fierce look. Just her luck, it was that tentacled freak. Magna. “Oh great, what do you want? I’m kind of busy here.”

Magna laughed, slightly muffled by her mask. Her coils of indigo hair danced through the water as she shook her head. “Snappy as ever, huh?” Irridesse’s eyes unconsciously strayed toward Magna’s ample belly, where her wide array of teeth glinted in the dim light. Following her gaze, the sea monster snickered and patted her stomach. “What, miss me already?”

“Stop that!” She barked, turning away as her face reddened. What the fuck…”Seriously, Atlantic went missing. Our roommate, the one you terrorized earlier?” She sighed, crossing her arms. “They sent me to find him, and-” She turned to face Magna suddenly, eyebrows furrowing. “Hey, why are you not in class?” 

Magna’s teasing expression faded, and she rolled her eyes. “Our counselor never showed up. Honestly, this place is…not what I expected. It’s shitty.” 

Irridesse had to agree, unfortunately. “I’ve noticed. And it’s not what I was told.” She was silent for a moment, turning Magna’s words over in her mind. Something occurred to her, like a sudden bloom of fear in her chest, and her shoulders stiffened. “Magna…does that mean every Sea Monster is just…wandering around right now?” 

“Uhh…” The woman squinted, curling and uncurling her tentacles. “Well, Spike’s kinda the guy in charge, I don’t know where he went. A little one said she was throwing a party, though. I was gonna have a look around outside…so yeah, I guess everyone’s just wandering around.” 

No…no, what kind of god-awful coincidence- “Magna!” Irridesse’s voice went shrill with panic, and the sea monster froze. “Atlantic ran off on his own, in a dark and empty school full of Sea Monsters. Look me dead in the eyes, and tell me no one’s gonna try to eat him.” Coral’s lecture swam through her head. All the tedious rules to be followed, all the things that could go horribly wrong…what if Atlantic was already dead? 

She may not have liked him, but he was still a merman. They were still connected. From the start, Irridesse had gone into this with a desire to eradicate the stupid fear that mers lived their lives by. And on the first day, one of her kind had already been eaten. This is a death trap. 

“Hey…” Irridesse bristled, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest as a tentacle coiled around her arm. And yet, Magna’s voice sounded soft and gentle…not like it did a moment ago. “Hey, don’t panic. Most of them probably went right back to the dorms. And I’m telling you, no one is here to eat merpeople.” She seemed to hesitate, before quietly continuing. “Even if they wanted to, they’d quickly find that this is not the place for it.” 

“Get your slimy octopus legs off of me!” Irridesse spat, shoving the tendril away. Her eyes closed for a moment, and a deep sigh left her body. “Okay. Okay, what do you mean by this is not the place for it?” 

“Well…it’s a bad place for…for that…” Magna’s voice faltered. Somehow, she had learned some tact in this short time. 

“For killing and eating Mers?” 

“Uh…yes, pretty much.” Magna drifted onto one of the nearby couches, anchoring herself to the soft cushions. “The majority of Sea Monsters live in the open ocean. A lot of them, if they try to hunt a population of mermaids, will use their larger size to destroy buildings first, so that their targets can’t hide from them. We aren’t good at chasing and grabbing things in narrow hallways and classrooms full of stuff. And even if someone were crazy enough to try, the buildings are all made of solid volcanic stone. Sea Monster’s can get pretty big, but they’re still too squishy and soft to break rock like this.” Her eyes squinted, as though she were smiling beneath her mask. “So, there’s a good chance he’s fine.” 

Irridesse sank to the ground, her racing thoughts calming in spite of herself. “...alright. That sounds right.” 

Magna nodded. “He’s probably just in bed.” She cleared her throat, before looking up at the fish overhead. “So…who���s the Mer counselor?” 

Polite conversation? Really? In spite of her annoyance, Irridesse floated down to sit on the arm of the couch. “Coral Dulcette. She’s a sea monster expert, or something like that. Studies your kind, I think.” She once again found herself wishing she’d heard the rest of the lecture. 

“Oh yeah, there were a few Mers like that in my hometown. A siren, too, they had this little club and everything.” Magna’s voice was filled with fondness as she recalled old friends. “They’re actually the ones who convinced me to come here in the first place. Such curious little guys…” 

“Really? And did you try eating them every time you met?” Irridesse’s voice was dry as stone in the sun, as she shot the Sea Monster a glare. 

“Well, first of all, I was not trying to eat you.” Magna didn’t sound the least bit apologetic, in fact, it almost seemed that she was trying not to laugh. “Like most of ‘my kind,’ I can choose whether or not I digest something. I was always going to let you go.” She shrugged. “It’s how I grew up. That’s how sea monsters greet each other, where I’m from. Some of them might think it too intimate, but not me! It’s important to make people feel welcome when you meet them.” Irridesse squinted at her, still deeply skeptical. “What better way to welcome someone than welcoming them right into your stomach?” 

A moment of silence passed between them, before Irridesse suddenly snorted with laughter. She shook her head, as an unexpected grin grew on her face. “That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard.” And yet, somehow, she felt lighter than before. As if the fear was gradually draining from her body, leaving only amused exasperation. It’s not so scary now. But I’m not angry. I…don’t want to fight her. Why is that? What's happening to me? 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere, Lacey felt petrified. Their hands were shaking, and their mind racing. They had tried to pay attention to Coral’s lecture, they really had, but anxiety seemed to clog their eyes and ears, like wet sand. 

They felt sick. Atlantic and Irridesse where both out by themselves, and everyone’s meetings were likely wrapping up now. What if Sea Monsters ate them? What if that Carcharias guy eats me? The thought of massive teeth and an endless gullet made a quiet whimper escape their lips. I want to go home…I can’t do this without Irridesse. I’m too much of a fucking coward. 

“Alright, our time’s almost up.” Coral’s voice sounded distant and weary. “Any questions, guys?”

A stunned silence filled the room. More than likely, Lacey’s panic was shared. Perhaps some had been lied to by parents, or bribed, or deluded into believing such friendship was possible. And now, the truth was coming to light. We’re doomed. 

Coral fidgeted with her hands for a moment, her bright red nails catching the light and glinting softly. Her formerly cheery look was replaced with something apologetic. “It’s becoming increasingly obvious that none of you were prepared for this.” Her tone grew softer, almost motherly, cutting through Lacey’s cloud of despair. They lifted their head slightly, eyes focusing on the older mermaid. 

“”I forget, sometimes, that most Mer communities live in complete fear of Sea Monsters. I was lucky to make a move into understanding them, and even luckier that it worked. It’s…dangerous, and scary, sometimes. All you know about these creatures is that they’d like to eat you. But they aren’t the beasts you think they are. They can be kind, and loving, and have perhaps one of the most unique and beautiful cultures that exist within the ocean. It’s true that Sea Monsters have eaten our kind, and will likely keep doing so…if we continue to live in the shadows.” Her gaze hardened, “Understanding is the only way forward.” 

Silence fell once again, awkward and tense. Lacey’s hands gripped the arms of her chair, knuckles turning white. She’s just like Irridesse. She’s fearless. She can’t understand what it’s like to be normal and terrified. A bell rang in the distance, signifying the end of the class period. How am I supposed to make friends with them, knowing that getting swallowed whole is a possibility? Knowing that they’re capable of eating me, and would probably like to. However, Coral had said that they didn’t want to hurt anyone. There’s no way. Maybe…maybe some of them are good people. But there’s no way all of them came here with good intentions. But better safe than sorry. 

“Alright, class dismissed. You’ll see my office hours and location in your schedule, please don’t hesitate to come talk to me, for any reason at all.” She sounded defeated, and yet mustered a faint smile. 

Lacey followed the other Mers out, listening to the quiet whispering around them. Everyone was worried, and no one had been fully convinced by Coral’s speech. Hands shook, and faces were pale with fear. “Hey.” Someone they didn’t know muttered, looking around at the others.”Maybe we should go back to the dorms in a group.” 

Not saying a word, Lacey trailed after the others as they murmured agreements. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later, they found themselves drifting through a lonesome corridor. The dorms were alive with muffled talking and laughing, but all behind closed doors. As they drew closer to their own room, a soft thumping noise grew gradually louder, until it swelled into the recognizable rhythm of dance music. Mixed with the sound of chatter and the smell of alcohol diffusing in the water, it had all the makings of a party. 

A party. Huh. Still in a daze, Lacey recalled wishing so badly to attend a college party for the first time. It sounded like so much fun, a rite of passage, of sorts. If only they hadn’t suffered such a morbid twist of fate, if only their college wasn’t full of death. 

And it’s in my room, so…no sleep tonight, I guess. And they still didn’t know where Irridesse was. Should I go looking for her…? The thought brought a cold chill up their spine, and suddenly, tears came to their eyes. It was all too much, and now they couldn't even get to bed. Frustration and terror and tiredness welled up, burning behind their eyes, and Lacey curled into a ball, flipping their tail over their head. A frustrated scream began to build in their chest-before the door suddenly swung open. 

Startled out of their rage, Lacey uncurled and blinked at the intruder. Rosia, the tiny Sea Monster. She looked oddly anxious, until her eyes lit up at the sight of her roommate. “Oh, hey! Um, I hope you don’t mind, I didn’t mean to hold a party here, it just kind of…happened…” She let out a stilted laugh. “Um, anyways, have you seen Carcharias?” 

Lacey stared back in silence, jaw slack. Their brain felt melty and liquidy, thoughts swimming like minnows in the shallows. “Um…no.” 

After a moment, a soft “oh” escaped Rosia’s lips. Her eyebrows drew together into a sympathetic expression, and she halfway reached for Lacey’s shoulder, before pulling back. “You look miserable, is everything ok? I can tell em to clear out if you need to rest. We can take the party outside, or whatever.” 

“...Please.” Lacey’s eyelids fluttered, all their anger suddenly sapped. “I just…it’s been a long day.” It was easier to think of Rosia as a friend. She didn’t look big enough to be a threat, after all, and she didn’t have the same creepy energy that sirens did. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was just an odd-looking mermaid. “I’m sorry…” 

“No, no, don’t be!” Rosia waved one hand dismissively, grinning once again. “Just sit tight, I’ll have them out in a few minutes.” She darted back inside, her voice drifting out the door. “Alright guys, pack it up. Roomie needs their beauty rest.” 

Lacey didn’t even notice the stream of much larger Sea Monsters reluctantly filing out of their room, they were so tired. Their eyes stayed on the ground, as they sank to the ground with a sigh. Irridesse will be fine…right? 

She always is. 

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything felt heavy and sore. Where on earth was he? The water around him was chilly, but quite still, and smelled faintly of chemicals. His eyelids felt like lead weights, and he had never been so tired in his life. 

“Carcharias Rubrumepito?” His name, said by a feminine voice. She sounded almost timid, and he heard the indistinct murmur of a deeper voice just beside him. “No, I’m not scared, don’t be absurd.” She scoffed, with a tremor still present in her voice. “Mr Rubrumepito? Are you awake?” 

“Mm…” With great effort, he forced his eyes open. A siren dressed in black hovered in front of him, gripping a clipboard in one hand. Beside her, an older merman peered back at him through thick-wired glasses. “Hm?” 

Behind the strangers, he could see curtains swaying slightly in the current. Various cabinets lined the walls, and a tray full of strange instruments laid on a counter beside him. This is…a doctor’s office? Panic suddenly gripped him, and his eyes widened. He had been talking to Atlantic, who had gotten strangely close to his face, and then started yelling at him. And then…he couldn’t remember anything past that. What happened? I didn’t…I didn’t do anything, right? The possibility made him feel sick, and he looked around to see if Atlantic was with him. But no…it was just him, in a rather cramped room, full of strange machinery, which was holding him suspended over the floor. “Where’s Atlantic?”

“Atlantic Mira. Missing student, as of this morning.” Oh no… “Ran off from his counselor meeting last night, and no one has seen him since.” The nurse cleared her throat, darting a furtive glance at Carcharias. “It is…six in the morning now. They’ve yet to announce it to the student body, but I can tell you now.” Behind her, the man in green was staring at him with a mix of fear and disgust, and he felt his stomach turn. “Due to the circumstances, we think it’s likely that one of the Sea Monsters here ate him.” She tilted her head to the side, clearing her throat. “And…were you with him?”

“I…” His eyes were round, and his entire body felt cold. This couldn’t be happening. His first time alone with a Mer, and he had eaten him?? No, there’s no way. I couldn’t have. He strained his mind, but found his memory blank. He was close to my face. I could have so easily just…just leaned a little closer and…Carcharias squeezed his eyes shut, and a shudder of revulsion ran through his body. His mind went to his stomach, which he felt gurgle faintly. He was hungry. Right, if I ate last night, I wouldn’t be hungry already-

-he’s so small, it wouldn’t matter. His chest felt tight, and icey claws gripped his shoulders. He couldn’t even bring himself to answer the nurse in front of him. What do I even say?! Yeah, I probably did, but I don’t actually remember? No? Because I didn’t, I couldn’t have. He still couldn’t accept it. It didn’t feel real. He was so sickened by the notion, how could he have suddenly changed his mind without even knowing? It wasn’t like he was prone to blackouts and memory loss either…

“I don’t…think so.” He eventually choked out. “I…heard from someone that he was missing.” That wasn’t technically a lie. But he couldn’t tell the truth, he just couldn’t, because it was so suspect, and then what? He’d get sent away? Killed?! He couldn’t seem to remember anyone discussing a punishment for such things. Would it be counted as murder, or…? He shook his head, pushing away those morbid thoughts. 

“Right.” The nurse sighed heavily, before looking at the older man. “Is he good to go?” 

“There’s nothing else we can do about it.” He murmured. “Not until they officially decide on something.” He edged forward, clearing his throat. “You’re here because you were found passed out in a classroom. We’ve tested your blood already, and it appears that you were on some kind of knockout drug. Which, I might add, is commonly used by Sea Monsters who don’t want to feel prey squirming in their guts.” 

Squirming? Gross…A heartbeat later, Carcharias’s eyes lit up. This was a good thing, actually…he was quite certain he had taken no such thing. Did someone drug me? Not Atlantic, obviously, so…But who on earth would do that? Are they trying to frame me?? 

Well, it’s definitely working. 

“We just need to check a few more things. On your back, please.” Carcharias nodded and obediently rolled over, muttering an apology as his long hair nearly ensnared the nurse. The older one swam over him, apparently unbothered by the physical proximity to a Sea Monster. He placed one hand over the young man’s chest, nodding at the thrumming of a steady heartbeat. “Deep breath in your nose and out your mouth.” Carcharias took in a lungful of water, chest rising and brushing the nurse’s hands, before releasing a current that smelled vaguely of vegetables. “Right. Gills next.” The gills on his neck and waist fluttered, a second and more efficient respiratory system. “You seem fine. Go sleep off the rest of your comedown.” 

—--------------------------------------------------------

After hurrying back to his dorm, he almost immediately fell asleep, oblivious to the two small mers staring up at him in astonishment. 

“That’s your roommate?” Irridesse’s voice was equal parts awe and anxiety. “It’s…huge. Like, fucking massive.” She was seated on Lacey’s bed, with dark circles carved beneath her eyes. The yellow scaled Mer across from her nodded with a despondent expression. 

“Yeah. His name’s Carcharias. We, um, haven’t really talked.” Lacey was just glad that he was out cold, and slightly curious about where he had been all night. They hadn’t slept well, even after Rosia’s party left, and had watched the door nervously for much of the night. “That’s probably for the best.” Irridesse nodded in agreement, and Lacey sighed heavily. “So, still no news on Atlantic?” 

“Nope.” Irridesse and Magna had both headed to their dorm after a bit of talking, only to find that Atlantic was nowhere to be found. She had spent the next three hours tearing up the school with the Sea Monster, looking for him. The administration had even sent out law enforcement to look for him outside the school, and in the nearest town. But no one had seen him. 

Magna’s words had been reassuring, but not reassuring enough to completely ease her fears. Somewhere around three am, both of them had been too tired to continue. And now, she was back to update Lacey. It didn’t even occur to her to be upset about her friend staying behind, yet the subject was gnawing at Lacey’s conscience. 

“So…what do we do?” Lacey gazed at the girl with wide eyes, awaiting some kind of instruction. Irridesse stared into the distance, frowning. “If he was eaten by someone, how would we even know? Does this place have kind of security, other than the guys outside? Would a Sea Monster write down their plans to eat someone?” 

“I doubt it…it’s likely a spontaneous thing.” Irridesse tugged on a loose braid, coiling it around her finger in thought. “If we do have security, it’s probably not something we’re allowed to access. I suppose asking other Sea Monster’s would help, but would they betray their own kind like that…?” Would Magna? She wanted to believe that yes, Magna wasn’t entirely awful, and maybe she could be trusted, just a little bit. But species loyalty could run deep, maybe deeper than ethics. 

“Well, uh…” Lacey glanced back at the softly snoring giant behind them. “Carcharias says he’s a vegetarian, so maybe he would help?” Irridesse gave them an incredulous look, and they shrugged. “Look, I don’t really believe it either, but he seems nice, honestly. Could be worth a shot.”  If only they could get over the terror that gripped them whenever he so much as moved. 

“Sure, I guess. Let me know if he ever wakes up.” She looked up at the huge Sea Monster, and frowned slightly. He was, by far, the biggest living thing she had ever seen. It was hard to believe he was alive, and not just a big rock. I was going to find the biggest Sea Monster here, and defeat them. Would that be him? A vegetarian Sea Monster? We can figure that out once Atlantic is safe. Or…or once we punish whoever ate him. The thought sent an unexpected wave of smothering sadness through her mind. She hadn’t expected to feel this way over his disappearance…he was just a thorn in her side. And yet, he was innocent. Just an ignorant prick, nothing more. He didn’t deserve this. 

[my-year-of-game-boy]

Week 1: Kirby's Dream Land 2

I want to say it was a hard choice deciding what game to start this blog with. There are so many iconic games and series associated with the Game Boy that I could've went with an iconic puzzler, a launch title like Super Mario Land, or that famous monster catching series, Robopon. Honestly, though? I just shoved a game into the Analogue Pocket that I hadn't actually played before and went with that. I'm a big fan of Nintendo's ever present second-tier mascot, Kirby. Multiple round, pink toys adorn my home, a Kirby t-shirt is part of my regular rotation, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land was my number two game of 2022. Yet, there are so many games in the little fellow's catalogue that I've never played them all. I could be writing about how his first ever appearance was on this handheld, or I could write about the many hours I spent getting lost in The Amazing Mirror. Maybe I still will, but today, I have the pleasure of saying I finally played Kirby's Dream Land 2.

Most Kirby games have a gimmick, even as early as this one. Here, our favorite infant Star Warrior is joined by new, rideable animal friends. In addition to Kirby's trademark copy abilities (Of which this game is only the second time they've appeared!), the rideable gain abilities in combination with Kirby's. This creates some fun combinations, but they're hindered by trading Kirby's floating mobility for the movement of your pal.

Pray you don't get this dude on anything but a water level

As someone who's played the original Kirby's Dream Land countless times, I was surprised at the vast jump in scale, game mechanics, level design, and even difficulty between this game and that one. Sure, there was an NES game inbetween, but it's still such a jump from what might be the simplest mainstream platformer to ever grace the Game Boy.

There's some cheapness to the scrolling levels, one in particular has you essentially choosing one of three paths and desperately hoping you don't get trapped, but the rest of levels are pretty cleverly designed. Unfortunately, these levels sometimes feel designed with Kirby's floating ability in mind to the point that playing with his new pals is a detriment. Later levels had me actually avoiding taking one on from time to time because I simply didn't think it would be very helpful.

Kirby's on a roll!

There's secrets to find across the seven different worlds that lead to an optional boss fight that I may not have actually found, but I respect that they're actually there to find. Even with all the Kirby games that've been made over the years, this one's still worth a visit even today. I'd recommend it just to take a gander at Kirby's cute little buddies, even if Kine the sunfish shows up at the most inopportune times. Before I finish my inaugural entry, I'd like to make a point that, in addition to being the first game I've written about here, this is the first game I've played through in its entirety on the Analogue Pocket! So, you get a bit of a bog standard game review along with some first impressions of video game hardware! Don't worry, I plan on changing up the format and topics from entry to entry, but I figured I'd start with something a bit more traditional. Anyway, the Analogue Pocket is a lovely little device with a few issues here and there. For this game, I did take advantage of the save state function, but it's pretty finicky. The Pocket plays carts natively and doesn't use emulation, so I'm kind of amazed that it does save states at all. Unfortunately, I could only read my last save state and would accidentally write over them constantly with the quick commands to make them. For a relatively easy game like this, it was only a minor frustration, but for some real nail biters, I can see this getting pretty annoying. The games themselves look gorgeous on it and the OpenFGPA allows me to load some neat stuff that'll get mentioned in later entries. I did have a bit of hand cramping despite my small hands, and I worry about the shoulder buttons in GBA games. However, the ergonomics are otherwise great and no different than a Game Boy Pocket, really. Lastly, it's a bit of a dream just being able to easily take screenshots on the console. I'd recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a classic video game enthusiast or just has a pile of Game Boy carts they'd really like to play.

I leave you with an obligatory Rick pic.

[ratsoh-writes]

*texting Jasper* alright, i will :)

-void keith

You and your friend arrive to the aquarium and almost immediately spot Jasper along with another monster. A blue bunny monster wearing a white beanie, a yellow tshirt with a sunfish on it, and jeans

Jasper waves enthusiastically when he sees you