#Splat Bio: Medical

[clannfearrunt]

The Snow Blight is a fungal disease affecting Inklings and Octolings, mainly occurring in the mountains north of Inkopolis. Due to infections being rare in modern times with only 4 confirmed cases in the past 50 years, the disease remains poorly understood by science.

In its beginning stages, infected individuals only exhibit symptoms similar to common colds - general lethargy and loss of appetite, excessive mucous production (which changes ink consistency), and coughing. This makes identifying this disease in its early, potentially treatable stages difficult, adding to its lethality. Once the disease has progressed to where its trademark white spots and rings become visible right underneath the skin, it is almost certainly fatal. Towards the end of the progression, victims report their skin beginning to itch; breaking the skin at this stage often spreads white spores into surroundings, although it is thought that it’s unlikely they travel very far in the air as it is usually mixed in with blood and other fluids (but people tend to underestimate Spore Abilities so...). Victims usually die within a week or two of developing the visible fungal spots. Mercifully, most records describe victims experiencing minimal pain, with the very last itching stage appearing to be the only interruption they experience to their otherwise relatively peaceful demise. 

References to the disease by Octolings exist as far back as their very first written records in existence. The disease was known as a swift, silent killer that would claim its victims every time it appeared. Naturally, it soon came to be known by the name of the most deadly substance the early Octolings knew - Snow. The disease seemed to only strike in the warmer summer months away from the coast, but only in areas that experienced a freezing period every winter. 

Although both Octolings and Inklings typically remove the beaks of the dead to preserve for use in additional funerary rites, bodies infected by the Blight were burned immediately with an emphasis on keeping absolutely minimal contact with the body. It became common for loved ones to create substitute beaks by other means; chipping stones into a roughly beak-like shape, painting or carving images of beaks on the surface of small stones, offering a pair of small knives as a stand-in, or creating wood carvings were just some of the things they came up with. During and after large Blight outbreaks, small shrines, cairns, and simple stone or wood markers specific to Blight victims were often quietly erected where loved ones left substitute beaks in piles. 

For most of history, the disease, while not uncommon, rarely spread to more than a few people at a time, partly owing to Octolings preferring to live in small family groups rather than larger clusters of... more people. After Inklings moved into the region and dramatically increased the population density, instances of larger outbreaks increased. Particularly devastating outbreaks saw the disease spreading outside of its natural range as it hopped between inkfish hosts, reaching coastal populations and in one case spreading farther south than Inkopolis. Instability and blame-searching caused by the last major outbreak of the Snow Blight roughly 100 years ago is often credited as one of the major factors in kickstarting the Great Turf War (I know that canon attributes the conflict to rising sea levels causing a scarcity in territory, but in my Setup the Earth just doesn’t have enough water on it for that to be such a major concern. I don’t have much more ice to melt! Where am I gonna get more water, Jupiter’s fuckin moons???). 

In the century after the Great Turf War, reported cases of the Snow Blight decreased to nearly 0. Researchers are still struggling to find out vital aspects of this once prolific disease. Exactly what conditions, other than “mountains with cold winters”, do the fungus causing the disease exist in? What causes the fungus to infect an inkfish host? Is there a way to treat it once it reaches its visible stage? What caused infection cases to plummet so dramatically? Perhaps, with any luck, we will never need to know.

Even then, those living in the Snow Blight’s traditional ranges are still extremely careful not to disturb the mountains more than necessary... 

[chaptersofnow]

cloud leap! the son of rainbow dash and fluttershy

bio under the cut!

Name:  Cloud Leap Nickname(s): Age: 23 Pronouns: He/Him Identity: Cis Gay man crush/relationship: no one.. really.. especially not Vanity.. dont think i like him! pleASE dont tell him i said anything! Parents: Fluttershy and Rainbowdash Siblings: Discord (not really but fluttershy and him have a very silly mother and shitty son relationship and Dash hates it)

Special Talent: Medical Care Occupation: Vet Location: Fluttershys Cottage in the Outskirts of PonyVille

Likes: Bunnies, Sunsets, painting, helping people Dislikes: Stressful situations, his ears and teeth being made fun of, deep water

Bio: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, a loud and fast and vibrate rainbow settled down with the quiet hanging back kind of pony. They'd know each other since they were young children and you could say Rainbows always had a bit of a crush on the yellow shy pegasus. Out of all their friends they were the first to get together, they'de known their feelings for awhile and were best friends. Rainbow dash spent many nights at fluttershys home and eventually moved in full time. it was a bit far from her job but whats a few extra miles to work but a better morning work out for her. When the two talked about having a baby together they both were excited by the idea, but were sadden to find out Rainbow Dash was incapable of having a kid herself and Fluttershy far too nervous. So they turned to adopting but spent months and month being considered and turned down. So this is when discord stepped into the picture. Discord loved fluttershy dearly, she was his best friends and were often teased of being much like a worrisome mother with her troublesome son. So of course if he could, Discord would help her, and it didn't hurt that rainbow may also like him a bit more (these two have always butted heads, in terms of rainbow dash is hard headed and doesnt really like him while discords attempts of being her friend have mostly come off as annoying) Discord offered his help and when accepted he, much like he did for Luna created them a baby made to be in their image. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's son, Cloud Leap. Born from a draconequus egg and in all sense of the matter was technically a draconequus. Discord doing his best to make this one come out mostly pony-like his magic always come out a lil, well discordy. Cloud Leap had buck teeth and long ears like a rabbit. Which his mothers adore and think that their son is just the cutest baby in the world. Cloud Leap was teased for his ears and teeth by bullys growing up and became quiet and introverted, much like his mother Fluttershy. Through this is how he met his best friend, Vanity. Vanity was one of Rarity's Twins. Vanity watched Cloud Leap get bullied in their childhood and was the first the stand up for him. His sharp tongue scaring off bullies and keeping them off Cloud Leap when ever he was around. Vanity told Cloud Leap he thought he was very cute and that the bullies were just jealous. Beside's his mothers no one had ever spoken that kindly to Cloud Leap. Vanity became Cloud leaps BEST friend. At home Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being two very home body types often let their friends kids stay over. Cloud Leap was often a bit older than them and these younger kids were LOUD and RAMBUNCTIOUS, Cloud Leap was very nervous around them when they were over the first few times. After awhile he warmed up to two of the ponies to visited often. Happy daze, another shy child who mellowed well with Cloud Leaps personality and then Splat who was usually traveling and hardly came around but when she did she was ON Cloud Leap. Splats whole goal when she was over was to make sure they were friends.   Cloud Leap again like Fluttershy took to her talent and interest, he loved animals and learned fast on their needs and how to help them. he often would be found reading anatomy and medical books learning all he could. His cutie mark  showed he has a skill for healing and took to being a vet. he helped around the house and then moved to a learning job in town at a vet clinic. He now works there as a full time vet and spends his free afternoon with Vanity, still sharp tongued and rude to everyone but Cloud Leap as ever. Vanity was kind of mean but Cloud Leap loves him, that was his best friend.. But he wonders if he should be speaking up when he believes Vanity to be unfairly unkind to others. Recently an event went down in Canterlot, one of the princesses Ordomia was corrupted by darkness something that hadn't happened since the final war against Darkness went down years ago. The old elements of harmony found and fought the last force of Darkness and sealed it away which in turned sealed away the elements again. Now with Ordomia corrupted and turned to Princess Erroria a being bent on destroying the very laws of reality, the elements were needed And Elements were found. The Elements of Harmony returned, hosted within six new ponies, all of them being related to the old elements of harmony some how. So when Cloud Leap, having two parents who were old element wasn't chosen as one he felt a weird twing. It wasn't like he was very social or had very many friends either. He still felt weirdly left out. Splat and Happy Daze, two of his three friends left to Canterlot soon after to be trained in the way of friendship. All Cloud Leap had now was Vanity and his job. Then Vanity left. Vanity grew jealous of his Sister Majesty who was made an element. Vanity moved to manehatten to make it big, claiming that it had nothing to do with his sister, but Cloud Leap new better. Cloud Leap now alone in PonyVille has returned to a shy and isolated demeanor going from work to home and spending his days lonely.

[tako-kola]

Re-designed Angela Lite and Mysti Winters.

For Angie, she's a tiger sharkling now. Due to her father's genes, she has stripes on her pink tentacles and back. She mostly sends time with her dad

I'm planning on adding Mysti to the Splat-Tendency as a side-character, since the rp side-blog is inactive. The bio will be re-arranged. Instead of Mysti's dream of becoming a DJ, she wanted to become a doctor. That's when Angie meets her and suggested a medical program at Lite Pharmaceuticals. And Mysti was happy to oblige in her studies.

[clannfearrunt]

Does the snow blight reside in the permafrost during cold seasons? It would make sense that it never appears in winter months because it’s laying dormant, but when the permafrost melts during the hotter seasons it becomes active and starts infecting? That would explain why it doesn’t typically appear in areas where you don’t get snow or frost during the cold season!

It doesn’t get nearly cold enough in the region for permafrost - but it does go under a relatively dormant phase in the colder parts of winter. However, the significantly bigger factor in infections not happening during the winter... Is that the cephalopods just don’t go outside! It’s too cold out for them so they don’t go traipsing around accidentally coming in contact with infected soil, dormant fungus or not. If the disease was still common in recent years someone would have gone “hey wait a second” pretty quickly but. Alas

The main reason the fungus is confined to colder areas is that there are A Lot of fungi in the warm, moist islands, and there’s plenty of other species that just.... do better than them most of the time. Many of its main competitors do poorly in temperatures below freezing and die off during cold snaps, clearing the way for the Blight to bounce back again once they ‘wake up’ in spring. Most infections happen in late spring and early summer where they’re having the Best time. (theres plenty of other cold tolerant fungi in its range, of course, just not many that compete with the blight)

If splatearth enters into a warmer period without cold enough winters, the Blight fungus would probably die out without the winter thanos snap to help keep other fungus species out of its zone. That, or the increased international travel might bring in a hardier cold tolerant fungus that out-competes them and may or may not also infect cephalopods. People wouldn’t notice for quite some time, probably.

[clannfearrunt]

God Knowledge of the snow blight: the fungus that causes it normally just kinda vibes in the soil around the roots of a few tree species, but it heavily depends on regular cold snaps to wipe out competition so it can keep on vibing. It sometimes hops into an inkfish when one disturbs soil that the fungus is vibing inside and for some reason it just does not play nice with inkfish body... sometimes it just be like that... im not a fungus or mollusk scientist you’ll just have to trust me on that one

Modern folks have little reason to go fuckig around amongst mountain tree roots which is why ya don’t see Blight much anymore. Especially since folks in the area are nervous about doing exactly that... Sometimes... superstitions.... are real

The 4 people who got infected within the past 50 years have all been... u guessed it... inkling mushroom hunters... There is a good reason moist people don’t forage for shroomis up north... Stay down south folks

[clannfearrunt]

I don’t rly know much about evolution or spec bio and such, so I was wondering, do you have any ideas of what kinda pets Squid Kids might have? And if you do + feel like sharing them, do you mind if other people work off those ideas? Thank you for your time!!

See I’ve only Vaguely thought about the Other Animals that live in the era, so this is a super hazy area for me! I only know super surface level stuff I think so this is a lot of work in Approximate Bullshit and coming across just enough specific questions to look up lol... 

So this post will be an overview of Animals I Know About and whether making it a pet is a good idea or not! And people are welcome to work off of these ideas, absolutely! Thank u for asking, hopefully this is actually useful to u! 

Ok, under the cut bc it was getting Slightly Long: 

Quail Thing (possibly not actually a quail, but definitely a similar bird. I do not care enough to go into its actual evolutionary history so It Is A Mystery). Quails are one of the main domesticated animals on [Splat Japan], having been domesticated during the early stages of the Inklings’ civilization for their meat and eggs (later gaining more focus on feathers as well). There’s a lot of breeds with varying sizes and colors and shapes, similar to modern chickens and pigeons. They make excellent pets, and probably are one of the most common pets in the region. 

Small Terrestrial Crocogator. Just what it says on the tin, a small, terrestrial crocodilian. I’m thinking like, japanese spitz height on average (10 to 16 inches at the shoulders. Sorry I was thinking of size refs and my own dog is the best thing I have lol). They are slightly omnivorous but definitely need a meat focused diet to thrive. I’m weak and I like crocors, so they have been domesticated mainly for use in hunting by... Not Inklings, I have not decided on who yet, but they’re from one of the continents. While they are domesticated they’re definitely more demanding in terms of food, proper training, and exercise needs, so they’re not a very common pet especially in Splat Japan. If you’ve got a lot of space, money, and time to dedicate to caring for god’s perfect animal, then a Littol Croc is not a bad pet at all. 

Large Marine Crocodile, or Seal Croc. Also just what it says on the tin; a large nearly fully aquatic crocodile. They’re kinda mosasaur-ifying right now, with their legs becoming more like flippers. They spend most of their time in the ocean and only occasionally come up on land mostly for breeding purposes or just to sit in the sun for a little bit. These are decidedly not pet material. Untamable Apex predator. Also you��d need, like, a fuckoff huge tank for them.

Sea Hare (Probably will figure out a different name for them). They’re a closeish relative of the Sea Slug ppl. Not actually descended from actual sea hares at all, but looks like a lot like them but with short, stubby leggies. They’re fairly lazy, herbivorous slugs, usually the size of, say, a french lop rabbit. They were used as livestock by the Sea Slugs for mainly their meat. These are also a common pet these days among mollusk folks, since they do well in similar humidity/temperatures, and are also very conveniently lazy. Sea Hare breeds aren’t quite as varied as Quail Things, but there’s still a nice number of Options, and people are breeding more varieties these days. Overall, a very good pet, especially if u are a fellow Damp Animal. 

Hedge Urchin (names are the worst part of animals!). This is basically a sea urchin that has become a hedgehog. Except they are herbivorous! There’s different species of these things with slightly different diets and therefore mouths, but the one I have drawn likes to scrape moss and lichen and such off of rocks. Probably. They have very primitive eyes that really only detect the direction of where light is coming from. Their spines are venomous, like all urchins; while you wouldn’t need serious medical attention unless you were allergic, it’s very painful and usually causes a lot of swelling around the wound. People have recently started keeping these as a Cool Exotic Pet, but it’s not advisable to handle them due to their spines. Definitely a hands-off pet, if you’re gonna keep one.

Various Lizards and Snakes. Nothing that different from things u might see today, though probably different species. There’s a lot less stigma around them than there is today, though, so they’re more common. 

Various Buges and other Arthropods. You know... beetles, spiders, terrestrial isopods, etc... People keep some. “Bugs” are considered a little more unusual/creepy than reptiles, except for by arthropod folks. Crabs are also Not Creepy as pets. 

Fish. We keep fishies. They also keep fishies. There are also a handful of smaller amphibious fish nowadays that ppl try to keep, but not all species are suitable for private keepers just because they can be pretty Sensitive. To Note: actual “amphibians” like frogs and salamanders are like 90% extinct, and remaining species tend to be Highly Protected and illegal to keep.

Horse Bird, basically a Cool Ostrich Thing that is larger and better suited for riding than modern ostriches. These are definitely Large Livestock. I guess they are the same degree of Pet Material as a horse. 

Small Whales. Not very many of them, and nothing much bigger than a beluga. They are whales. As you can imagine, they do not make good pets, as they are whales.

Side Note: Dolphins. These are not really animals. They are pretty much recognized to be sapient, however, many of them enjoy the challenge of hunting other sapients for food and kinda voluntarily uninvited from the Cool Sapient People Table. Salmonids and Dolphins clash the most because they both live in the sea. International legal protocol is to drive them away from inhabited coastlines and ships and otherwise leave them the fuck alone. They are not pets.

There are Other Animals, most of them unsuitable for pets, some of them probably alright pet material, but they are unknown to me at the moment (or I’m forgetting). A huge chunk of animals are birds and reptiles though, with Formerly Aquatic Animals being more of a minority. Also, Bugs are still king. It’s hard to come out of the water dude. Thanks for readin’