#HAGFISH MENTIONED

[animevillainscourge]

@dreamspeaker-buttercutter

hi👋 its me the angel that lives in your car cd player. i was wondering if i could use your gps to make a bigger nest in here? its okay ill be your gps afterwards. you can trust me. no i promise i wont do the hagfish slime thing again.

[mechhelm]

anthro hagfish fella 🐟🧡

[chipjrwibignaturals]

and THATS the salsa 😌

[relto]

the outsider saying he thinks that sokolov is boring made me laugh but tbh the merits of the outsider finding you interesting are probably debatable

[iamthekaijuking]

Assorted Armored Core 6 thoughts

1: Iguazu as a character is just so fucking funny to me. Like here’s this pathetic little petty piece of shit who wants to be hot stuff but isn’t due to his own personal faults, and gets mad when he’s inevitably shown up. And then you come along and are better than him (which isn’t a high bar… I mean come on even his AC build is less than optimal) and for some reason that makes him lose his shit and now he hates you so much he’s willing to kill himself if it means killing you. Of all the people that broke him it was you, C4 621, Waltuh’s favorite little vegetable lobotomite. Michigan should have technically gotten that hatred out of him but no it’s you he hates.

2: I’ve seen some talk about what the “mealworms” the rubiconians eat are, and a lot of people think they’re tardigrades mutated by Coral, but I’d have to disagree. Coral isn’t a mutative substance, it’s just some anaerobic alien algae that explodes real good and can act like a supercomputer when in groups. It also might have a biochemistry toxic to humans since it can get us high and areas exposed to coral explosions are contaminated in some way, but it’s never been stated to directly tamper with genes. The anatomy of the mealworms also doesn’t match tardigrades that well and they only have a passing resemblance to them (their mouth anatomy is closer to that of a lamprey or hagfish, and they have too many legs). I think the mealworms might instead be alien fauna, but ones not native to rubicon that were instead brought in as livestock. Why not native to rubicon? Well the only other multicellular organisms we see in game are trees and grass that were almost certainly bought to rubicon by humans, and while rubicon 3 seems to be within the Goldilocks zone from its sun it’s definitely on the farther end of the spectrum. Every area (aside from grid, Xylem, underground, and atmospheric areas) has snow, except for where the Strider is seen, which is a desert. But desert doesn’t equal heat, it just means it’s a very dry place. Rubicon 3 might also not have a moon and we don’t know anything about its magnetosphere. Basically what I’m trying to say that rubicon 3 is a pretty tough place to live, and while multicellular life isn’t an impossibly given its conditions, it seems that the planet might only have microbial life.

3: A sort of follow up to the mealworm thing, but it seems like in the AC 6 universe humanity has discovered alien life, but never sapient ones. Any race other than humans is never mentioned, and coral is of human interest not because it’s an alien organism, but because it can act as a superfuel. Mealworms are likely also aliens. If this is all true then Coral might be the first truly sapient race encountered by humanity… and we’ve been using it as fuel and already almost rendered it extinct once… oops.

[shirecorn]

i think a lions mane jellyfish would be cool! if youd like to continue to be cursed, id love to see what youd for a sea urchin or starfish mermaid 🧜‍♀️

If science of specbio intrigues you, please follow my worldbuilding blog at @worldofvonder

So mermaids are fish, straight up. Anything non-fish is not a mermaid. I do take non-fish requests! But they will either be magical creatures that are not mermaids, or they will just not be canon to my world.

There are many aquatic creatures that are not fish, and are in fact not even in the phylum chordata. "Phylum" is the first category of biology in taxonomy, which is the study of classifications.

Source: major animal phyla (video lecture!)

The kingdoms of life are: animals, plants, and fungus. Within the animal kingdom, the next step of sorting is phyla. Chordata includes vertebrates (and other animals that have a spinal cord but no bones) and it does not include jellyfish, crustaceans, octopus, and lots of other things. Interestingly, it is believed that chordata and echinoderma share a common ancestor, but they are still different phyla.

Mermaids arose from a ray finned fish, in the clade Actinopterygii. They speciated from there to become the dominant life form of the oceans. Mermaids have a process that allows groups to take on a form that is analogous to a mundane fish. If that fish evolved to eat algae, the mermaid takes on those traits while still able to eat meat. This kinship is not limited to other ray-finned fish, but encompasses many vertebrates that are commonly called "fish." This includes sharks and jawless fish like hagfish. It can include lobe-finned fish like coelacanth, but does not include tetrapods. Tetrapod creatures that resemble mermaids may be centaurs. Centaurs have a completely different origin than mermaids.

Mermaids do not have kin in other phyla. If an invertebrate resembles a human, it is through another evolutionary path than "fish that mimics humans to eat them"

Aquatic creatures and their "mermaid" (humanoid) creature counterparts

Chordata: Fish (cartiligeous, ray finned, lobe finned): Mermaids Seals and sea lions: Selkies (selkies are a subspecies of human) Whales and dolphins: selkie-mermaid hybrids: mammalmers

Arthropoda (crustaceans, arachnids, insects): fairies Mollusca: (slugs, clams, octopus): Magic mirrors Echinoderma (sea cucumbers, starfish, urchins, sanddollars): undiscovered Cnidaria (jellyfish and anemones) and Ctenophora: undiscovered

sponges, anything resembling worms, anything not mentioned: undiscovered

Many phylums have branches that superficially resemble humans despite being completely unrelated to us and each other. This phenomenon is known as anthropisation (not anthropization, which is humans changing landscapes). But don't go thinking humans are special. The same thing happens with horses.

wow there's a lot here. You're welcome lol

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Daily fish fact #525

Hagfish!

Their skin is only loosely attached to their body, and is filled with about a third of the body's blood volume! It is assumed that this is an adaptation against predator attacks, as they're harder to get a grip of; not to mention the slime they produce whenever a predator tries to take a bite.

[egrets-not-regrets]

Cedric: From One Healer to Another

Of Fin and Feathers AU: Cedric gets to meet his aunt, Amelia, a harpy healer... and Alcyon, her bonded chaos Iron Warrior mer.

Author's Note:

Erriox (to Alcyon): Amelia will be safe. Cedric may be a Black Templar, but he won't hurt her. Besides, Lenora is there.

Alcyon: Black Templar >:(

********

Cedric: How could someone be so nice and be bonded to that chaos heretic! >:(

Here's a light, fun, and a little science-y fic to make up for the last two emotionally heavy ones. :) Thanks to @sleepyfan-blog for letting me borrow Cedric. He is adorable. Also mention of Arnault from @kit-williams. Yes, Alcyon has an intense bond with Amelia, like Arnault and Angela.

OCs: HarpyLenora, MerErriox (Iron Warrior OC), HarpyAmelia, MerAlcyon (Chaos Iron Warrior OC), MerCedric (Black Templar OC (c) @sleepyfan-blog)

Tagged: @shadowfirecat , @kit-williams , @bleedingichorhearts , @barn-anon , @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

@sleepyfan-blog, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @bispecsual , @ms--lobotomy , @whorety-k

Lenora watched Cedric continuously grind the paste with his mortar and pestle with interest.

“What are you making?” she asked. 

“Ah… I’m making poultices for surface wounds.” The black and white mer replied, not stopping in grinding the paste, “It’s to protect the open wounds to prevent infection and possible contaminants from entering. Could you pass some of your down feathers?”

The osprey harpy handed her son the container of down feathers. Cedric took a few and grinded them into the paste. 

“And do you slather it onto the bandages before storing them? I couldn’t imagine it being easy to put on the poultice underwater.” Lenora remarked. 

“Some of the bandages will be coated with the poultice before storing. The rest will be stored in containers for manual application.” Cedric replied. He dipped his finger into the poultice he was making and took a glob out for the harpy to inspect, “The paste holds better than it looks. The addition of hagfish slime to the poultice allows it to hold well underwater and on land.” He explained, happy that his mother was taking an interest in his work. 

“Interesting.” Lenora smushed the glob around her clawed digits. What an interesting texture. She also noticed a cooling effect to it. Harpies sometimes used poultices, but it meant that they would have to be landlocked for a while to allow the poultice to work since the paste would start to dissolve underwater. It was rather inconvenient for harpies that lived around water, so potions tend to be used. With this though… this might work. It would be helpful in using poultices instead so that potions can be used for more extensive injuries. 

“Is it mint that is causing the cooling effect?” She asked. 

“Part of it.” Her son replied, “The mint is mixed in with aloe.”

Lenora nodded. A thought occurred to her, “Cedric, would you like to meet Amelia? She’s a healer too and would probably be interested in learning from you.”

“Yes, I would like to meet her! Do you think she will bring Ben along too?” He replied excitedly. 

“Maybe.”

Cedric brightened, it would be really nice to learn from his ‘aunt’ too and trade information with a fellow healer, especially one of a different species from him. You never know what you learn that may come in handy after all. Maybe she might bring Ben as well. His mother mentioned them sometimes, but he and his brothers had yet to meet them still. Cedric hoped to finally meet his little cousin too.

“If they do visit, it is likely that both their bonded will come with them.” Lenora warned, “I only ask that you not get into a fight with them, should they come too.”

The Primaris scoutling’s face scrunched in distaste, “I can… do that…” he replied. He nearly forgot about them. Right… if Amelia’s his aunt in name, then that chaos heretic would be his “uncle”. Cedric cringed, visibly disturbed. Nope. Nope. No, they’re of no relation. He is not about to call chaos anything that. Ugh… he doesn’t like it, but he has dealt with worse than ornery battle brothers as his patients in his experience as an apothecary, so dealing with the two chaos mers couldn’t be that much worse. Cedric can be professionally detached when he needs to be. He can behave as his mother requested. 

Lenora watched her son’s expression with amusement. She knew how much her boys disliked chaos-aligned mers. But she trusted that they would behave if she asked that of them. She could trust that they would at least leave the other alone and not goad them into a fight. 

“You sure you can do that?” She chuckled. 

Cedric straightened his posture, “Yes.” He replied confidently. 

Lenora smiled, “Alright. I’ll go talk to her.” and left to find Amelia. 

She managed to secure a visit from the harpy healer the next morning, since she had time and Alcyon coincidentally would be patrolling with Erriox that day. 

The next day came and Erriox said his goodbyes before taking off. Alcyon and Amelia arrived at their family nest shortly after he left. Cedric's eyes widened and his fins flared at the sight of the large scarred mer who protectively curled around his plover harpy mate upon entering the cave and spotting the Black Templar scoutling. His mind screamed danger. The chaos mer was larger than Erriox, almost about Claude’s length (in his shark-tailed form). The young Primaris mer could tell the chaos mer had centuries more battle experience over him, judging from all his healed over scars, discoloured healed fins, and prosthetics replacing his right eye and left forearm. He would be hard to beat in a fair fight. Not that chaos mers would fight fair, in his opinion. 

Cedric placed himself, not so subtly, in front of Lenora to protect her. His eyes were sharp and muscles tensed, ready for any attack from the chaos mer-Astartes. Lenora smiled exasperatedly as she stepped to the side of him. 

“Whelp. You hurt my mate and I will end you. I don’t care if you are my brother’s son or not.” Alcyon growled at the apothecary-in-training, still protectively curled around his bond-mate.

“I will not…”Cedric bristled with indignation, feeling insulted by the chaos mer’s implication. He might be a loyalist and didn’t trust chaos mers as far as he could throw them, but it didn’t mean he would harm his bonded! Let alone someone who’s a close friend to his mother!

A brush from Lenora’s wing calmed him down. She smiled at him, “Easy, Cedric…” she murmured. 

The young apothecary felt vindicated in a petty way watching the large mer get scolded by his smaller harpy mate for his rude behaviour, “Alcyon! I told you to be nice to the youngling! He will not hurt me. Have some faith in Lenora at least.”

“I know.” The fierce mer grumbled, “but he is a Black Templar…”

“Lenora has two Black Templar sons, and no harpy has ever been harmed by them.” The plover harpy refuted.

Alcyon let out of huff, “Fine.” He called out to the osprey harpy, “Lenora, her safety’s in your hands.”

Cedric’s dorsal fin flared and he let out a low growl at the perceived threat towards his mother. The chaos mer ignored him, focusing on his mate instead. Rude.

Lenora snorted, “Amelia is safe with me. There won’t be a feather out of place.” She reassured with good humor, patting Cedric’s back to ease him. 

“Everything will be fine, I promise. Go. Erriox is waiting.” Amelia cooed, reaching up to caress her mate’s cheek. Alcyon held her close and nuzzled her, “I should be back by nightfall. If not, Malaran knows that you are here.” 

“Of course.” They shared a kiss before the chaos merAstartes swam off to join his legion brother.

Cedric stared at them, still unbelieving that a chaos mer would be so tender and protective towards their bonded. Maybe they shared a bond like his big brother Arnault and his bonded, Angela. It would explain how intensely guarded Alcyon was over Amelia. And Amelia’s son, Ben, was apparently bonded to a Black Legion chaos mer. Does this bonding phenomena run in the family? His mother didn’t have any biological children, so he can’t really say. Cedric hypothesized that if she did, her child might end up bonding with a loyalist mer if that was the case. 

“I’m sorry Cedric, Alcyon can be very overprotective of me. And well, he doesn’t like Black Templars very much.” Amelia apologized, somewhat embarrassed by her mate’s posturing. She reached out her clawed hand, “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m happy to meet an Astartes apothecary.”

Cedric shook her hand, giving his aunt a smile to put her at ease, “It’s… alright. Bonded mers tend to be intensely overprotective over their non-Astartes partners. It’s nice to meet you too. Mutter told me all about you and Ben.”

“Speaking of… where is Ben anyway?” Lenora asked. 

Amelia gave a helpless smile, “He’s flight training with Malaran. He’s very enthusiastic about being able to knock Erriox over.”

The osprey harpy laughed, “We’ll see about that!” Knowing how solidly built her mate was.

Cedric chuckled at the thought of a small plover harpy cannonballing into his older Iron Warrior cousin.

“Cedric, Lenora mentioned to me about how you make your poultice. It sounds interesting. You added hagfish slime to it?” Amelia asked. 

The Black Templar scoutling confirmed with an excited trill, “Yes! The hagfish slime keeps the poultice intact while underwater.” 

The harpy healer hummed, impressed, “That’s what’s missing from our poultices. While poultices work for surface wounds on land, it causes harpies to be landlocked for a while because they would start losing effect and start to dissolve in water. Which is rather inconvenient for us living by the water.” 

“Hagfish slime isn’t easy for us to obtain either, as they reside too deep for us to reach.” His mother added. 

Cedric thought for a moment and then asked Lenora, “One hagfish produces a large amount of that slime coating. What do you think of keeping a hagfish around?”

Both harpies hesitated, having seen the mess that a few spilled hagfish can cause when they visited the siren sisters of the Storm Rocks to do some trading. 

“I would say, maybe keep a few hagfish to an area underwater by feeding them, and harvest their slime that way. I’m not keen on cleaning up a mess of slime from our nest if an accident happens, and neither would Erriox.” The osprey harpy gently nixed his idea. 

The black and white mer pouted a little, but he understood what his mother meant. Plus, Cedric could see an accident like that happening from he and his brothers’ roughhousing. He sighed, the other suggestion his mother gave wasn’t a bad one though, he could work with that. 

Amelia nudged Cedric gently, giggling, “We’ve seen the aftermath of a hagfish spill, it’s a big mess from only three hagfish. I am curious about your poultice recipe though, would you mind telling me so I can write the recipe down and try it?”

Cedric nodded, “Of course! If you don’t mind telling me yours as well. We could trade results! It would be nice to have a comparison to see what can be improved.”

“I agree.” Amelia smiled at her nephew. Lenora handed them both a loaded ink quill and parchment as they dictated and discussed their poultice recipes with one another.

Time passed by all too quickly. They were deep in discussion about the different cone snail toxins that could be effective pain relievers in healing potions when Alcyon and Erriox returned from their patrol. 

Amelia churred and nuzzled her mate, pleased with his safe return, when the larger chaos mer wrapped her in his embrace, “Hello Alcyon. Your patrol went well?” 

Alcyon purred and kissed her temple, “All is calm and rather boring. I see that you are unharmed.”

“Everything is fine, like I told you. Quit looking down on the poor fledgling!” Amelia chided him. 

Cedric glared and hissed at the chaos Iron Warrior, “I would never harm anyone’s bonded, let alone a friend of meine Mutter! Don’t insult me!”

Alcyon stared at him evenly, commenting to Erriox and Lenora, “Good to see this one has a backbone on him.” Then turned to his mate who finished gathering her things into her bag, “Ready to go?” He asked. 

Amelia smiled and bid them goodbye before heading to the cave entrance. She flew off with Alcyon diving into the water, following close behind. 

Cedric blinked in confusion, his jaw falling slightly open, “Was that…?” 

Erriox laughed and clapped a hand on his adopted son’s shoulder, “Consider that his compliment and his approval.” 

The young apothecary didn’t know how to feel about that, but he supposed at least he won’t have to worry about the chaos Iron Warrior glaring at him anytime he interacts with the harpy healer in the future. 

Lenora smiled, “That worked out quite well.”

Cedric frowned slightly, “I guess… but I don’t like his attitude towards you, Mutter.”

“Alcyon can be rather abrasive, so I do appreciate your patience with him. Thank you for that.” She nuzzled him. 

Feeling happy at the compliment, Cedric let out a soft purr and nuzzled her back, “You’re welcome, Mutter.”

[irradiatedsnakes]

something i think a lot of people miss because its name is EELektross but the tynamo line is in very large part based on lampreys.

lampreys are incredibly basal (resembling the ancestral form, "primitive") vertebrates- agnathans (non-jawed) are a group of fishes that include the lampreys and the hagfish, which split off from the rest of the fish we know before moving jaws existed. they can give us a good idea of what some of the earliest vertebrates kind of looked like! they have one big sucker mouth, just like eelektrik and eelektross! (all photos via wikipedia unless otherwise mentioned)

also very of note are the dots down the side of the head on both of these- they're lamprey gill slits! unlike the operculum of most bony fishes or the multiple tall gill slits of the cartilaginous fishes, lamprey gill slits are largely circular.

now, tynamo i'm a bit split on whether it more closely resembles eel larvae (leptocephalus) or lamprey larvae (ammocoetes).

(photo via brian mccauley)

in case you didn't know, fish have larval stages! they're tiny and often weird and transparent looking. both ammoecoetes and leptocephali feed on tiny particles floating through the water (suspension feeding). i think with their white color and transparentish look, tynamo more resemble the leptocephali, but obviously with an ammocoete's jawless always-open mouth.

not relevant for our lamprey/eel discussion, but this is the larval form of the giant ocean sunfish, aka the mola mola. fucking look at it

also, a note! in addition to lampreys, the line obviously is a play on electric eels.

electric eels............are not eels.

eels are everything within the group anguilliformes. they're a big diverse group of mostly long and snake-looking fishes. this is an african conger, it's one of the prettiest eels in my opinion.

electric eels, despite the name, are indeed not eels. they're part of the gymnotiformes instead, the south american knife fish. all members of this group use electricty as a sense- they use weak electric fields kind of like an analogue to a bat's echolocation, to navigate and find food. only one genus within this group, Electrophorus, can actually shock stuff. the three species within that genus are the electric eels!

(photo via use ungulatenerd92 on zoochat)

they're funny looking guys. anyways, uh, pokemon or whatever

[silvershayde]

i return 👁️👁️

1. Since you mentioned inland freshwater dolphins, is there any significant physical/cultural difference between inland merfolk and oceanic ones? Is there a sort of physical difference on account of them maybe being used to different levels of salinity?

2. Following that, what's the general vibe between inland and oceanic merfolk? do they get along? is there some sort of rivalry? etc etc

3. Merfolk fashionnnn, I assume their clothes need to be adapted to underwater life? Any highlights about that?

4. Dietary requirements!! Like I guess merfolk by default would eat more seafood, but DO they specifically need to? how different are their dietary requirements from land peeps

5. Follow up to that, what is merfolk cuisine like? Do they cook?

6. This one might be a more general question for all the Seafarers, but how's their relationship towards Darena? Is it more worship-like, are they just chillin and Darena is just a Special Person™️ but otherwise not "above" the regular merfolk, etc?

7. because i thought of it just now. Do they have a writing system of any sort??

Hehe welcome back!

Imma first say that initially i wanted to add some visual stuff for this but because it’s late for me rn and I really wanna answer, I’ll add the visual stuff in either a reblog or in an expansion page for Merfolk.

Oceanic Merfolk Vs. River Merfolk

Yes there are very much cultural and physical differences. First off all inland/ freshwater/ river Merfolk all have dolphin tails. But! Their dorsal fins are significantly smaller than their ocean cousins across the board (look at any river dolphin’s dorsal fin and you’ll know what I mean) . They are also smaller and more flexible, but they are slower and their eyesight is not the best when underwater.

Because of the salinity issue, all Sea Mers could last a good bit in rivers and such, but River Mers cannot last out in the sea.

Reasons being that one, their kidneys aren’t strong enough for that, and two, they would starve since they wouldn’t be able to last out in the sea. Sea Mers stick together for protection first then for food, grouping for protection isn’t high on a River Mer’s priority list since they would be the apex predators of their habitats. Not to mention food comes much easier in the river than the sea. The only reason a Sea Mer would suffer in a river would be that the food available is not part of their normal diet.

I’ve kind of already mentioned a cultural difference above. Whilst both kinds share their hunting ways, River Mera don’t prioritise fighting for protection/ self defence as much. For a lack of better terms a Sea Mer would more likely be “aggressive” if found alone whilst a River Mer would more likely be “passive”. Even though I say passive there they aren’t as social as Sea Mers because it isn’t as vital to be.

I’d say because of the habitat differences they don’t really mix often (until recently because lore) but the current state of affairs is “that’s our cousin we see once in a decade and they’re cool”

Fashion

Okay, so, my vision. Uhh sidenote first! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this at all but they are capable of shapeshifting since they are more in tune with Aqua so when they are walking on land they opt for very flowy clothing, nothing constricting. Think togas or himations or chitons (maybe even a yukata). When underwater they don’t try wear anything heavy and anything they do wear has to be form fitting, especially if they are hunters. Speed and agility is everything under the water. If they do ever wear anything flowy under water it’s because of formality and/or festival time.

Food

This comes back to the shapeshifting thing. With shapeshifting comes slight dietary changes. Like when in normal form they don’t have to cook anything, they can just eat as is, they just take the bones out and anything else they don’t like. For which food specifically they eat it all depends on the area they are in. They won’t touch sea cucumbers and hagfish though… usually. I guess the exception would be like how some people like to eat snails and some people don’t. It’s one of those.

Oh also! River lot are Carnivores, Ocean lot are Omnivores. River lot stick with all types of fish and crustaceans, ocean lot do the same but also have greens their kids declare they hate and their parents tell them its good for them. Example is kelp. They also like to eat clams and octopus is for fun occasions.

When shifted to go on land their tolerance for raw seafood decreases a little bit so some things they gotta at least smoke if not cook it all the way through. They are used to spices from the land and is seen by some mers as an “acquired taste”. One thing all Mers are not used to is consciously drinking water. Any Mer that goes on land forgets about drinking water and have to be reminded that it is something they need to remember to do.

Relation with Darena

The civilisations closest to a spirit can give them different names. In this case to the Seafarers, Darena is primordial, and they call her Thalassa. It’s not that they worship her, it’s more that even though each Seafarer has its own kingdom she rules over it all. Darena’s anger can lead to devastation not only to the land but to the sea itself. Not to mention each Seafarer represents a different aspect to Darena.

Merfolk -> Darena’s tranquility

Sirelians -> Darena’s charm

Melusines -> Darena’s turbulence

Nymphs/Nereids -> Darena’s curiosity

All Darena asks is to be respected and her water taken care of, and the Seafarers take that very seriously.

Writing System

When they visit coves and such they like to do rock art as a means of depicting stories and such. That doesn’t really work that well underwater so they carve their images out. I’m leaning towards Merfolk, and the rest of the Seafarers (with a slight exception to Nymphs) having a pictorial writing system.

[codexnuminous]

Eskew 7. Edibility

I am in Eskew episode 7 - thoughts.

David's back! It really is quite enjoyable to hear his tired, haunted tones once again.

Oh no, David. Don't do that. That doesn't seem good. Oh no. Oh no.

I've changed my mind - maybe not sleeping is a good thing.

Oh, don't do that, David.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh! This could be a good thing! Or maybe (probably) not.

Wow, David. On the one hand, you sound like you'd be a real killjoy at parties. On the other hand, that sounds like some thing I would use as a conversation starter too, so I am rather throwing stones at glass houses I suppose.

Oh, David.

I like seafood. I'd like to eat more of it.

Oh no... You probably are, David.

Oh, no.

How many friends are there? I rather got the impression that there were about three or four, and this seems to imply three.

Oh! Hmm! Eskew wants to be witnessed, to be seen, just like the ghosts mentioned in the last episode. Hmm...

Why does Eskew care about David so much? Does it even, or does David just believe it does? Hmm...

Oh no. Yuck. Oh no.

The fourth wall you say, David? Hmm...

Again - lying seems to be second nature to David, so much so that he does it instinctively, with not even a trace of hesitation. Hmm...

I love underground labyrinths.

Nightmares can be beautiful too.

Oh no. Oh No. They're the digging people, aren't they - oh no oh no. Oh no.

It sounds a little bit like a hagfish.

Oh no oh no.

Even the Diggers - those consumed by the earth - end up in the embrace of the water. Hmm...

Oh no yuck yuck no.

Oh no. David. David what are you doing oh David no what.

Oh thank goodness. I thought you were going to murder all of the workers with a hammer. Oh thank goodness.

Oh, David. "She's grasping a knife in her hand, and she's looking at me without a great deal of appreciation." Is now really the time for snark?

Yes David! Go David! Free them! Be happy! Good job David! You can do it!

Oh no no no run David, run! No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

Oh thank goodness. Oh. Hhh.

Oh, David. Oh.

Yes! Go David! You can do it!

Don't you dare, David. Don't you dare take this.

Oh no no no David no no no no no no no no Oh, David.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Welcome to the final instalment of my series where I discuss the origins of every fish Pokemon. Today I’ll be covering gen IX. For previous generations see here: gens I-II, gens III-IV, gens V-VI, and gens VII-VIII.

People criticize Paldea for having too many birds and dogs, but I haven’t seen people talking about how many fish it has. I bring this up because Paldea has a lot of new fish. Only Hoenn introduced more fish lines. The first Paldean fish is the Wiglett line, which is also the only new multi-stage line. In this case, the species name helpfully tells us what it’s based on: garden eels. These eels are famous for poking their heads out of the sediment while keeping most of their bodies in an underground burrow. Because they typically live in large colonies and look a bit like grass, a group of eels can look a lot like a patch of plants, hence the name. Garden eels are very shy and will retract into their burrows at any sign of danger. This behavior is shared with Wiglett, which will retract if it sees the player coming, forcing you to sneak attack it to battle.

(image: garden eels looking adorable)

Wugtrio follows the garden eel origin, but also incorporates some moray eel inspiration. Both Morays and Wugtrio lurk in holes in rocks and grab passing prey, dragging them in. The fact that both Pokémon are slimy enough to get the Gooey ability is likely a reference to hagfish. These jawless fish are famous for their defense tactic where they secrete large amounts of slime when threatened.

(image: somebody playing with hagfish slime)

Finally, Wugtrio’s red coloration may draw from the giant tube worms found around hydrothermal vents.

(image: giant tube chilling on a hydrothermal vent. Except not chilling because it's really hot there)

As one of the two convergent pokemon lines, the Wiglett line is an example of convergent evolution. This is when distinct groups of organisms evolve similar adaptations in response to similar selective pressures. A classic example of this is the flap of skin used for gliding known as a patagium that has evolved independently in flying squirrels (rodents), gliding possums (marsupials) and colugos (primate relatives). All three groups evolved the patagium to beter move between trees in their arboreal environments. In the case of Wiglett’s similarity to Diglett, the dex entries and official website helpfully tell us that the two species evolves similar body plans because they are both dedicated burrowers.

(image: a diagram showing an example of convergent evolution in sugar gliders and flying squirrels)

Veluza is based on hakes, specifically merluccid hakes. These are predatory fish in the same family as cod and haddock who are known for being indiscriminate predators of smaller fish. Fittingly, Veluza is pretty aggressive, chasing down the player whenever they get near one. Hake are pretty economically important in Spain, Paldea’s main real-world basis. The Spanish love their hake. Not only do more than half the hake sales in Europe go to Spain, Spain is also the world’s largest consumer of the fish.

(image, a silver hake)

Veluza having a prominent dorsal fin and what seems to be an anal fin followed by smaller triangular finlets reminds me pretty heavily of tuna, who are also very fast predators.

(image: a tuna's tail, showing the finlets)

Veluza also almost looks kind of mechanical, which makes me wonder if there’s some inspiration coming from torpedoes or submarines. Veluza’s habit of removing parts of its own flesh is an example of autotomy. This is when an animal will remove parts of its own body and is the basis for the pokemon move autotomize (which Veluza doesn’t get for whatever reason). Autotomy is mostly used for defense while Veluza uses it to increase its speed and offenses. In my very quick search I was unable to find any examples of fish that use autotomy, but the fact that the move that represents this in Veluza is called Fillet Away and the dex mentions how the shed flesh tastes, it’s pretty clearly another reference to how much the Spanish eat hake. In this case, it’s a fish that fillets itself for you.

I’m going to talk about Dondozo and Tatsugiri together as while they’re different lines, they’re linked to each other. Dondozo is a giant catfish, specifically a wels catfish, the largest freshwater fish in Europe. While not native to the Iberian peninsula, the species has been introduced there. Dondozo’s diet including bird Pokémon is a reference to how wels catfish will beach themselves to try to catch and eat birds.

(image: an absolute unit wels catfish with human for scale)

Something I can’t understate is that Dondozo is big. At a height (presumable length in this case) of 39’04”, Dondozo is the second largest non-legendary in the franchise and 3rd largest overall after Eternatus and Wailord. That’s whale shark sizes and dwarfs the beluga sturgeon. The largest freshwater fish in the world. The two largest non-legendary Pokémon being aquatic is true to real life, where animals in the water can get much bigger than animals on land. Nothing as big as a blue whale can exist on land because without the support that water gives, the animal’s own weight would crush it. This is why beaching is usually a death sentence for large whales. Of course it would be remiss of me to not mention that both Tatsugiri and Dondozo have a sushi theme. Dondozo is based on a sushi chef. It’s head frills look like the traditional sushi chef headband and its tongue looks like a sushi geta, the wooden bench sushi is commonly served on. The sushi theme is more prevalent with Tatsugiri, which looks like a piece of hand-shaped sushi.

(image: sushi nigiri)

The different forms and colors of Tatsugiri make different individuals look like different dishes. The different colors may reference koi, which could also explain its dragon typing. Koi, and carp in general, are often associated with dragons. Tatsugiri can use its fins like limbs and survive out of water, possibly referencing fish like lungfish and mudskippers, who can live out of the water. Dondozo and Tatsugiri have a mutualistic relationship, a type of symbiosis where both parties benefit. Tatsugiri is the brains to Dondozo’s brawn, giving instructions to the larger fish and acting as bait to lure in prey. This is a form of aggressive mimicry. Tatsugiri is stated to dwell in Dondozo’s mouth. This could reference two things. The first is mouth brooding, where a parent fish will keep its offspring inside its mouth to protect them. The second is cleaner fish, who can safely go into the mouth of larger predatory fish because of a mutualistic relationship with them.

(image: a mouth-brooding fish)

The final fish Pokémon so far and the only legendary fish is Chi-Yu. This adorable little malevolent monstrosity is based on a goldfish, or rather fire in the shape of a goldfish. Like the other Treasures of Ruin, its true body is the actual treasure, magatama beads in this case, while the rest of the body is gathered from the environment to support the treasure. Chi-Yu being born from envy and the jade beads being in place of the eyes makes it a very literal green-eyed monster. Chi-Yu and the Treasures of Ruin in general are based on the Four Perils, malevolent beings from Chinese mythology. The Treasures don’t map exactly to the Perils and the connection is stronger in some than others. For example, Ting-Lu is based on the Taotie, which is usually depicted on cauldrons, and it has a massive cauldron on its head. Chi-Yu is probably based on the Hundun, a faceless creature with 6 legs. Chi-Yu doesn’t have a proper face, just beads where eyes should be, and it has 6 fins on each side of its body. The Hundun also has wings and fins are kind of like wings I guess? Not related to Pokémon, but the Hundun appears in the Iron Widow, which is a book you absolutely should read.

(image: a depiction of a Hundun)

And with that, this series comes to a close, at least until we get Gen X. I may do something similar with other Pokémon based on aquatic creatures, but I haven’t decided yet. I may also discuss some of my own fakemon if anyone is interested.

[yandere-daydreams]

Why are there suddenly facts about the mating habits of squids? Don't get me wrong, I like learning weird facts. I'm just confused about what brought this on.

By the way, I'm now looking up weird mating habits. Some Angler fish mating habits are an eldrich horror story waiting to happen. The males latch on and fuse to the female, eventually becoming one with her.

we were talking about the mating habits of animals in general, but someone mentioned squid and my hyper-fization took over. i also want to hear about deep sea life in general, but mostly those guys. they're neat.

we also love a girlboss!!! food scarcity is one of the biggest obstacles in deep-sea life (hence why whale falls are such a staple), so hagfish are kinda just like,,, really codependant couples with really tight grocery budgets. they're thrifty like that :)

[leechloach]

1. if u could have any fursuit unbound by price or realistic technology. what would u go for. 2. whats ur favourite ocean critter... im a big fan of round rays personally. wet puppies. 3. do u got any fun marsupial facts? 4. not a question but i dont think ive mentioned. i love how sharp and confident your lines are. it really emphasizes the finer sharper thinner lines+details. 5. are you in any fandoms rn/any recent media youve engaged with that u wanna talk about

1: A partial of our actual fursona, Rhodie

2: manta rays, horseshoe crabs, lamprey, hagfish... Sure there are more too

3: marsupials as a group of mammals actually began evolving in south america.. at one point in the earths history south america, Antarctica, and Australia were connected by a land bridge allowing marsupials to spread to different continents

4: HEY ! thank you! That means a lot to me :) lineart is my favorite part of the drawing process. I miss being able to do digital art but one day I will get a computer and resume doing it

5: in not really any fandoms... Severely blanking on media I like . Sowwy

[oysterie]

bite by bill shutt is very fun but again I wish there was more order to it but also I appreciate his choice of doing 4 interesting chapters abt specialized teeth species and then chapter 5 was abt the proposed evolution of jaws and teeth also he mentioned the hagfish slime car crash 👍 but each chapter is very interesting and he is good at explaining things and giving equivalent more applicable examples (explaining the sensors used in the bite force detector bar to how bathroom scales convert force into weight for example) and you can tell he's a good professor or instructor or whatever irl. But anyways abt halfway through and am really enjoying it I'll probably pick up his other book that's the same as this but the development of hearts in animals mwah. Teeth and vertebrates are very cool 🫶

[thedailydescent]

12, 27, and 30!

Answering this the next day! 💖

12. You are now a werebeast! What aquatic animal shall you choose to be your wereform?

I could say something cool and non-obvious here, like a comb jelly, but I'm going to go with Orca, because no one would fuck with me out there:

27. You can only invite three deep sea scavengers to your whalefall feast. Who?

It was hard not simply choosing three deep-sea sharks haha, but I have chosen the:

Bluntnose sixgill shark

[Image Source]

Because we love a large doe-eyed beauty!

Female Pacific Blackdragon

[Image Source]

Because not every gal can pull off such irregular teeth size, but she does it spectacularly!

And, of course, Tumblr's favourite whom I couldn't not mention:

Giant Isopod

30. Stupidest aquatic animal name?

This is probably not even close to what actually exists out there, but in the aquarium I'm interning at, we keep hagfish. And out of all the names for this interesting creature that isn't related to any other species and is in a category of its own:

Hagfish, seriously?! Hagfish?!!

Thank you so much for the ask! 💞💞 It's great interacting with other people on this site who share similar interests in aquatic life :)

Marine Biology Asks