#speculative alien stuff

[potatodemon-beesensible]

Heh. Yeah this reminds me of a skit where aliens discover the concept of math from us. They're horrified and think we're cultists or something. Like wizards inscribing runes so that our equipment works when from their perspective all we gotta do is just... do whatever makes the thing work without all the eldritch symbols.

The concept of aliens automatically knowing how to do stuff without math due to how their brains work. Henceforth, making math a very alien and even freaky concept to them. Also reminds me of Warhammer 40k where the Adeptus Mechanicus recite basic protocols for machine maintenence as religious text as they're oiling their tanks with holy water. This is what math looks like to these aliens. We look insane. And I love it. We look like a bunch crazy lil' gremlins that are both unpredictable and terrifying. One minute you think that human is sane and the next they're reciting arcane symbols to do basic tasks. Or... what's a 'basic task' from the alien's perspective, anyways. It'd be how their brains work and process things. They just... don't need math. We as humans are a species that recognize patterns and build on them. We have no comprehension of the universe outside of what we experiment with and make of it. All we know is "Apple falls from tree, something's making that apple fall from a tree" and then we build on it. Whereas these hypothetical aliens may look at it as "That's just gravity." When you're a kid you look at something falling down and associate it with a pattern. You think "Things in the air fall down." Whereas an alien child would look at it and already know it's gravity. As... they just understand these things. Only real way I can see this scenario being explained logically is that whereas humans evolved on a planet trying to survive. Not having the specifics how how the universe and physics works being all too important outside of how it could either pose a danger to or be used to our advantage. With the aliens however, never having to have fought for survival in the first place. Maybe competitive evolution is a really fucked up fluke and normally different species on other planets just... vibe without needing each other for sustenance. So pattern recognition wasn't prioritized and their intelligence formed through just... curiosity. Maybe it can exist without conflict and everything needing a downside is just a human perspective... Another explanation I don't like quite as much as the other one is that after so much progression in their species aliens modified their brains to not rely on pattern recognition. Unlocking them in a way. This is also cool but the first one I came up with is just more creative and appealing to me.

The difference between truly knowing a thing and trying to figure it out. Like... the idea of aliens evolving senses that can just... *see* and *think of * things as they are is so damn cool to me. Of course though, in my example this'd mean the downside of being easily tricked and confused by our standards. We as humans recognize patterns and can build on them in a way that doesn't quite conform with reality. In a way we made up our own reality. This may fuck with the alien's heads a bit. Our perceptions would be so damn inaccurate that we'd just confuse them most of the time. We'd come off as insane and also dangerous. Of course though... this is all speculation and just my ramblings. It's a cool concept to me.

Not to mention that by this logic the mere existence of earth having animals that kill each other would give aliens an existential crisis and make them not wanna have anything to do with our planet. It'd be their version of Cthulhu. We'd be the incomprehensible horror to them. Of course... we're very comprehensible. But that'd be the scary part for the aliens. We're so entirely foreign and fucked up by their standards that truly seeing us as we are would contradict everything they've ever known about the universe. Comprehending us is so simple... but also so horrifying. So they'd bar us off and actively destroy knowledge of us because they simply don't want a hand in it. And by extension what is from *our* perspective an incomprehensible Lovecraftian style horror would be so out of reach and alien to them that they simply... wouldn't get it. All it'd be to them is a way to further understand us. Which I doubt they'd want to do.

This... would be my incredibly negative analysis on the implications of aliens not needing math. Yw :3 I love building on subjects in a dark and fudged up way. If anything it can also be just the aliens going "Huh, y'all are weird" without any of the mindbending horror stuff. My mind just goes to these places ^^

Honestly the idea of different sentient species just... cooperating and vibing with each other is also very cool. I remember one story where humanity befriended the alien space bug hive mind. It was awesome.

[troythecatfish]

[bazookaboi]

Second attempt at developing my unnamed creature.

Proboscis boi

Brain currently rambling about using Haemocyanin or creating something entirely new…

[b1asho]

How would it feel to give each of your sophonts a hug? Would they like it? Or find it weird? What's their social equivalent?

The wh huggability scale, where most of the sophonts unfortunately fall on the "????? !!!!!! hey don't do that please" side of things

Written words are (from bottom left to right)

'don't do that again' *immobilized * and 'let's go touch that weird chicken'

The scale drawing goes from 'try it! ' at the top to 'DONT' at the bottom, descending order is kixeli, Prectikar, rossetians and drecu, sundyne

[juicyolpickle]

Don’t know he’s name don’t know he’s business all I know for now is that this creature is a plant based organisms who’s family branch became the dominant organisms in their ecosystems. Many alike these highly evolved plant like animals have multiple other creatures alike with similar biology and diets. Their legs are operated by hydraulics similar to insects. Their muscle’s powered by liquid being forced into them to expand and retract. They come in many colours, but hues of greens, orange yellows, and blues, are the most common among this lumbering cows.

They have many ways of getting their energy source; either sucking up nutrients from the rich soil, photosynthesising a trait that has still stuck to this day from their ancestors, breathing in carbon to exchange into auger or to consume foods. These are the reason to why these animals have risen to success on their planet.

I have no idea what their planet is made out of but the dude is pretty chill and that’s all that matter.

[headphone-the-idjit]

A smidge more about these fellows, more about em on this post, I have yet to bother cleaning up the sketches of the facultative bipeds and bipeds. The quadrupeds are my favourite, if you couldn’t tell lol

[ripplethepickle]

“So it's super, super, super, ☆

Even if you destroy the world-“

Anyways the latest PinocchioP song reminded me of Splenda <33 Or like at least my interpretation/characterization/whatever of him lol. So I dids an art wahoo, enjoy chat <333

[astrobiosphere-studies]

woagh… a deer

I’m too tired to explain what they are (I put way too much Biology into this speculative biology and it’s hard to explain), so I’ll probably save explanations for a later post on Zoalula’s aerial biosphere, or if anyone asks specific questions. best summary I have for now is uhhhh deer-sloth-flamingo-thing but with bioluminescent algae-like aeroplankton rather than phytoplankton

[yellosnacc]

Welcome to the introduction (yippee)

I'm Philip/A/yello. I enjoy writing, art, science, and this is the blog focused on my personal brain worms.

My big brain worm is worldbuilding, and the world you are seeing is the World of All (placeholder name).

World of All is placed on a single planet with multiple 'continents' that host independently evolved ecosystems and currently 4,5 sophonts/"aliens". This unique setup is all thanks to the Designers, mindless blobs that have managed to keep their landmasses isolated for billions of years (among other things). As a bonus, some of the blob physical manipulation is left in the sophont creatures' brains who have yet to understand physics on a deeper level.

image needs update

Here are the 5 (O.s are having a redesign session). Mole stars have not made contact with the rest.

You can also find me on Twitter · Instagram · Bluesky ·

This post will be updated with time. Beware, many posts are outdated, but I try to mark them.

[dedicatedfollower467]

speaking of megamind and weird alien anatomy, i was looking through some of my old headcanon doodles yesterday

i realized that one of my concepts was that instead of megamind's head actually housing an enormous brain (which irl would cost an ENORMOUS amount of energy to maintain with diminishing returns), he actually has a fairly human-ish sized brain.

instead, his skull is somewhat concave and most of the flesh in his forehead is actually adipose tissue similar in structure and function to a dolphin's melon. and also his sinuses are enormous and extensive and they have phonic lips similar to a dolphin's in addition to his larynx, so he can make dolphin-like clicks/whistles that sound like they're coming either out of his nose or through the center of his forehead.

the phonic lips are circled in red. as you can see i gave him quite a lot of them, so he can probably make a whole bunch of weird alien sounds.

i can't decide whether i want his melon to be squishy like a beluga or more rigid like most other dolphins. logically, the more rigid melon probably makes the most sense, but the idea of megamind having a squishy head is just so FUNNY to me.

[troythecatfish]

[bazookaboi]

Attempt III, first semi reference sheet. Damn, still don’t know what to call these lil dudes…

Basic ideas:

-those holes on their neck are breathing holes.

-Their middle and hind limbs,(wings, basically), along with their tail amount to excellent agility in flight.

-Those tentacle things on their jaw and groin have multiple functions; one as acting a bit like whiskers if you will, quite sensitive, and for example, helping detect minuscule variations in stimuli like temperature or vibrations around them. And another reason being that they play an important part in acquiring a mate, and mating itself. These facial tentacles also move depending on emotions. -They have excellent 360 vision. (Still deciding in what color range they see).

-Their velvety coats are waterproof, and slightly iridescent. (Probably provide insulation too)

-Their eyes have protective nictitating membranes.

-They have malar stripes that reduce the glare of light. (The darker pigment surrounding their eyes).

-catching their prey aerially can either be done with their mouth or their frontal limbs. When swallowing prey or not in use, their proboscis is retracted fully.

-prey in particularly small, tricky places can be reached by their proboscis, which will latch firmly onto the creature with those painfully sharp pincers/fangs/dunno what to call them yets.

-Their clamp-like “hands” have outstanding grip, and with their small, sharp, curved claws, these are excellent for climbing, even upside down. And in the case of their frontal limbs, excellent for manipulating objects.

-I’m going to make a few variations of these creatures depending on their surrounding environment on their planet, but for now I’m just gonna say that the one I have here would be a bit more adapted to coastal life. (I just spawned these like, two days ago so I’m still gonna be figuring them out for a while ok T-T)

-Hmm, I’m still deciding on what the proboscis is for, but I’m pretty sure that it will play a key part in taking care of their offspring.

I am totally going to forget something that I wanted to add… I am sure that I am going to post this, remember the idea at 6:00AM in the morning, and get quite pissed.

I could go more into detail but I think many people would get bored reading a bible-sized post.

[b1asho]

Bugs

Here's what I've got to say, I didn't proofread any of it, will do that later, but I went a little more into stuff like what flips the switch on them turning into a Dorest (blue guy) or Rox (red guy).

((Tldr its not a switch its a sliding bar that'll get stuck or drop back down to 0 without the right input!)

Anyway, their life stages are:

'Egg, Early Stage Larva, Late Stage Larva, Prepupa, Chrysalis, Juvenile (aka Chick's, Dusties, or Hatchlings) pictured is molt 1 of 3, Subadult (aka Colts or Proxies) pictured is molt 4 of 5, and Adult (aka Imago, Types D or R.

Eggs are around golfball sized, and stay on the Rox’s abdomen area via a sticky pouch that forms when the eggs are laid onto them. I haven’t gone in depth into how they do the deed because idk, but it’s relevant here so let’s do it: basically they lock gonopods with each other, both get off, then the Dorest lays their fertilized eggs onto the Rox and the Rox releases fertilized eggs on themself. The residue hardens into a leathery skin over the eggs (there’s about 12 of them in total, 6 from each party)until they hatch into a soft little infant. This process can technically be done in reverse (with the eggs being laid/held on a Dorest). They could even self-fertilize (that is very hard, though, because they’re designed to reproduce with the stimulus of both D/R pheromones. Eggs won’t even form if you don’t have the presence of both in your living area. You’d have to find a way to replace the missing half if you want to actually get anywhere) but both are *major* taboo because it goes against their roles. The Rox is supposed to hold because they’re larger (it’s more comfortable for them because they have more space down there), they can defend the eggs better (which mattered more with their ancestors and so carried on thru today) and if they’re in a reproductive role they have more time for proper pouch care and more nutrition as opposed to a reproductive Dorest, who still has duties outside the unit that can include labor. When the Rox feels the larva moving around, they’ll rip open the pouch to release them (where they then fall under the care of the nearest applicable Dorest. )

This little guy then grows during their larval stage, continuously shedding their soft outer casing rather than having a designated number molts like in later stages. Nothing new is being grown, specific things are just getting bigger (such as their head, arms/legs, and setae) as they store fat and prepare their body for the metamorphosis. They only have an exoskeleton, which is fairly springy and soft. Basically, the larva stage is only for storing energy and getting things bigger to be a better blueprint for their new features later.

Once they’re ready, their body starts sectioning out a bit for the general layout of what they’re going to look like (this is the prepupa stage, characterized by their larger size and more discernible features). they all gather in a suitable place (or are herded to a specific place by adults), and then go inactive to grow a thick outer layer derived from their exoskeleton. This serves as their chrysalis. The chrysalis stage is where they actually change , adding in the body parts of adults (such as scales, claws, their mouthpart and head layout, eyes, fingers/toes, antenna, etc) and completely restructuring themselves for bipedalism. As I mentioned earlier, offspring are usually separated into different areas. This is to make it easier to concentrate the pheromone signals and enzymes they’ll introduce to cause the Drecu soup in the chrysalis to develop a certain way. (If this doesn’t happen, basically they don’t have the thing that unlocks their instructions on how to grow. they’ll stay soup and just die in the chrysalis.)

Juveniles/Chicks/Dusties/ Hatchlings are where they consider the true start of their life to be. The 'Dusty'nickname comes from the dull gray if their scales. Based on the prompts they received in the chrysalis, they emerged with either Dorest or Rox traits being dominant. However, as you can see, they still kind of look similar. Particularly, the Rox is missing/has underdeveloped a lot of the discerning Rox features (they have the space for their ear disks but haven’t grown them yet, so they’re deaf, they arent red, don’t have quills , and don’t have their thumb claw)

This is because Dorest is the default, the R enzyme breaks down the enzyme that makes them a Dorest.

They have a predisposed path (broad strokes in their head, leg, abdomen, and tail shape that happened in the chrysalis) that was determined in the chrysalis, but at this age they need continued reinforcement from D/R adults around them in order to ‘lock in’ those adult traits. Because of this, they’re usually kept separated after emerging from the chrysalis ( D hatchlings with other Dorest and R hatchlings with a lower caste Rox or under the care of a Dorest with enough Rox around to introduce them to more of the R enzyme)

Once they have pupated, there are a total of 5 size changes. The first 3 are in the juvenile/hatchling/etc stage where theyll be locking in features. There is a ‘critical period’ during the end of the juvenile stage where insufficient/irregular reinforcement or too many mixed signals will cause them to miss the ‘lock’ that causes them to develop and/or fully retain those features. (depending on when this happens, this means that a Rox can be missing anything from their color to their spines, and even a Dorest can not develop their horns, tail, or colors. )This can’t be undone after the 3rd molt that brings them into the subadult stage (which means they wouldn’t qualify as a subadult, since they’re missing a lot of those developments)

a similar change can happen if an adult Drecu is isolated from others, though this will only change their behavior because their body has stopped changing at this point. for example, a Rox removed from all other drecu will begin to present as a Dorest (emitting those pheremones and being less aggressive/more nurturing and caring rather than possessive and territorial), and in an environment where there’s only other Rox around they might start giving off Dorest signals too. A Dorest removed from any other drecu will act the same, but when there’s only other D around one might start presenting like a Rox (acting territorial, aggressive, and leaderlike) and mimicking Rox signals.

The subadult stage is very close to being adult. They're called colts because of their newness/inexperience, not because of the horse thing. Theyre also called proxies because they're closer to adults in the unit, therefore doing more important tasks that have been delegated to then. The number of size-changing molts can vary here, but its usually they'll go throguh the last 2 of the total 5 (but, some lower castes stay around this size due to nutrition and stuff.) If they’ve properly developed from the previous stage, they should have all their adult features and should keep those features for the rest of their life.

They’re considered an adult when they can reproduce, which changes their size, setae hair length, and coloring. Whether or not they actually *do* reproduce is a whole other status thing, since only some in the unit have that right.

This is a convoluted way to introduce some possibilities for some WEIRD lookin drecu characters who fumbled the critical period. I'm cooking one up rn >:)

[comradecowplant]

*** weewoo weewoo, Severance rant incoming, avoid or gather 'round depending on your preference, weewoo weewoo***

oofda Severance went from what's gotta be the best episode in the series-- visually, emotionally, character drive, general plot development, etc.-- to probably the weakest. Dgmw, I absolutely adore Patricia Arquette's performance as this sad off-putting woman and was eager for a Cobel check-in, but back-to-back bottleneck episodes leading up the finale was a TERRIBLE pacing choice, just completely missing the mark in a season that has already been plagued with pacing issues-- I'm lookin' at you, beloved by many but meh to me bc I have never been a melly shipper & thought it was a frustrating cut-away from the previous episode's dramatic final moment, Woe's Hollow-- & did not really provide much new information/plot momentum to make up for it-- yeah yeah Cobel lifelong Kier cultist, child labor & mommy issues, groomed & exploited scientific prowess, Lumon ruining anachronistic ether-huffing towns economically & spiritually; didn't really dig deeper or meaningfully build on anything we already know of in a away that needed to be a full break-away episode for, imo. Coulda & shoulda been the b-plot to a Milchick's continued spirit breaking/background to Ms. Huang (which would have very much thematically tied together to each!) -focused episode. And considering how short the episode is compared to the rest, I kind of suspect it might have began production that way but it was changed for some reason further along, but that's purely vibes based speculation.

These pacing issues paired with the knowledge that there are only nine episodes a season in this silly era of television, I am increasingly nervous about the finale, particularly considering ms dipshit mama bear super sibling withOUT a background in neuroscience who thinks she knows better than the scientist who was already digging around inside his noggin Devon followed through and reached Cobel 🤦‍♂️ like, clearly there are cracks in Cobel's Kier worship/Lumon militancy-- I think she has an ego that 1) cannot forgive how tossed away she was, especially with the newest detail of her being the overlooked inventor of the severance technology, & 2) despite the indoctrination, she has enough self-preservation to bridge the cognitive dissonance that rationalizes Lumon's abuses now that it's HER that might get locked away in the mind wipe torture basement-- but you're watching a different show in a different universe if you think we've gotten any evidence to strongly indicate that she is actually trustworthy. As the inventor of the chip she could be the perfect person to help Mark with the final reintegration steps... or, as I suspect will be more along the lines of what will happen, she could activate any of the other "modes" that have so far been only eluded to/cause further brain damage/betray mark & ragbhari to leverage herself into a better position with lumon/whatever will benefit her in her quest for... well, besides survival & credit for her invention, I really can't say for sure what her motivations currently are, but legitimate compassion & concern for Mark/the innies certainly are not among them.

Idk, just overall I think this season has put its hands in too many plot pies, especially now that the other outies have been given more character development time, a choice I've liked overall but that has not been 😏 integrated 😏 well with the rest of the story, largely because (forgive my repeating myself) of the pacing/9 episode limit-- we've gotten the central Mark reintegration plot, then we have melly romance b-plot, dylan emotional affair with his own wife c-plot, outie irv + his relationship to the testing floor & whatever the fuck is going on with burt/his husband d & e-plot, milchick being racially micro-aggressed f-plot, ms huang & the spectre of child labor g-plot, nasty lady helena eagan & her sinister side swept blunt bang h-plot, whatever cobel's deal is i-plot, the general overarching What Evil Mysterious Schemes is Lumon Up To j to whatever plot, and finally, the most pressing plot point to me that has been frustratingly shelved until episode 7, What's Happening to Gemma plot. I don't expect nor want wrapped packages with bows, but satisfying narratives involve give and take, and I simply don't have much confidence in the real estate provided by the 49 remaining minutes of the season that we'll get much of anywhere (except mad over what bad things are likely about to happen to Gemma, that is one thing I have begrudging confidence in 😔)

[juicyolpickle]

What was your first spec?

If you’re asking me what my very first spec bio project was it would probably have to be this! I made this when I was 12 and I mostly took inspiration from James Cameron’s avatar, where some of the creatures are just total rip offs.💀

This dude was supposed to be a giant land carnivore that had the epic name of skull crusher, coz you would not have guess what its niche is, THATS right! it crushed bones and skulls. This concept was the coolest thing to me back then.

Another land carnivore because you can never have enough of fictional killing machines.

A totally original idea and definitely not an off brand version of the Thanator. (mystery’s piss stains on paper not identifyed)

I think these dudes were supposed to be the sentient species of their ecosystem but idk I could have just been messing around with the concepts.

I would stick to the rule of 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, and sometimes even 2 ears, the eyes would depend on the position depending on what family tree they would have came from.

I couldn’t find more sketches of this project, I know there was more but i probably threw them away. But I did do a redraw of the skull crusher so you can have that instead.

THE END BYE‼️‼️‼️‼️

[coolattasclown]

thinking of posting more kindling stuff... maybe making its own story ^_^