#oval squid

[thepastisalreadywritten]

A close encounter with a bigfin reef squid. 🦑

📽: Marcelo Johan Ogata

[fifty-ten]

happy pride everyone look at what i made (crochet) from discount lesbian-colored yarn

[yosh-iro]

big man pancake

big man pancake

[lovewireds]

been meaning to post my designs for these little guys forever. insane splatoon rambling under cut to explain design choices and lore related things ... read my autism boy

btw this is a repost from our art side blog this was written and drawn like months ago <- minorly rewrote some things tho

thx splatoon users drfreeman & drcoolatta for fueling my splatvrai autism brainrot ... i hate u /J

GORDON

idk how to explain this but Theoretical Physicist is inkling coded . maybe its cuz splatoon species social hierarchy

Native ink color is Orange, but he has Dark Brown tentacle roots.

Uses custom weapons to attach in place of his prosthetic; It works best with Splatlings but can be adjusted to attach other weapons.

If the thing above didn't make it obvious, he's a Splatling main. He switches out depending on his mood though.

sighhhhh technically an Agent... stares at the ceiling...Main character...

His arm loss is like pretty much the same as in-canon but it's with the octarian army shrugs. don't ask me why he doesn't just regenerate it cuz hes a squid thats for me to know and you to find out. (get partially sanitized loser)

Born & Raised in Inkopolis pre-splashtags; He wasn't informed of the switch to Splashtags being expected when participating in most activities around Inkadia.

TOMMY

I forgot why i made him an inkling why did i do that. I think it was bc i didnt wanna make them all octolings but i was wrong srry we all make mistakes /hj I ALREADY REDREW HIM ONCE IM NTO DOING IT AGAINNN

Native ink color is orange-brown.

His hat has an eye guard for sensory reasons; He covers up as much of his skin as possible because he doesn't like the feeling of foreign ink on him.

He isn't a specific weapon main, he just uses any long-range weapon to minimize the possibility of getting ink on himself. If he has enough guarding, he prefers to use N-ZAP '89.

Makes his own gear for sensory reasons as well :) It's legal when ur dad's the G-Man.

Exclusively plays in Turf Wars, Anarchy Battles, etc with friends. He hates playing with people he doesn't know.

Born in Splatsville !! He feels like a Splatsville resident. His occupation is resident I cannot imagine him doing Anything

His dad is that creepy curtain in one of flounder heights windows /j

BENR(E)Y

Octoling bc I wanted him to be sanitized :) Other than the visual part of being sanitized, I thought him being clinically dead fits /hj also lore reasons below

Pre-sanitization, his native ink color was blue.

Great Turf War veteran; He didn't do anything in the war itself, he was just enlisted lol. He was primarily security for the Octarian Domes in the years after the war. Yes, that also means he is over 100 years old.

"Raised" (debatably) in Octo Canyon.

E-liter main (4-star Base + 5-star Scope) and avid squidbagger. He also uses any heavyweight weapons (dynamo, tenta, etc)

Absolutely hates working at Grizzco, he only does Turf Wars and Anarchy Battles. He only works at Grizzco during Big Runs. The type of guy that does X battles.

Professional Anarchy / Ranked / X Battler btw. That's literally 90% of what he does.

Got on Gordon's azz over him not having a Splashtag; i wonder what that parallels.

BUBBY

Genuinely don't have a lot to say about his design. He gives off Splatoon 2 Octoling vibes (showoff /hj) also i wanted to make his hair wispy like it should be.

Native ink color is a light blue-gray gradient.

The drawing doesn't give it credit but I swear those are glasses not goggles .. they're opaque-colored slanted oval glasses !! ^_^ u can interpret them as spiked or just eyelashes, both are right.

oh also the text under bubby says "Is Best" in some splatoon font we downloaded awhile ago . i think it was ripped from splatnet

Blaster main. I don't know how to explain this one but it feels right.

helps with the practical Map props (ie ink rails) and with some weapon gear manufacturing ^_^ tech guy

COOMER

Was going to make him an Octoling for the convenience of making his hair curly but i didn't want to make all of them octolings + i think his personality generally fits Inklings more.

Native ink color is an off white gradient.

Slosher main cuz he likes moving his arms. this makes sense to me. Also is a fan of Splatlings and other Shooters.

i felt ill trying to design coomer without making his eyes two lines with eyelids

War Veteran...Stole some octarian tech and got fucked up super limbs. Cyber Inkling stealing from octos !! [inkadia crowd goes wild] /j

anyways outside of the war™ he's a data researcher. just generally. he does shit with splatfests and eggstra work.

If you splashed him with ink he would stand unmoving. He would not shake it off.

DARNOLD

Ok i'll be honest the Octoling choice is primarily bc Octolings have the afro style & inklings have no textured hair styles (i didnt have the energy to design smth that could work) . His personality fits octoling too though :3

Native ink color is red-orange.

The fucked up guy that makes those drink effects people never use ( i use them ... )

He doesn't participate in Turf Wars or Anarchy Battles, but he works some gigs at Grizzco for extra cash every once in awhile !

the type of guy that goes after flyfish cuz no one else will . god bles !!!

not a lot to say about his design & his place in inkadia , it kinda speak for itself . he just wants to get by and make his drinks in peace . #autism ... he is pretty much exactly the same as his canon self

[respect-the-locals]

🦑 Daily Cephalopod Fact: 🦑

Bigfin Reef Squid: Also commonly referred to as the tiger squid, glitter squid or oval squid. Bigfin reef squids are characterised by a large oval fin that extends throughout the margins of its mantle, giving them a superficial similarity to cuttlefish. The larvae resemble miniature adults and are remarkable for already having the capability to change body colouration upon hatching. Bigfin reef squids have the fastest recorded growth rates of any large marine invertebrate, reaching 1.3 lb in only 4 months.

[aeriona]

There is a question that's been on my head for a little while..

Does your xeno inklings only have rectangular pupils? Or does it variates with species?

But also, why is it recutangular? Considering most squids have round shaped pupils

A couple reasons, actually!

It definitely varies quite a lot, there's all sorts of different pupil and eye shapes not only dependent on species but on mutations too!

Here’s an example I threw together from a drawing I had on hand.

For most “typical” inkling species (common, flying, shortfin, firefly) the pupil is a roundish-oval shape or completely circular. But once you get to the reef, pygmy or bobtail squid species things start to get a little funky.

the “star-shaped” pupil is also a pretty common mutation, you tend to see it more in Myopsid squids (common, reef and pencil squids), but it’s not entirely impossible for others to have it. In a lot of places the shape is considered trendy as many idols have it.

Also keep in mind the pupil can dilate when it’s dark out, or as an aggressive display. Inklings actually have remarkable night vision!

The main reason I gave inklings horizontal pupils is mainly because I thought it looked cool lmao. horizontal pupils more effectively get across the "non-human" aspect of their appearance that I was looking for when I initially got into making xeno designs. I’ve been doing it for so long that round pupils in my art look odd to me haha.

[dogtoling]

what are distinguishing features of cuttlings?

i'm glad you asked (because it was fun to draw an answer) here is a list! This is comparing them to squids as that's what they're more closely related to, but comparing the three main classes of inkfish (squid, octopus and cuttlefish) they very neatly fit between squid and octopus just looking at characteristics. To put it VERY simply.

The eyes are one of the most notable details in cuttlefish - while many squids can also have peculiar eye shapes and most octopus eyes are horizontal, many cuttlefish species have pupils that are shaped as distinct horizontal squiggles.

Of course the pupil shape can also change a LOT, but the general shape is very iconic in comparison to the octopus rectangle/slit and the squids' more commonly rounded or oval-shaped pupils. Cuttlefish also tend to have naturally drooped eyes due to the position of their eyebrow ridges, which gives them a naturally distressed or sad look (if you're a squid or octopus looking at a cuttlefish through the facial recognition lens of being familiar with squid or octopus facial expression. Obviously, to other cuttlefish, this is just a neutral expression).

Cuttlefish have a very similar shape to some squid, with 8 arms and two longer hunting tentacles with distinct clubs. However, their mantle is rounder and more flattened compared to a squid's pointed one, and instead of most squids' pointed and separated triangular fins, cuttlefish have one large frilly fin running around their mantle. This is a very flexible and muscular skin flap that is also a lot floppier than most squid fins; and instead of being two fins on the sides of the head, it's one connected fin that loops around thinning down around the top of the mantle and gets more prominent going down.

Of course, the shape of cuttlefish and especially their fin makes them much worse at super jumping than squid are, which in the past has resulted in some turf war bias; not to mention their cuttlebone being much wider than the gladius of a squid makes them unable to squeeze through tight places like squids can. So, presumably, cuttlefish are naturally worse at turf war than squids are... but ARE they? They are a LOT better at maneuvering their swimming direction than squids are, that's for sure. AND they actually camouflage better due to their extremely sharp color changing and coordination skills!

When it comes to tentacles, cuttlefish tentacles are similar to those of squid, but they are flatter and wider and this is a theme you'll notice with a lot of Cuttlings. They are very similar to squids, but parts of the body are often flattened and more loose, and also wider. This is true for their fins, internal shell, tentacles, and even their head.

Cuttlefish suckers are also much smaller than those of squids, with their head tentacles usually being flat and curly with tiny suckers dotting the inside. The inside of the tentacle is less pigmented as it typically is in squid as well, but in cuttlefish, the line separating the parts of the tentacle is much clearer with there usually being a notable rim of frilly skin overlapping into the inside. This is especially true with larger species, and species with large fins.

The hunting tentacles of cuttlefish function about the same to those of squid, except the clubs are usually rounded as opposed to pointed or elongated. The clubs are also sometimes surrounded by a frill, similar to the fin on the head, and the suckers are clustered together in rows. The club suckers are usually bulbous and rounded with small openings, and look relatively harmless; however there is a small ring of denticulation (teeth) within each one. These teeth are very small and unlikely to cause damage or even to break skin in most cases; compared to a lot of squid suckers which have large, protruding chitin teeth several centimeters long or even giant curved hooks, cuttlefish suckers are mostly kind of cute.

Finally, comparing the average limb of a cuttlefish to that of a squid, they are similarly shaped with the same number of fingers but have some differences. An obvious difference is the frill on the limb of the cuttlefish, where squids typically have a less pronounced line with less skin overlap, as well as the dimensions of the fingers. Cuttlefish fingers are usually shorter with rounded tips and small denticulated suckers, whereas squid fingers can be more elongated and the sucker teeth are usually very obvious whereas cuttlefish sucker teeth tend to be hidden from the naked eye in a lot of cases. Some squid can also have claws or hooks on their fingers, which is a luxury (?) that cuttlefish do not get.

Other differences: cuttlefish tend to favor crustaceans as their food of choice, where a lot of squid prefer fish. Unlike squids which are extremely social, cuttlefish also tend to be less social and do just fine alone or in small groups.

Finally, cuttlefish also have naturally very "high-resolution" chromatophores, and tend to be VERY GOOD at cycling their colors rapidly and creating patterns. While their patterns are much simpler than those of oceanic cuttlefish, it's not uncommon to see cuttlefish sporting casual gradients, or manipulating their stripes to resemble flowing water; this is an ability that can make them look nearly invisible while moving in a body of ink and closing in on enemies.

Another peculiar thing about cuttlefish patterns is that different cuttling species tend to have VERY distinct natural patterns from each other, and these do not change much. This is because anatomically, a lot of cuttlefish species look almost identical save for their patterns... something a lot of octopuses also deal with, but squids rarely do! These distinguishing patterns of cuttlefish are very persistent; from the bolder more standout stripes of common cuttlefish to the VERY distinct patterns of kisslip cuttlefish and the much smaller outlined striping on giant cuttlefish, there's a lot of stripe variation. And of course, the natural stripe placement is unique to each person. Think zebras.

Main draw: visually, cuttlefish are pretty much squids that are wearing an octopus coat, or octopuses that are trying really hard to be squid. Of course the truth is that they are neither of these things, as cuttlefish are just a totally separate secret third thing. But hey, we're talking visually, and seemingly. Not objectively, it's not scientific. But yeah.

[jomiddlemarch]

The shapes a bright container can contain!

IV. “This is a carriage house?” Hermione asked after first standing silent for a good two minutes, a length of time that seemed far longer when a witch was known to hurl herself into a squid-infested loch in early winter.

“You speak as if you have an extensive experience of real estate,” Draco retorted. 

“It’s quite a bit more house than I’d imagined,” she said. To exceed Hermione Granger’s imagination was a feat and Draco decided he’d follow the Muggle adage and begin as he meant to go on.

“Did you expect it to still contain carriages? Or horses? Tack?” Draco said. “Did you want a pony? That could be arranged, though I think an Arabian or an Abraxan hybrid—"

“No. Of course not,” she said. “But this is quite lovely. So thoughtfully appointed.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“Your wife had exquisite taste,” Hermione said.

“Yes, she did,” Draco replied. “You can see it in the main house. This was my project.”

“Oh, I see. I didn’t mean to imply,” she broke off. Somehow, this was what flustered her, this bit of gauche maladroitness, though she was staying in the home of a former Death Eater, a man who still bore the brand of a genocidal maniac on his forearm. She didn’t blush however; her eyes only widened and she seemed to lose what color she had. Draco decided he’d look after her well enough blushing became an option again.

“It’s all right. Why don’t I give you a tour of the place, get you settled,” he said. He wanted to offer her his arm, to feel her hand on him and keep her steady, but he suspected she would actually be as offended as she’d imagined he might just have been. He walked closer to her than would ordinarily be considered polite and kept the pace slow.

“This is the sitting room,” he said, gesturing around them. Two large chesterfields upholstered in dark green velvet sat on either side of a coffee-table strewn with periodicals and some art books, a bowl hewn from the base of a cypress at the center, filled with green apples. Squashy silk pillows in an array of jewel tones were tucked at either end of the sofas, a cashmere throw draped in a corner. A pair of club chairs bracketed the large fireplace, and an ancient Persian rug was underfoot. Long windows were surrounded by bookshelves, the bookshelves full of neatly arranged books that appeared much-handled. 

“It’s lovely. Looks very comfortable,” Hermione said. He beckoned her to follow him as he walked across the space and miraculously, she followed, her wand-hand empty.

“This is the kitchen. The table seats six, though it’s easy enough to enlarge it if you wanted to have more people over. You should have as many people over as you like,” Draco said. The table was a generously sized oval made of beautifully patinaed mahogany and he thought she would have preferred something sturdy and practical, a scrubbed oak. She’d want to set it with mismatched plates, a potluck with dishes randomly assembled or better yet, Indian takeaway with plenty of samosas.

“Is there a Transfiguration spell that preserves the wood better?” Hermione asked. 

“There’s a leaf. Though any standard Transfiguration you’d cast would be fine. It’s not a priceless antique,” Draco said.

“It looks like a Sheraton,” Hermione remarked. “I suppose that’s not priceless to you. It’s just Muggle.”

“It’s a fake. A fake Sheraton,” Draco said, shrugging, trying not to feel flustered and failing. “I like the look of Georgian furniture, but I didn’t want anything that would feel like a museum piece. I had enough of that, growing up. Except that that furniture was also cursed half the time.”

“Half, huh?”

“Closer to three-quarters in the North Wing. Dreadful place and you can’t even burn it to the ground,” he said. 

“A pity. I guess. This is the kitchen proper?” she said, moving past him into the room with its soapstone worktops, slate floors, sage green painted cupboards fitted as neatly as a ship’s galley, though there was plenty of space. A marble slab for pastry, a great hulking Aga prepared to cook a roast and warm the whole house, and tucked behind—

“That’s a butler’s pantry,” Draco said, as she poked her head around to peer in the narrow space.

“You thought this place needed a butler’s pantry? Is there a butler?” she asked, then paused, a look of bemused horror on her face. “Good Lord, is there a butler?”

“There’s no butler and no House-elves either, before you get yourself worked into a tizzy,” Draco said. He’d have liked to have Tizzy herself serving, earning the ample wage they’d negotiated, but he’d known that no matter how comprehensive the benefits, Hermione would be distressed to be waited upon by a creature in a toweling jumpsuit, unable to convince herself she wasn’t taking advantage. “I thought butler’s pantry sounded better than glorified closet. I will now pause to allow you to make some comment along the lines of me being a posh git.”

“You’ve made that unnecessary now,” Hermione said, horror passed, smiling again.

“There’s a butler’s pantry because I needed a defined space I could configure for electricity to work. Neville said you have very strong opinions about the Panis tosti charm—”

“It’s shite,” she interrupted. “Utter bollocks. It’s a travesty to call what it does toast and everyone knows it and won’t admit it. Molly Weasley has five different toasting forks because the charm is such shite—”

“As I said, Very Strong Opinions, duly noted. Also, he said you have slightly less Strong Opinions on toasting forks, I believe they hearken too much to the Edwardian period for your taste, and so I had to make sure there was some part of the house where you could make a proper piece of toast in a toaster,” Draco explained. He opened the little hatch that concealed the toaster. “There’s also a charging station for any devices that need it.”

“Oh my goodness,” she said.

“You probably won’t short it all out if you cast a spell, but I’d try to keep it to a minimum and no wandless. When you channel magic through your hands directly, it warps the wards I put up,” he said.

“You did a lot of work,” she said. “Went to a lot of trouble.”

“What part of looking after properly was obscure to a witch of your erudition and exactitude?” Draco said. She’d think he was teasing and he was but he also meant it, especially the praise, which he’d been told to expect her to shrug off.

She shrugged.

“You didn’t have to,” she said.

“I only did what I thought I must. What I thought you would do, without a second thought, if you were the one taking care of someone,” Draco said. 

“I’ve never gotten Harry a toaster,” she said. 

“But he doesn’t ever seem to miss all the Mugglish equipment he grew up with. He was happy to leave it all behind,” Draco said. 

“He does love everything Wizarding,” Hermione said. “Even Celestina Warbeck.”

Draco could not help his grimace then, but Hermione gave him a look of the purest camaraderie and appreciation, suggesting his expression had not put her off in the slightest.

“I shan’t say a word. About his taste in music at least,” he said. “There’s a water closet just at the back, before the conservatory. We might explore there a bit or would you rather see the sleeping quarters upstairs?”

He spent a considerable amount of time mulling over how he’d mention where she would sleep to minimize any awkwardness, knowing he didn’t want to utter the word bed but that she’d immediately pick up on any verbal contortions to avoid it.

“Did you have Neville to see to the conservatory?” she asked, prescient. Longbottom had spent a week and the entire budget Draco had given him, but the results were lovely and marvelously fragrant.

“Yes,” Draco answered.

“Then I’ll have an idea of what it’s like already and I’ll enjoy finding out how I’m wrong later,” she said. “Take me upstairs.”

[kit-ken-writes]

Beneath the Bay // Cast

𖦹 Kyveli, The Chosen One

Age:: 10-20, over the course of the story

Personality:: Kyveli was a gloomy child, with rarely a smile on her face. She has a cynical and apathetic approach to life. And most people conversing with her are often thrown off by her bluntness. Despite her cold demeanor towards others, Kyveli is a curious young woman, always seeking out books, shells, or trinkets to tell her the secrets of the past. In spite of her impoverished childhood, the Priestesses all note her observant and clever nature. Sometimes they think she might be too mature for her years, but then again a child of her upbringing might not have a choice but to grow up fast.

Appearance:: Not matter her age, Kyveli always has a reddish-brown skin tone, with long black unruly, wavy hair, and onyx eyes. As a child, she was quite short and thin due to malnourishment, but as she grows older in safer environments, she gets taller and healthier. She probably stands around 5'6 by the time she's 20.

She usually dresses in white robes with golden accents and jewelry, and deeply detests wearing shoes.

𖦹 Yozuthalus, The One Beneath the Bay

Age:: Probably millions of years old

Personality:: Yozuthalus is as an omniscient and omnipotent being whose age transcends time and whose being is incomprehensible to mortal minds. Most of the time, they have an indifferent attitude towards mortals. But given insolence and mortal pride, they are not above showing the might of their wrath and fury. They do know when to forgive given the right apology. Yozuthalus also shows great wisdom and intelligence about all things, yet has an inquisitive nature when it comes to the lives of mortals, or perhaps just one mortal in this case

Appearance:: Yozuthalus is capable of taking whatever form they choose, from their natural incomprehensible form to that of a normal human to even an animal. 

In they’re true form they stand around 200 feet tall or around 61m. Their lower half resembles an octopus or squid, a writhing mass of deep blue tentacles. Their upper half resembles a human torso with broad shoulders that slope downwards to a narrow waist. Their skin is a dark gray leathery-like texture. They have a dark blue exoskeleton that sits over their torso, following the outlines of where bones would be. They have two sets of arms, one coming from the predictable place of the shoulders, and a lower set coming from where a ribcage would be. Their fingers are long and pointed, fading into a deep black shade. They have a thin neck that connects to their crescent moon-shaped head. They have no visible mouth, nose, or ears, but three large oval-shaped eyes. They have no discernable iris or pupil, they’re eyes are a pure deep blue color.

In one of their human forms, Yozuthalus appears as a tall, slender pale-skinned adult male. With long black hair that flows to their waist, and deep blue eyes. They have a blue vertical eye-shaped marking on the center of their forehead. The tips of their fingers also appear as if they were stained a dark blue. In this form, they often wear black robes, with no accents or shoes.

𖦹 Ambrosius // Magia

The current Magistrate of Thoania and father of Kyveli. He’s not the brightest magistrate Thoania has ever had, but he’s never done anything to anger the sea or insult the people, so they put up with him. He has roaming eyes and hands, and a lack of respect for people he considers beneath him. Despite his philandering ways, he spoils his wife and daughter incessantly. 

Magia is his eldest and legitimate daughter. She’s a golden-haired girl who grew up in absolute luxury, always getting what she needed and wanted. This turned her into a spoiled, cruel-hearted girl, who enjoys watching the “common” folk struggle. She particularly likes to pick on Kyveli, from physically tormenting her to outright mocking her.

𖦹 Arsinoe // Euthalia

Arsinoe has been the head priestess of the Bay temple for the last 20 years and has seen Kyveli’s generation grow up on the island. She’s an intelligent, kind, and forthright woman, who earnestly enjoys her position. She’s incredibly devout to The One Beneath the Bay and strives to pass on her values to younger priestesses.

Euthalia is one of the younger priestesses in the temple, around Kyveli’s age. She’s a very bright young woman, always with a smile on her face, and a laugh on her tongue. She’s outgoing, optimistic, and the first one to volunteer for projects.

𖦹 Cassander // Gaios // Lykos

Cassander, Gaios, and Lykos are the troublemaking trio of Thoania. They’re often caught in a variety of predicaments from stealing extra food from the stores to messing with the shepherd’s flocks. But due to their fathers' positions in society, all three often go unpunished. They’re often seen with Magia and join in on her antics of bullying “lowly” souls, like Kyveli. Cassander is a notable bad apple, known for his often sacrilegious actions and words.

𖦹 Xenia // Ligeia

Xenia is Kyveli’s late mother. She was a barmaid at the only tavern on the island. And unfortunately caught the eye of Ambrosius. After a series of trysts, Xenia became pregnant and refused to “free” herself of the burden. She raised Kyveli on the outskirts of town and was often an outcast due to her predicament. She was a loving, and happy woman who gave everything she could to Kyveli.

Ligeia is Magia’s mother and wife of Ambrosius. She was the daughter of the former magistrate and was accustomed to a life of luxury and ease. She’s a vain woman who doesn’t concern herself with the problems of others. She keeps to herself, her daughter, and other higher-placed ladies, letting her husband often speak for her. Unlike her husband and daughter, Ligeia refuses to even acknowledge Kyveli’s existence.

Intro | Pinterest | Playlist

Picrew 1 | Neka | Picrew 2 | Picrew 3

© 2024 kit-ken — do not repost, copy, translate, modify my work on any platform

[sarahmackattack]

hello hi!!! squid person!!!

what are your top pics for the cephalopods that are most interesting to you?

have a good day! :))

Ooh so many cephalopods are interesting but here are some great ones

Grimalditeuthis is a deep sea squid that has a modified tentacle club (the club's the bit at the end with the suction cups) that INSTEAD of looking like a normal suction cup looks like a mini-squid. And then it makes that little mini-squid look like it's swimming to attract prey then when they go to eat the little squid, BAM they're grimalditeuthis's lunch. We love that! Here's a video

2. Reef squid, sometimes called Oval Squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) They're gorgeous, they talk to each other by changing color, they flip upside down to fuck. We love it! Here's a vid of those upside-down-fucks

3 Strawberry squid They have two eyes that look very different from each other. One is HUGE and is looking up for the very very faint difference between light coming down from above and the silhouettes of animals swimming above. There's not much light where they live, so they gotta maximize the amount they can take in from their environment. The other one (the small one) looks nearby for bioluminescence

Taningia are BIG. Large. 7.5 feet-ish. and bioluminescent, which is a different color from most squid. They have one of the biggest photophores in the animal kingdom! This image is from Schmidt Ocean!

Then there are weirdos like Sharpear Enope Squid, who strike the most fantastic poses. Steven Kovacs takes gorgeous pics of midwater squid at night it's unreal.

[itsfullofstars]

A Cosmic Tarantula, Caught by NASA’s Webb by James Webb Space Telescope What’s that caught in our Webb? A giant space tarantula! Take a moment to stare into thousands of never-before-seen young stars in the Tarantula Nebula. The James Webb Space Telescope reveals details of the structure and composition of the nebula, as well as dozens of background galaxies. Stellar nursery 30 Doradus gets its nickname of the Tarantula Nebula from its long, dusty filaments. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, it’s the largest and brightest star-forming region near our own galaxy, plus home to the hottest, most massive stars known. The center of this image, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera instrument (NIRCam), has been hollowed out by the radiation from young, massive stars (seen in sparkling pale blue). Only the densest surrounding areas of the nebula resist erosion, forming the pillars that appear to point back towards the cluster of stars in the center. The pillars are home to still-forming stars, which will eventually leave their dusty cocoons and help shape the nebula. Why is this nebula interesting to astronomers? Unlike in our Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is producing new stars at a furious rate. Though close to us, it is similar to the gigantic star-forming regions from when the universe was only a few billion years old, and star formation was at its peak — a period known as “cosmic noon.” Since the Tarantula is close to us, it is easy to study in detail to help us learn more about the universe’s past. Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/a-cosmic-tarantula-caug... Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team Image description: A space image captured by the Webb telescope. Fluffy tan-colored nebula clouds, with rust-colored highlights, surround a black central area. Within that area, the focal point of the image is one large yellow star with eight long thin points. To the right of this star is a bright star cluster in an oval shape. The stars within the cluster look like tiny pale blue sparkles. The cluster is more densely packed at its core and scatters outward. Towards the bottom of the image, multiple arms appear to spiral out of a cloudy tan knob, resembling a spider or a squid structure. Other blue and yellow eight-pointed stars, as well as distant galaxies, are dotted throughout the image. https://flic.kr/p/2nJZVwp

[pleistocene-pride]

Happy Shark Week! Carcharhinus melanopterus, better known as the blacktip reef shark or black tipped reef shark is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae which is endemic to warm shallow waters throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans as well as the Red, Mediterranean, Arabian, Coral, Timor, South China, East China, Arafura, and Japan Seas. This species tends to inhabit near shore waters up to 246ft (75m) deep, and as there name suggests they are very abundant on and around reefs, additionally blacktip reef sharks can be found in lagoons, mangrove swamps, and brackish/ freshwater rivers, estuaries, and lakes particularly in Madagascar and Malaysia. Blacktip reef sharks are known to feed on a wide array of fishes as well as squid, cuttlefish, octopi, sea birds, rays, shrimp, sea snakes, mantis shrimp, and small mammals like rodents. These sharks are also known to hunt in groups in order to herd and catch schools of fish. Blacktips are themselves preyed upon by large groupers, and other sharks such as tiger sharks, grey reef sharks, and hammerheads. Reaching around 3 to 6.6ft (.9 to 2m) in length and 20 to 40lbs ( 9 to 18.1kgs) in weight with females being larger than males, the blacktip is a robustly built species with a streamlined "typical shark" form and short, wide, rounded snout with moderately large, oval eyes. In terms of coloration they are light brown or bronze above and white below. The first dorsal fin and ventral caudal lobe have a conspicuous black blotch that brilliantly highlighted with white, hence there common name. Breeding occurs bi annually from June to July and December to January. Like other members of its family, blacktips are viviparous, with females giving birth to two to five young after a 7 to 11 month pregnancy, typically in shallow sandflats or mangrove swamps which they use as there nurseries. Under ideal conditions a blacktip reef shark may live up to 15 years.

[wyvernwyrm]

I also forgot I made these and never posted it here! Don’t really want to tag it because it’s a niche shitpost, but this idea is still funny to me

[Image ID: a set of three pictures with digital drawings on blank backgrounds depicting creatures from the game Rain World — mainly the same three slugcats that represent Yahiko, Nagato and Konan being in different situations.

 Image 1: In the centre of the image, there are three sitting slugcats. Slugcat in the middle is coloured orange. He has wide leaf-shaped ears. A tuft of fur is visible on his head, indicating that he has fur unlike the other two. His slug-like tail is resting on his left side in front of the other slugcat. A slugcat on his left is blue, with short, wide ears. There are dark blue markings on her eyelids and on the tips of her ears and wide tail. She has a blue flower on her right ear. The slugcat sitting on the right is red. He has dark red crescent markings under his eyes, stripe marks on his thin long ears and circles on his body and long thin tail, vaguely resembling Nagato’s rinnegan circles. On the left part of the image, there is a screenshot of the in-game slugcat standing upright. The style of the game resembles pixel art. Slugcat’s sprite is totally white with black dot eyes and small horizontal line for a nose. They are looking directly into the camera while holding a black grenade with a red x mark on it. There is a bit of metal structure around the slugcat. In the top right part of the image, there is a depiction of Ame Trio as slugcats holding onto the squidcadas while they are flying. The squidcadas look like small squids with insect wings and big oval eyes. All three slugcats are hanging their tails down while holding squidcadas by their tentacles with their tiny paws. At the bottom of the image, there is a depiction of Ame Trio standing at the corpse of a lizard. The lizard has a rectangle shaped head and a big body with long tail. There are spikes on its spine and tail. Its mouth is open with a rolled out tongue. Yahiko as a slugcat is standing with his left hind paw on top of lizard’s spine, pointing his right paw above his head triumphantly. In his left paw there is a black spear. Behind him, there are Nagato and Konan as slugcats with black spears in their paws, giving him exhausted looks.

Image 2: a digital drawing of Yahiko, Nagato and Konan as slugcats, accompanied by three slugpups. Yahiko is alerted and looks to his right while holding a spear. Behind him is a slugpup that looks in the same direction. To Yahiko’s left there are two smaller slugpups looking at the viewer, as well as Nagato and Konan as slugcats looking to the right.

Image 3: a digital drawing depicting a grey, empty square room with its floor out of frame. In the middle of a drawing, there is a pink lizard climbing down a black pole. Its body is black and its paws, tail, and head are coloured pink. There are few veins with bright blue fruits, as well as red cords hanging around it from the ceiling. Behind the lizard, there are three slugcats holding onto the poles from the ceiling. Orange and blue slugcats are on the right side and the red one is on the left. Their colours are dim, as if to appear hidden. /.End ID]

[bigblueoctoling]

One of the things that irks me the most about the splatoon fandom is when people notice a trend among multiple characters, and then proceed to treat this trend like it's a rule they need to follow when designing characters and that not following this rule is thus bad design.

I specifically bring this up because I see a common complaint from people who complain about Acht's appearance in Side Order, saying that they look "too human"- Which feels completely fucking insane because they're literally supposed to look humanoid and also they are fucking green how do they look too human compared to people who are not green

But I realized what it was- It's the fact that Acht kind of has a taller-shaped head, as opposed to the commonly-seen oval-shaped heads of most inkfish.

For starters- I absolutely hate this mentality of seeing a design trend breaking the mold as being "incorrect", like they made Acht "too human"- it's just introducing an arbitrary limitation for design variety for absolutely no reason. It's not like Acht looking """more human""" in this way makes them homogeneous- the reason it stands out is because it's unique. I wanna know how on earth that makes it bad aside from just "it's not what I'm used to seeing".

But secondly, I also hate this mentality because people act as though it's inconsistent, when... it literally isn't. This is a huge through-line for all of these little 'rules' people invent about Splatoon's designs.

One of Splatoon's biggest strong suits is how diverse its artstyle is and how wildly varied its designs are. Like, literally from day one, inkfish have been shown not to be physically homogenous.

Like... there has never been consistent rules on how you Need to design a species in splatoon, for the better. It's a part of, at least to me, what gives Splatoon its very accepting sort of identity.

Also just to raise a stink and to provide another example of the splatoon fandom doing this, I hate the whole mentality that all inkfish need to have a number of limbs matching squid/octopi. That was never, like, a canonical thing- it's a cute little coincidence, or at most, a cute little nod, with the designs from splatoon 1, but like. Why does this need to be treated like a rule that needs to be followed? Again, people complain about Acht's design, complaining about their tentacles and saying like oh they shouldn't only have three tentacles that's inconsistent, totally ignoring the fact that this has never been a universal trait among all inkfish- Pearl doesn't, a lot of hairstyles in Splatoon 2 don't follow it, and plenty of splatband designs don't seem to follow it either. But more than that, why the fuck would it matter? What are you, a fucking cop? Oh sorry we can't make a unique hairstyle because of this arbitrary rule we made up, inkfish NEED to have THIS amount of limbs because it's imperative that they have this one completely random arbitrary thing in common with squid and octopi.

This also reminds me of Shiver and Frye, because people were the exact same way about them:

"Shiver's tentacles don't look like octoling tentacles!" "Why are Frye's ears so big!" "Why are Shiver's eye markings so small!" "Why are Frye's teeth so pronounced!"

Literally because they wanted to make unique and interesting character designs? I'm sorry, I wasn't familiar you were the God of the world of Splatoon and that you personally knew every inkling and octoling that ever lived and decided that these two are sins against nature and don't look Correct to you.

Genuinely it's just like the most loathesome behavior. If you hate any splatoon character's design for looking abnormal, you're my fucking enemy.

[cheshirestonem-blog-blog]

“The one left behind”

Ebrietas is one of the Great Ones, the one left behind A relative of the eldritch Great Ones, Ebrietas is a monstrous creature that resembles a slug with squid-like tentacles emerging from her back. Her face appears split in half and is covered in strange growths that resemble fungus that surround her head, but despite being a Kin she has only two oval shaped green eyes. Ebrietas also possesses a set of skeletal wings possibly shows that she is the first Celestial Child. Like most of the kin

The grate old ones

[encyclopika]

Animal Crossing Fish Dish Friday - #14

Brought to you by a marine biologist and a bunch of weird flat bois...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

Olive Flounder Meuniere

In ACNH: 1. Get Turkey Day Recipes - Franklin will give you this recipe after you've helped him cook all of Turkey Day's meals. Funny that on Turkey Day, the main ingredient is Sea Bass + a random fish from 3 choices (for Northern Hemisphere players) or Squid and Sea Urchin (for Southern Hemisphere). The recipe you get is for Olive Flounder. 2. Cook on the stove with 1 Olive Flounder and 2 Flour.

In Real Life: from France

Species of Choice: It can be any flounder species - the more native to you, the better. Flat fish come in many names and many species, as I'll explain below, but most of them available for people to eat present flaky, white meat that most people associate with a "good fish".

Other Ingredients:

Butter Parsley Lemon White or Corn Flour

Get the recipe. and serve with a hot veggie and bread.

This will be long because of pictures. A long, long time ago, in an article far away, we covered how flatfish, like the Olive Flounder, become to look so ridiculous. I also pointed out and explained the differences between left-eye and right-eye flounders in the article covering the Dab. These things will be important as we move on to our next lesson about flatfish.

With over 800 species, the Order of Pleuronectiformes, the flounders, has a lot of diversity. Even though most* of these fish are flat and have both eyes on one side of the head, they come in some interesting shapes. We'll start with the tame and end with the weirdos.

Flounders - SubOrder Plueronectoidei

The name "flounder" is used for many flatfish that are important to fisheries/seafood. Even still, these are also quite diverse, not just because both right-eyed and left-eyed flatfish are called flounders, but because they also occupy different niches. Some of them have tiny mouths great for eating tiny fish and plankton, and then some are higher-trophic-level predators with huge mouths and teeth!

^These two fish are native to my neck of the ocean. Big differences in the mouth, right?

There are also 4 special flounders in this group called "Plaice".

Halibut - Genera Hippoglossus & Reinhardtius

The term halibut is reserved for the largest flatfish species, of which there are 3 - the Atlantic Halibut and Pacific Halibut in Genus Hippoglossus, and the Greenland Halibut in Genus Reinhardtius. They are absolutely massive, growing to 9 feet (3m) for some individuals. When you eat halibut, you're getting a very tiny portion of that fish. But size isn't the only way to tell them apart from other flatfish - they also have tail fins with longer, sharper points for fast swimming, and all 3 are "right-eyed" flatfish.

By Jlikes2Fish - Own work, Public Domain

Turbots - Family Scophthalmidae

Okay, now we're getting away from special flounders, and into new Families. The turbots are also called windowpanes or brill, but the biggest difference between them and other flatfish is their more rhombus or stout shape, rather than the elongated oval-shape of most other flatfish. Their shape is not really a scientific trait, but we're going for "first glance" here. These are also eaten widely.

By I, Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0

Soles - Family Soleidae & Achiridae

The fish in Soleidae are the true soles, with fish in Achiridae known as the American Soles, once classified within Soleidae. Either way, soles make up about 180 species and here's where we start to get weird. They often have more tear-drop-shaped bodies (but some can be really kind of square or round like a turbot) and very tiny or non-existent pectoral fins. These are also commonly eaten and they "right-eyed". They also have these weird mouths...just look at the picture...

By © Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0

It's all, like, lip-less? And beak-shaped? They have jaws - of course - but whenever I've had to handle our tiny, native sole here on Long Island, I'm always a bit surprised at it. But yeah, that's a thing they have in common with the last group.

Tonguefish - Family Cynglossidae

Here we are - the last group and the weirdest of the bunch. I think these take the flatfish body plan to the extreme and they have a number of traits that set them apart from other flatfish. These guys also have that beak or hook-shape to the upper jaw, but it's flabby, so it's weird. It's like its body is slowly trying to turn the mouth with the eyes (who knows...maybe in millions of years, it will be!) These guys are "left-eyed" and have no pectoral fins at all. They're just...really weird.

It doesn't even look like a fish anymore. I hope ACPC makes one someday.

And there you have it - so many flat bois!