#Private species

[feralradicalbastards]

Is it possible for you to make a TransPrivateSpecies flag? The species that I want to request is technically a "Private Species" and not a "Closed Species"...

I can’t tell if you want me to coin TransPrivateSpecies or it you want me to make a flag for being trans a specific private species. But, I’m open to either vvvvv

TransPrivateSpecies

TransPrivateSpecies is a transid / transspecies term for those who wish they were / are an private species of any kind. Technically the sister term of TransClosedSpecies.

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Anyone can use this (no DNI post), as long as it isn’t misused. Only repost with a link to this post as credit (only exclusions being archives).

Also, please tell us if someone has coined this before. We often don’t notice/know.

if someone has coined this before, take it as either a recoin or redesign.

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[yotenotes]

comm yummy

[wolfylch]

Some Cherrybrook concepts!! ⭐️💅🌸

She and Moose are best friends ~

[captain-noir]

‘louis should go to therapy’ and ‘louis should work on himself’ and ‘louis deserves better than lestat’ are for the boring, conventional yellow bellied normies. i sincerly hope he gets worse. i hope he sells everyone he loves and cares for down the river for lestat’s radioactive dick. i hope he turns into the most predatory vampire akasha accused him of being and i hope he does it with a twinkle in his eyes

[arthistoryanimalia]

Robert Morley (British, 1857-1941) The Literary Critics, 1888 oil on panel, 25 x 30 in (63.5 x 76.2 cm) via Christies

ID: Ariel Toucan, a subspecies of the Channel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus ariel)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Brian Melley, AP News

13 January 2024

LONDON (AP) — An unlikely refugee from the war in Ukraine — a rare Asiatic black bear — arrived at his new home in Scotland on Friday and quickly took to a meal of cucumbers and watermelon.

The 12-year-old Yampil was named for a village in the Donetsk region where he was one of the few survivors found by Ukrainian troops in the remains of a bombed-out private zoo.

Yampil, who had previously been called Borya, was discovered by soldiers who recaptured the devastated city of Lyman during the Kharkiv counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, said Yegor Yakovlev of Save Wild, who was among the first of many people who led the bear to a new life.

The bear was found in a menagerie that had long been abandoned by its owners.

Almost all the other animals had died of hunger, thirst or were struck by bullets or shrapnel and some were eaten by Russian troops.

Yampil narrowly missed the same fate, suffering a concussion from a projectile that landed nearby.

“The bear miraculously survived,” said Yakovlev, also director of the White Rock Bear Shelter, where the bear recovered.

“Our fighters did not know what to do with him, so they started looking for rescue.”

What followed was an odyssey that your average bear rarely makes, as he was moved to Kyiv for veterinary care and rehab, then shipped to a zoo in Poland, then to an animal rescue in Belgium, where he spent the past seven months, before landing in the United Kingdom.

Brian Curran, owner of Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, Scotland, said his heart broke when he learned of the plight of the threatened Asiatic black bear.

“He was in terrible condition; five more days and they wouldn’t have been able to save him,” Curran said. “We were just so amazed he was still alive and well.”

The bear was skinny but not malnourished when he was found, said Frederik Thoelen, a biologist at the Nature Help Center in Belgium.

He now is estimated to weigh a healthy 440 pounds (200 kilograms), Thoelen said.

The nature center in Belgium, which usually treats injured wildlife and returns them to their natural settings, has taken several animals rescued from the war in Ukraine, including a wolf, a caracal cat and four lions, though those animals had not experienced the ordeal Yampil endured.

It was remarkable how calm Yampil was when he arrived in Belgium, Thoelen said.

The bear was trained in the past two weeks to move from his enclosure to the crate that would transport him across Belgium to Calais, France, then across the English Channel on a ferry to Scotland.

Pastries from a local bakery were used for good measure to lure him Thursday into the cage, where he was sedated for the journey.

“We want to use the food that he likes most, and for most bears — and for people also — it’s sweet, unhealthy foods,” Thoelen said.

Thoelen had a sense of the bear’s weight as he drove the crate to the port.

“Every time when we had a red light or a traffic jam, when the bear moved a little bit, you could feel the van moving also,” he said.

“You could feel it was a heavy animal in the back of the car.”

Yampil arrived at the zoo about 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Edinburgh and immediately made himself at home.

He feasted on cukes — said to be his favorite food — and melon, said Adam Welsh, who works at Five Sisters.

The Asiatic black bear is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species as vulnerable to extinction in the wild, where it can be found in central and southern Asia, Russia, and Japan.

It’s known for the distinctive white crescent patch on its chest that gives it the nickname moon bear. It can live for up to 30 years in zoos.

It’s not clear if the bear will go into hibernation. The winter has been warmer than usual but colder days are on the horizon.

The zoo has other bears, but Yampil is the only Asian bear and unique in other ways.

“We’ve had circus bears, for example, that have been rescued,” Welsh said.

“We’ve had bears rescued from places like roadside restaurants where they’ve been used as kind of roadside attractions and been kept in subpar conditions. But this is the first time that we’ve worked with an animal that’s been rescued from a war zone.”

Scottish zoo welcomes black bear which survived war in Ukraine

13 January 2024

🖤🐻🤎

[conkreetmonkey]

Broke: "The Lorax is a good representation of how big business destroys the environment in its own self interest. The Onceler's corporation required truffula trees, and thus they were wiped out."

Woke: "The Lorax is not a good representation of how big business operates since it made no logical sense for The Onceler to destroy all truffula trees despite them being necessary to manufacture his product. He should have farmed them, or harvested them without cutting them down. This oversimplification is good for explaining environmentalism to children, but it doesn't hold up as an adult."

Bespoke: "The Lorax is a great representation of how big business ruins both the world around them and themselves out of short-sighted profit maximization and pride. Of course The Onceler should have replanted the trees, or sustainably harvested the trees, or any other non-stupid thing, but those processes are slower and more expensive. He chose a fast harvest over a sustainable one, got his massive short-term profit, and realized he'd shot himself in the foot once the truffulas had been driven to extinction. This happens irl all the time. It happened with the dodo, the galapagos tortoise, the passenger pigeon, the great auk, and every commercial fishery on the planet. Greed and pride make a person stupid, and most corporations would rather make a lot of money fast while dooming themselves in the process than focus on slow but sustainable growth, and they either choose this knowingly or assume they're invincible and will figure it out later. The Onceler is Elon Musk. The Onceler is Enron. The Onceler is Wall Street. We are surrounded by Oncelers."

[sonknuxadow]

originally had a super long multi paragraph ramble about this written out but then realized i did not have to say all that . anyway . i think that the reason some little animal guy sonic characters have last names while most others just go by (name) the (species) has to do with cultural differences... the fact that the characters with last names are also the same characters who have more human sounding first names makes me think that they were born in an area that had a large human population, or that their parents or grandparents were, so their family was influenced by human naming practices

[tactax-art]

Hey! I loved your art of god of explosions soap and alb ghost. Do you have a post going into any of the lore/world building? I love creature aus! If you don't already have a post, I'd love to hear more about it! (Also what's an alb?)

I've not shared anything anywhere yet! Just the two drawings. Not super solid on the world building yet, so I'm gonna wait with sharing that for now until I have a better grip. Do intend to write a fic for these two when I've got some scenes together though!

Ghost being an Alb is generally inspired by the german "Nachtalb". I'm not aiming for him to be precisely that, but it was my jumping-off point. Also I grew up on the 'Alb' spelling, but that might be a regional thing? No idea why in english they quote it only as 'Alp'.

Ghosts abilities aren't something I've completely settled on yet (gotta keep my options open for plot and angst, you never know *rubs hands*), but he's a kind of fear entity.

Alb's are myth's answer to sleep apnea, sleep paralysis, nightmares, and night terrors. As such he sustains himself on consuming dreams (rare) and breath, and causing fear (more effectively when it's during people's rest but also when awake), nightmares etc. I'll probs keep some of the mischief Albs are known for, not that anyone would believe it's Ghost which he finds super funny, and also some shapeshifting.

His body is sand based, as a nod to the sandman (folklore), golden sand being dreams he consumed and black his base being from nightmares/dear. His bed's full of sand. His gear is full of sand. He prefers knives to guns cause guns and sand don't mix and having to keep it all together is so annoying. It's rumoured Ghost can control shadows, but it's actually his own black sand he moves around.

I'm pretty sure the skull mask is his actual face, and him making it gold is bragging about eating dreams (not that anyone would know, but it's enough that ghost knows, and considering that there's a god of dreams they're not exactly easy to get ahold of).

The tag is: #tactax mwii creatures au

[catfacedcat]

can sugar n woopa be the same species of walking deserts

their species are so similar fuck it they now are the same species

they r so cute…. Best friends 4 eva

[youronlybean]

what do you MEAN chilled is playing an RPG game while im BUSY

[wolfylch]

After a bazillion years im posting art of my OCs!!

Here's some Antoinette and @imagionary Alucard! X3 ⭐️💕

[bloomblanche]

Cirralings

(Splatoon fan species)

Aka: I overanalyzed Raian's design and ended up making a whole species of cirrate octopuses (otherwise known as dumbo octopuses) over it.

(The cover is an edited version of the official White Day 2020 illustration, if anyone's wondering.)

(Also, I'm going to use a lot of synonyms for "cirrate octopus", so here's a little list of what they all mean)

Cirrate octopus: octopus in the suborder "Cirrina" or "Cirrata"

Dumbo octopus: finned octopus (note: every cirrate octopus has fins, so they all classify as dumbos)

Flapjack octopus and Umbrella octopus: octopus from the family "Opisthoteuthidae"

Now, without further ado...

Introduction

I love dumbo octopuses. Who doesn't? With their little ear-fins flapping around as they float majestically through the deep sea, it's hard not to like them. And their rarity only makes them more mysterious and interesting. If they ever were to add a dumbo octopus character in Splatoon, the whole fandom would go crazy for sure. It's a wonder how absent they are from the franchise.

...or are they?

(cue vsauce music)

If you're in the splatband fandom, you probably know who this is. This is Raian (or Orion in the English localization) from the band Chirpy Chips! This creature has been mercilessly occupying my brain for, uh... almost a year now. Help.

But here's the most interesting part about them: they're a flapjack octopus! That's right, they're canon! And they've been right here since Splatoon 1. But... there's one small problem. They don't look like an Octarian at all. This is possibly explained by the fact that cirrate octopuses don't have ink sacs, and Octolings (like Inklings) are primarily composed of ink. That's where my fan species comes in!

They're mostly a product of me over-analyzing Raian's design and adapting it to my style. But then, I started attaching a lot of lore to them, and... boom. Now I've made an entire species over an obscure Splatoon character from an arguably less obscure in-game band. The brainrot made me do it, and I don't regret it in the slightest.

Here's a remastered collection of everything I've posted about them on other platforms!

Design breakdown

(I wanted to provide a closeup of every single element over the course of the post, but I can't because of Tumblr's picture limit. Don't hesitate to go back to the design sheet above if you need to.)

The eyes

When I first saw Raian, I thought they had pitch-black eyes. Turns out they're probably just closed, but I really liked the idea. Since cirrate octopuses live in the deep sea, they'll probably need to see as much light as possible. The Octarians also have this alien theme going on, as with octopuses in general. And with deep-sea creatures often being described as real-life aliens, I figured that I would take this aspect and go all out with it. I'm aiming for a "cute yet vaguely eerie" vibe, and I think the eyes fit very well with that!

However, I do think they would have coloured eyes. Or even irises! Take the Stauroteuthis genus (picture on the right), for example.

The fins

What's a dumbo octopus without its fins? They're always flapping about, so I loved the idea of having them move based on how they're feeling. Despite not giving them any eyebrows, I would still keep the "eyebrow muscles" for the sake of more dynamic facial expressions (like the ones in the introduction picture).

Their bangs are made out of webbing. As for the "antennas" on some haircuts, they're a modified pair of cirri! With the importance of fins, I figured that Cirralings would enjoy having "ear surrogates" for when their ears are hidden.

(or just because they feel like it)

(or not, it's their choice)

also it's cute

To those who don't know: a cirrus is a small hair-like strand that moves a bit like a mini-tentacle. The suborder "Cirrina" is named after those strands, which they most likely use for feeding.

If we go back to Raian's design, there's a problem: despite being a cirrate octopus, they don't have any visible suckers nor cirri. Will we ever know your secrets, mysterious chiptune flapjack???

...so, I came up with something. If we go back to the reference picture under "Design breakdown," the suckers are on the same side as Inklings and they're covered by their cirri. It's a little unusual, but again, it fits with the vibe I'm trying to create.

The swim form

Since many cirrate octopuses live at the bottom of the ocean, I figured that I should keep them adapted enough to sit on the sea floor like they usually do. Those who live in the open ocean probably look more like a traditional octo form.

One thing's for sure: Opisthoteuthidae certainly don't need much stylization with how cartoony they already look.

The hands

Cirrate octopus have a lot more webbing between their tentacles than incirrate ones. Here's a cool way to translate this: webbed fingers and toes!

I'm sorry for telling you to scroll back again, but I'm very proud of how I drew that hand. Look at it. I'm not forcing you, like- you don't have to do it if you don't want to, but. Look.

The teeth

These are just Octoling teeth but flipped and a little different. I also decided to "fuse" the teeth together to better distinguish them from the Octarians.

My main goal with this species is to show how differently they would evolve compared to their surface-dwelling cousins, all while staying similar to each other. I haven't studied biology since secondary 4 (aka 10th year of American high school), though, so please take this with a miniscule grain of salt.

The mask and neck, as well as any other design choice that I haven't explained, are just some elements of Raian's design that kinda just... exist. That doesn't mean they're useless, though. If anything, it makes them look more "cirrate-like."

On a side note, I thought it would be cool to base them around what they're most famous for: their appearances! Given their reputation as "the octopus suborder that makes scientists so happy that one of its species almost got called 'Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis'", I think they have something to be proud of.

Unorganized tidbits of lore

I wanted to illustrate all of these individually, but I'm pretty busy with university. Also, I'm kinda slow at drawing. In the end, I got too impatient and decided to reveal my most developed ideas right then and there.

Cirratians, like most deep sea species, evolved through many miracles. First, the miracle of coming in contact with the crystals. Second, the miracle of evolving on dry land via caves. Third, the miracle of surviving in the harsh, barren underground.

Because of this, they evolved to be drastically different from their surface-dwelling counterparts. Since they don't have ink sacs, their bodies are mainly composed of water. However, they can still be splatted by getting submerged in dense enough liquids such as brine.

Not every cirrate octopus is a Cirraling, as evidenced by the existence of cirrate Octolings. As the name suggests, the latter are Octolings with cirrate ancestry. They almost always inherit the ink bodies of Octarians, but some are born without ink sacs. There are two types of cirrate Octolings: those whose ancestry dates back to the dawn of evolution (often through interbreeding and assimilation) and those whose ancestry is a result of modern Cirro-Octarian contact. Scientists are still researching this odd, prolonged "contact gap".

Similarly to Octarians, they have their own variants born from severed tentacles. Though, due to their different needs, these ones are non-sapient and take the role of cattle and companions. In ancient times, long tentacles were considered a sign of wealth.

They have a traditional dance characterized by slow movements and light, flowing fabric. Skilled dancers will try to make their costumes flow as much as possible without moving too fast. If they did, it would be considered a waste of energy.

Like many deep sea cultures, one of the most important gods they worship is based on ancient whale falls (illustration by @thap34nut ). This large, skeletal god is a symbol of plenty. It is credited as the origin of marine snow and an essential provider of food to their ancestors. In the afterlife, it will grant eternal satiety to those who died of starvation. Meanwhile, it will punish the greedy with eternal hunger. To honour that god, they have a similar holiday to Squidmas colloquially called "the Deepest Gratitudes." The many bone decorations (which are usually painted rock sculptures) are often the source of culture shock to many uninformed outsiders.

Despite their internal shells, Cirralings are very squishy. This allows them to better withstand their highly pressurized environment. However, this also makes them vulnerable: they are notably more prone to bruising than most inkfish. So, they prioritize diplomacy over conflict.

Their natural charisma is known all over the deep sea, and many young Cirralings move to bigger cities in hopes of breaking through the idol industry. They are often stereotyped as charming and polite at best, or two-faced manipulators at worse.

Despite their reputation, they have a certain "shyness" to them. Indeed, most Cirratian cities and settlements are rather isolated. Their conflict-avoidant culture is most likely a result of the competitive, individualistic atmosphere of early deep sea civilization. Since then, however, the "spirit" of humanity and the survivalism of deep sea life managed to blend together more smoothly. Despite their cold and aloof appearance, these modern civilizations are now characterized by a certain sense of unity.

Cirratian society is noted to have a pretty unique atmosphere, even compared to their surrounding cultures. Despite shrouding themselves in mystery, they are warm and welcoming. Despite living simple lives, their social rules are very strict.

Cirralings are significantly less concerned with imitating humans. Their skin tones are rarely human-like, and while dull, they vary a lot in terms of colours. Their fins and tentacles also play a very important role in expressing emotions, sometimes even more than facial expressions. They have gained minor colour-changing abilities from the crystals, though many of them describe the process as "time-consuming and not very instinctive." They specialize more in bioluminescence.

Their eyes vary much less than other humanoids: they are large and dark to absorb as much light as possible. Some may have smaller or lighter irises, but this is rather uncommon. Cirratians come in all shapes and sizes, but their eyes are their most recognizable aspect.

The Cirratians and the Octarians have an odd relationship. They want to understand each other better, as there's potential for solidarity and brotherhood. However, it's hindered by their inherently different values.

Sometimes, Cirralings sneak to the surface in search of resources. They rarely interact with surface dwellers, as both parties would fear each other in the past. In fact, the "glowing-eyed mimic" or "void-eyed mimic" cryptid originated from various Cirraling sightings.

They often come to the surface through bodies of water. For a variety of reasons, some may even wash up on shore. Those who choose to stay will almost always hide their identity, though they have been revealing themselves more and more as the years went by. The events of Octo Expansion lead to a wave of deep sea creatures who immigrated to the surface in search of new opportunities. By then, almost every Cirraling had stopped hiding their identity.

Thank you for your interest❣️

Here's my favourite flapjack pic, for the soul.

[theoppositeofprofound]

My hot Narnia take is that the Pevensie children, though undeniably Odd and Uncannily Grown on their return to England, do not actually stand out among their cohort of World War 2 children. They’re not the most traumatized kids in their boarding school, they might not even be the most traumatized kids on their street. One of Lucy’s friends came on the Kindertransport and lost her entire family. One of the boys down the street who Edmund used to play with lost his baby sister in the Blitz. The Pevensies, who stayed together, got their father back in some capacity, and maintained a general sense of truth and justice and evil witches being defeated with minimal casualties, were probably considered by their teachers to be jolly well adjusted. Yes, they do have a few strange habits and a rather grownup look in their eyes, but they don’t hide food in their dormitory beds, they don’t compulsively cover the windows or flinch at sirens. Peter occasionally jolts awake calling for his squire but that’s fun, that’s charming, maybe he’ll be a professor of the classics! His dormmate has dreams of bombs falling and there’s less that can be done about that.

[chocolatewoosh]

Roel and Koste! A two headed ghostly plant covered seal creature from SPACE!!! Anyway I love them Designed by ocularguts!

[bijoumikhawal]

people talk about the difference between "arguing angry" and "arguing flirty" for Cardassians and you know what. I think it'd be really funny if that had a lot of regional variation