#spiralians

[m3-mianbo]

Favourite animals poll! Round 3

Protostomes won the 2nd round.

Time for Round 3.

It is about the so-called 'super-phyla'* of the Protostomes.

[blankticket]

uncapped starter call related to vash's bounty posted by lionheart and issued by his brother!

addl info:

vash's giant challenge last year (7/21) was to bring a proximity-life-draining cube from one end of the star trail all the way down to point zero. he was enduring constant pain to ensure he was kept at a walking pace, and under the belief that if he refused to do as ordered the cube would detonate and the ward would blow up (vash is only aware of the cube being a total dud after flinging himself into point zero with it). since the completion of the giant challenge i've mostly been keeping stampvash away from the wards, especially archimedes; he's resided in a crashed spaceship in the land of burnt umber. he currently has some memory loss of his spiralian experiences related to his NG+ status!

these starters will be of varying length, and i may have to be selective? i'm on the discord server and willing to discuss anything further in DMs!

[starliitstories]

connection: Spiralian royal, protector or anyone like that

“Okay but just a one hypothecital question.” Andy started with a boy-ish smile on his face. “If I’d like to make a good firework show with massive bangs, magic fire sparkles and good old-fashioned colorfull explosions. Would it be the reason enough for you guys to hurl my ass back to Pohjola?” He hated the fact his actions were very restricted and people were probably going to watch over him for a while. But whatever it would take, Andy wasn’t going to spoil things he had going on in his life right now. “And again, it was just an innocent, hypothetical question. Would hate to cause misunderstandments between us.” His boy-ish smile changed and turned to more forced, fake polite smile.

[kleinstar]

“ Another lost lady! Native Spiralian maybe? I don’t know what nwjyxs means but sorry, this isn’t my thing so maybe I can introduce to someone else?  “

[neopronouns]

original | icon-friendly

spiralian: a xenic alignment to spirals

based on the march 25th prompt from @mogai-sunflowers’ coining event, ‘spirals’!

flag id: the flag on the left is divided into 6 pointed sections that meet in the very center of the flag. clockwise beginning at the top left, they are yellow, orange, dark red, purple, dark blue, and green. there is a thin spiral overlay over the whole flag, which has been divided into the same sections as the background. clockwise beginning at the top left, the spiral sections are purple, dark blue, green, yellow, orange, and dark red.

the flag on the right has 18 stripes, with the second, fifth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, and seventeenth being much smaller than the rest. in order, they are dark red, green, dark red, orange, dark blue, orange, yellow, purple, yellow, green, dark red, green, dark blue, orange, dark blue, purple, yellow, and purple. end id.

dni transcript here

[alphynix]

The world of the Cambrian Period was a strange combination of both familiar and alien. The land would have seemed rather barren, populated mainly by microbes and algae, yet the oceans teemed with creatures already identifiable as sponges, comb jellies, jellyfish, acorn worms, vertebrates, echinoderms, arrow worms, annelids, molluscs, and brachiopods – small and primitive-looking in some cases but still recognizable enough.

But at the same time there were "weird wonders" everywhere, things much harder to identify, with shapes so bizarre that their initial discovery was met with laughter.

Animal life was exploring so many different possibilities for body plans and ecologies, and one lineage in particular dominated this explosion of evolutionary experimentation: the arthropods.

Arthropods are represented today by the chelicerates (sea spiders, horseshoe crabs, and arachnids), myriapods (millipedes and centipedes), crustaceans, and insects, and together these groups make up over 80% of all known living animal species and are vital parts of almost every ecosystem on the planet.

We live on Bugworld, and this month we're going to see where that all began. Welcome back to the Cambrian Explosion series (only a couple of months later than usual) and the Earth of over half a billion years ago: the time of the Rise Of The Arthropods.

———

Cambrian Explosion #32: More Ediacarans & Ecdysozoan Origins

Arthropods are part of a major branch of animal life known as ecdysozoans – characterized by growing via molting their outer covering. They're estimated to have last shared a common ancestor with their cousins the spiralians around 600 million years ago, and the protostome ancestors of both these groups split from the deuterostomes even earlier than that.

So ecdysozoans must have originated somewhere in the Ediacaran Period, but so far none of the enigmatic fossils from that time period have been definitively linked to this group.

Spriggina floundersi certainly looks like it could have been some sort of early arthropod, with a defined "head" and a segmented body covered in plates that made it resemble a trilobite – although its segments appear to be glide reflected rather than symmetrical. Up to 5cm long (2"), its known from the South Australian Ediacara Hills fossil site and dates to about 555 million years ago.

Praecambridium sigillum lived in the same time and place as Spriggina, but was much smaller at just 4mm long (0.15"). Its vaguely trilobite-like body had at least 5 segments, and this has also led to it being proposed as a potential arthropod-like animal.

Despite their superficial similarities, however, currently neither of these species are thought to be particularly closely related to ecdysozoans, with their trilobite-like shapes instead being the result of convergent evolution. Instead they may be part of a separate proposed phylum known as Proarticulata, a very early branch of bilaterian animals whose closest living relatives might be the weird little xenacoelamorphs.

The most likely Ediacaran arthropod-relative discovered so far is actually the segmented worm-like Yilingia spiciformis, which was originally featured back in part 1 of this series – and even then it could instead be closer related to annelids, or be another example of convergence, and so it can't be confidently classified as anything more specific than "an early bilaterian".

Isolated microfossil spines from the late Ediacaran may also be from early ecdysozoans, possibly originating from a scalidophoran-like animal.

———

But outside of the weird Ediacarans, the closest thing we currently have to an example of what the ancestral ecdysozoans might have actually looked like is Acosmia maotiania.

Originally described as a priapulid worm, this species was recently reassessed as a "stem-ecdysozoan" – basically part of an ancient branch of the ecdysozoans that arose after the split from the spiralians but before the common ancestor of all other known forms existed, making it a evolutionary "cousin" to the entire rest of the group.

It's known from the Chinese Chengjiang fossil deposits (~518 million years ago) and measured up to about 10cm long (4"). It had a two-part worm-like body plan, with its mouth located at the tip of a bulbous proboscis region at the front, and a ringed trunk region further back.

However, it lacked the characteristic radial teeth and throat structures seen in other early ecdysozoans like scalidophoran and lobopodians. This suggests the common ancestor of the rest of the group may have been an Acosmia-like wormy animal with a combination of a ringed body and scalidophoran-like mouth structures – and maybe eventually some other Cambrian fossils currently classified as priapulid-relatives may turn out to also be stem-ecdysozoans instead.

———

Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Twitter | Patreon

[mogai-infirmary]

scorbunbearen

a gender related to or connected to the pokemon scorbunny build a bear plush!

grookybearen

a gender related to or connected to the pokemon grooky build a bear plush!

-bearen and flag template by @spiralian!

[epikulupu]

sending this bc you said it was okay for me to do so!

could you make a gender that's connected to the game miitopia? thank u epiki my beloved /p - spiralian / crow

done!

[epikunpa]

i approve of the first term here being an allion term actually (im not reblogging it to allion-archive simply bc that blog has a lot of minor followers </3 but hell yeah neat term) - spiralian

everything in queue is an allion rn lol /lh also no worries! tht makes sense :]

[m3-mianbo]

Favourite animals poll! Round 4

The 3rd round was a tie.

Time for Round 4.

Because the previous round was a tie (special case), this round will be about the phyla and clades of both the Ecdysozoans and the Spiralians.

[blankticket]

Newscasters for the daily Spiralian TV program focused on the Archimedes Ward chuckle warmly to each other, following the happy conclusion of a news story about a rescued dog.

The next segment is announced to be the weather forecast, a simple transition leading it in. The friendly(?) face of Dr. Caelum stands at attention in front of a green screen, displaying a colorful display of the area. He gives a small clap in greeting.

“Good morning, citizens of Archimedes Ward. I’m Dr. Caelum, and this is your Very Typical forecast for the day. Ahem!

“Today is the 21st of July. The current conditions are fair, with partly-cloudy weather and moderate temperatures.”

He steps to the side with the aid of his cane, as though about to gesture toward the weekly forecast, but the visual projected beside him is that of something strange.

An distant ominous human figure, seemingly captured by a phone camera, crouches low to the ground at the edge of the Ward. He’s dressed in black; there’s also an huge, unholy, impossible jumble of a shape stretching out behind one shoulder. There’s something shining in one hand, kept close to his chest; the other hand can be seen braced against the ground, bearing the appearance of wicked black claws. The contrast of the colors makes him stand out easily from the architecture of Archimedes. Demon incarnate.

“A, quote, ‘Humanoid Typhoon’ is expected to make landfall imminently. Catastrophic loss of life will occur sometime within the next two hours, give or take.”

The visual changes once more: back to the colorful map of Archimedes. This time, instead of showing areas of precipitation or temperature, there is a thick line of purple that begins at the edge of the Ward, slowly moving right through it, until it reaches the edge of Point Zero. Anyone familiar with navigating the streets of Archimedes can identify that the animated trail is a common walking path down the main streets.

“Now, being nearby or within the highlighted area of effect will subject surroundings to the steady and unstoppable depletion of their lives. It may also subject surroundings to high-impact forces, equivalent to the speed of some high-speed trains.

“So take protective measures, hm? Calmly evacuate–staying indoors will not save you.”

The way he delivered such a statement so casually is a little unnerving…

“Incidentally, do note that while it is not recommended, and I do mean Not Recommended, it is indeed possible to put an end to the Humanoid Typhoon - our own Vash the Stampede - before he walks the full path of destruction. Upon his death or his reaching of Point Zero, reconstruction of any property damage will be compensated for and worked upon immediately. Wouldn’t want to dampen your summer plans, hm?~

“Well! That’s the forecast for today–good luck! Dr. Caelum, signing off; back to you, John.”

(The rest of the broadcast, for the next hour, has its newscasters behaving normally as ever. The news ticker crawling along the bottom of the screen reads HUMANOID TYPHOON IN ARCHIMEDES - LIVE COVERAGE TO FOLLOW.)

— — — — — —

hi! this is a prelude to vash's giant challenge!

here's a rundown:

Vash has awakened on the very edge of Archimedes Ward, bearing his finale-episode appearance ( complete with wing, and dangerous purple cube! ). As predicted on the news' weather forecast, he will be attempting to walk directly through the main streets of Archimedes until he reaches Point Zero (the hole). For those without the context of the cube: it's incredibly volatile, and has the potential to wipe out the entire Ward in a blast of energy.

Here are some cube facts, unique to this Challenge:

This cube is hand-sized, a bit bigger than the size of a Rubik's cube. It constantly drains the life force of its surroundings in a 15m radius (that's about 20 walking steps, or 1 & 1/2 schoolbuses end-to-end).

If Vash dies, the cube detonates. Letting anyone else have sole hold of the cube detonates it.

Trying to drag or carry Vash's body around will detonate it. Attempts to teleport Vash or the cube will not work.

The following memories, powers, and detriments apply to Vash for this challenge:

Memories: Vash is given future memories of everything leading up to JuLai's explosion. This is bestowed to him by the Stars to remind him of his failure he's yet to make, and what's at stake for the Archimedes Ward should he learn nothing and fail again.

Powers: Vash is temporarily given his physical appearance from the bulk of the final episode of Trigun Stampede, and all other abilities unlocked. This includes his wing, which can help shield him from damage; however, he is completely unable to fly with it, and it still causes him constant pain to have. This is bestowed to him by the Stars, to supply him with the strength to prevent what happened to JuLai to happen to the Archimedes Ward.

Detriments: The Stars have induced in Vash constant total-body pain, forcing him to reduce his movement to walking speed at most. The cube he's carrying constantly drains the life forces of its surroundings in a 15m radius; Vash is a pacifist. The Archimedes Ward was chosen because Vash has been housed here for his entire stay; he's been making friends with NPCs and muses alike, here. I want him to have to see, face-to-face, everyone whose lives he threatens by simply existing nearby them as he is in this Challenge. This Challenge is an endurance test for Vash on many levels.

What this means for your muse:

If involved in Giant Challenge thread - Congratulations! Your muse has taken the opportunity to find themself on Vash's path of destruction. It's up to you on what you want them to do about it.

Do you want them to get in his way, and try to talk things out with him? Perhaps your muse's negotiation skills are more on the violent side, and they'd rather aim for the cube, or his head? You can even have your muse try to protect innocent bystanders who would've otherwise perished by Vash's actions. Given the nature of the cube, involving your muse in such close proximity to Vash puts them at incredible risk of injury and death.

Keep your muse's reasons and response in consideration - I'll message you when your character's next up to reply to the thread. Feel free to let me know if you'd rather opt out of your muse's involvement, in light of the detail of the Challenge here.

If uninvolved in Giant Challenge thread - Congratulations! Your muse has not taken the opportunity to find themself on Vash's path of destruction.

You're whole-heartedly encouraged to write minis, starters, drabbles, etc. depicting any sort of reaction to what's unfolding on television broadcast. Maybe your muse recognizes this edition of Vash the Stampede; if this is the first time they've ever heard of him, what do they think of the way he appears on the screen? Or perhaps your muse has ties to Archimedes and has evacuated safely, and is altogether focused on getting their loved ones to safety, as well.

...You're also not obligated to acknowledge what's going on, either! No need to write anything about this if you don't want to.

— — — — — —

the challenge thread will be posted in a couple hours; i wanna give people time to tell me they're opting out of the thread in light of this new information about it, and i also don't want to overload anyone lol

^(that being said, if you're still sticking around as a part of the interest check, know that i'm in contact with the first one up and the last one up / those spots are dedicated!)

also, i'm grateful for the mods in allowing me their permission to use their Star, Caelum, just for this drabble. thank you

if you have any questions, would like to inform me of your opting out of the thread, etc, please message me!

[starliitstories]

"It's okay to lean on others for support occasionally." (Gi-hun and Saebyeok)

Yeah, like that ended up so good last time Saebyeok decided to trust even the slightest. A woman almost spit this fact straight to his face but restrained herself. Gihun was currently the only person in her life she actually trusted and really liked. While her personality was harsh and Gihun already knew it, she didn't want to insult him on purposely. Saebyeok brushed her fingers through her hair while a silent sigh got out from her lips. "This again?" She asked with a little tense tone in her voice. A young woman didn't mean to be rude to him but this topic often got under her skin even if she wouldn't easily admit it. But Gihun probably already knew this. They didn't have a chance to know for a long time and it had only been through the game. But during those painful days, these two had learned a lot from each others's personalities. Gihun had almost instantly wanted to help and protect her which had caused her to feel a bit discomfort at first. But the more she had watched this dorky man and heard him talking, the more she had actually started to like him. So obviously, Gihun was the last person she would ever want to insult or hurt. "I know Spiralians are overall nice. But I don't really KNOW them. Not personally. So it doesn't make sense to lean on them." Her opening up was reserved for people she considered as close friends or family and Gihun was something in between these two. So with him, it felt little bit easier to speak up her true feelings.

[stormbreaker101]

Cursed concept: the horses and unicorns of Valencia, Santo Pollo, and whatever unironically use "everypony" in their regular vernacular.

This includes Diego.

Now imagine Diego teaching a duelling class to some students including the Young Wizard. Diego uses "everypony" in a sentence. The Spiralian kids are used to it bc that's just Diego's dialect. The Young Wizard takes 10d10 psychic damage because they get flashbacks to My Little Pony.

[invitedeath]

each time he happened to come across sora, the pair of them stood worlds apart in both beliefs and strength. there had been a time when sora possessed far more power than he, with sephiroth at the mercy of the spiralian curse, as he had decided to call it. a period of weakness which sephiroth could barely remember now, a year on from his return of greatness. 

there was strife between them further than simply that which transpired from past meetings, a mutual friend which connected them. this of course was zack fair. but zack was absent from the meeting of those two once again, a springtime eve where the trees lining the archimedes streets were just beginning to tease the slight colour of incoming buds. 

“ still here, are you? “ rhetorical, obviously. the setting sun cast their shadows longer against the pale marble of the walkway, crowding the path despite the pair of them being the only two figures meeting there. perhaps sora had simply spotted him and wandered close enough for sephiroth to notice, or merely it was fate intervening. he didn’t mind. sora was no trouble, not at the moment.

his voice lacked the previous foreboding weight, instead a rather flat and apathetic tone took to his words as he regarded the other with interest more so than some cruel amusement. “ so many come and go, yet you always remain behind. hm. “ he could have made some comment, something to drive the boy’s heels into the dirt and have him burn a scowl up at him, but instead sephiroth simply carried on in the same half-bored tone. 

“ i wonder, do you imagine that you will be here forever? “

@levitersora​ | it’s been a while...... time for angst

[silverskiies]

@nightshaderps​

connection: anyone who’s close to her

She had a bad habit to leave too many things in her purse. Old shopping lists, candy wrappers, receipts, stuff like that. That’s why she often cleaned her bag and purse.  Brown eyes caught her old ID card. The photo was even older, from the time she was still active idol. Despite pretty face and makeup, something in this photo felt so off. “Look at this.” She chuckled awkwardly and offered an ID card to the other. “It’s like watching someone else. I look so scared and tired.”

There was also still her last name which she had abandoned since Spiral was her home more than anything else. She was a spiralian named Hyori.

[alphynix]

Cambrian Explosion Month #23: Phylum Mollusca – The Stem Weirdos

Molluscs are one of the largest animal phylums, second only to the arthropods, and are also hugely diverse, found in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments all over the world. Not only are familiar modern animals like bivalves, slugs and snails, and squid and octopuses included in this huge lineage, but also nautiloids, chitons, tusk shells, monoplacophorans, worm-like aplacophorans, and the extinct ammonites and orthocerids.

Like the annelids they're lophotrochozoan spiralians, and their exact evolutionary relationships within that group are a bit uncertain. But their fossil history seems to go back at least 558 million years with the "mollusc-like" Ediacaran Kimberella, and the earliest members of most major mollusc lineages had probably already diverged from each other before the start of the Cambrian.

The common ancestor of all molluscs probably had features like an unsegmented body, a muscular foot on their underside, a mantle and mantle cavity, a radula, and possibly a tough but non-mineralized leathery "shell" – and Odontogriphus omalus may represent an early stem lineage retaining that basic body plan into the mid-Cambrian.

Known from the Canadian Burgess Shale fossil deposits (~508 million years ago), this vaguely slug-like animal grew up to 12.5cm long (5") and was probably a grazer, crawling over the seafloor and feeding on microbial mats.

Its classification has been debated for some time, sometimes being placed closer to annelids or brachiopods, but more recent evidence of a radula-like feeding apparatus and a muscular foot suggest it really was a stem-mollusc.

———

The affinities of the strange-looking Wiwaxia corrugata have been even more controversial, with its classification flipping back and forth between annelids and molluscs over the last few decades. But in recent years the discovery of a radula-like mouth apparatus and a muscular crawling foot have swung the general opinion more firmly towards stem-mollusc.

Originally discovered in the Burgess Shale, fossils of various wiwaxiid species have now also been found in Cambrian deposits in Utah, Russia, China, Europe and Australia, ranging from about 518 to 504 million years ago – showing that this lineage had a worldwide distribution, and that their body plan barely changed for at least 15 million years.

Wiwaxia had a domed body covered in chitinous plates and spines with a ribbed texture. It could reach around 5cm long (2"), with the longest spines about the same length, and individual sclerites were shed and replaced as it grew.

It seems to have also been a mat-grazer, with its armor serving to protect it against predators like anomalocaridids. Some specimens have small Nisusia brachiopods attached to their plates or spines in what seems to be a commensal relationship – the brachiopods gained a "mobile home" that allowed them to filter-feed higher up in the water column while also being protected from predators (at least until that particular sclerite was shed), and Wiwaxia wouldn't have been harmed or affected by the presence of these "hitchhikers".

———

Early grazing molluscs like Odontogriphus and the wiwaxiids seem to disappear from the fossil record in the mid-Cambrian, around the time that the microbial mats they relied on began to become less common. However, some of them may have survived for longer than previously thought, since fossils of isolated spines from the early Ordovician of Morocco (~480 million years ago) and the mid-Ordovician of Portugal (~465 million years ago) may be evidence of late-surviving wiwaxiids, possibly relict populations living in isolated refugia environments.

———

Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Pillowfort | Twitter | Patreon