#aculeus

[mightyshockwaves-vault]

A scene from the latest session of my TTRPG game. Aculeus (Left) argues with Saccu (Right) about what the group should do in the dire situation they've found themselves in while Mimesis (back) takes the smart option and just eats a cookie.

...Seriously, though, they debated in-character for over an hour of playtime...

Aculeus belongs to @klondork

The owners of the other two aren't on Tumblr sadly.

[commoninfected]

worst animal ever on display

[klondork]

Squad 32. Failing upward.

Saccu the bitter schemster

Aculeus the short scrapper

Mimesis the chaotic hunger pit

and Maxilla THE CUTE ONE

[trinitymage]

Pretty Petty - Hawkuleus

It had been a whole few months since I last drew Ishi, so I had to fix that.

In my mind they are canon, and that's enough for me 😌

Based on the YCH/Ship Dynamic 'Damn Right' by SeraphicMayan on DeviantArt.

[rosalia-aculeus-romneya]

ooc: i've finally created a sideblog for rosalia (and given her and her Miss proper names!!), in general i'm gonna try to stay in character here but just so everyone's on the same page rosalia and matricaria are ocs created by me (@rosepetalkitty) within the human domestication guide universe!!

hello petal! my name is rosalia aculeus romneya, first bloom, but you may call me miss rosalia if you'd like to. i'm an affini, as you might be able to tell, and also a floret myself, the second floret of Miss Matricaria, who i'll tell you about later in this message~

here's a picture of me from the other day:

and here is a description of myself based on one written by my lovely friend rose:

i'm an affini (obviously) with a few florets (responsible for the stickers all over my face in that picture of me. they really are delightful honestly - the stickers and my florets both~)

i'm also a floret myself, to another affini, my Miss (who gave me the ribbon i wear around my neck - she loves to decorate me ^-^)

Miss was originally just trying to teach me to domesticate xenosophonts, but one thing led to another and now i've become her floret! both of us are quite happy with this arrangement, to be entirely honest~ it's so very comforting to be taken care of...

i'm still learning about domestication and Miss often tasks me with helping her tame new florets as practice. i'd like to think i'm fairly good at it, all things considered, but i definitely have a lot to learn.

my biorhythm is synced to that of Miss, so generally my florets listen pretty well to her, too, which is really quite helpful

unlike the usual needle-like retractable thorns that most affini have, my thorns are hooked and quite sharp (like the thorns of terran roses), and don't retract enough to truly be hidden. i can however pull them far enough in to prevent harm to my darling florets, though it takes some effort and i worry that i may accidentally hurt them... i really am terrified of the idea of hurting any of my florets... i do also have needles at the ends of my vines, which are quite helpful when my little flowers need more xenodruggies ^-^

i have a layer of fuzzy "hairs" over my skin, similar to the terran plant known as a "stinging nettle", which sting those who touch me. Miss insists that for most people it isn't too painful, only a mild burning sensation, and the toxin happens to be a weak class a xenodrug that many of my friends and florets have told me causes the affected area to get quite warm after a few minutes. generally the result is that a hug from me will leave you warm and tingly for a while. that said, i don't know how much i believe Miss... i really worry that it causes pain, and that my sweet little petals simply haven't the heart to tell me...

my natural eye and flower color is actually a deep crimson, but because of the xenodrugs that Miss keeps me on (she never did tell me what they do...) my eyes tend to be closer to a magenta or even pink tone. Miss tells me it's adorable, and she tends to be right about things, so i don't fret about it.

i'm relatively short, as far as affini go. in terran measurements i believe i'm around six feet and eight inches, which is still much taller than any of my florets.

now for my own description of Miss! first, of course, here is an image of her:

and then here is some information about her:

her full name is Miss Matricaria Romneya, Fourth Bloom

she takes care of me as well as a couple of other florets (although i am her only affini floret!), and has helped many of her friends domesticate their own! compared to other affini her age she certainly has fewer florets than most, but she's facilitated the domestication of countless more that are now cared for by her friends.

she takes great pride in how well tamed i am, and likes to show me off to her friends, who have all been very impressed~ i do enjoy when she invites them to our hab, they always say such kind things to me and my little petals

she's quite partial to the sound of running water, and had a fountain built in our hab. i would be lying if i said the sound of the water wasn't relaxing~

she has no thorns at all, and administers her xenodrugs as spores and mist. i'm somewhat jealous... she hasn't allowed me to have my thorns grafted away, nor has she let me have those stinging hairs removed... she insists that they're "part of my natural beauty" but sometimes i have trouble agreeing...

she is quite strong (i should know - she quite enjoys overpowering me >//<)

she measures around eight feet and three inches in terran measurements, relatively average for an affini

her voice... goodness me her voice is beautiful. deep and melodic and rhythmic... sometimes she just holds me tightly and speaks to me softly while i relax~ there's a certain degree to which all affini have naturally calming voices (mostly as a result of our biorhythms) but none so much so as Miss Matricaria... the way she spoke to me when she was simply my mentor was what really put me on the path to becoming her floret, and i wouldn't have it any other way ^-^

well, that's about all i have to say at the moment! it's lovely to meet you, petal~ please do reach out to me sometime!

[3-florets-in-a-trenchcoat]

hhey tthere... my Miss says your Miss is one of her ffriends and that sshe wants me to interact more wwith other florets- ooh she says you're not a floret yet? that's ssad... aanyways she's having me write this to introduce mmyself and uhm yeah. im emily bbut you can just call me emmy or em.

- emily aculeus romneya, 3rd floret

Hi hi hello!!! My Warden doesn't speak of her friends much, but its good to know at least her friends' florets are so happy to try and be friends with me~!

And don't worry about your mistake, it's one that nearly everyone makes at this point so I've come to accept it♡ (despite how wrong it is >:(() being an independent-to-be isn't that bad honestly, it's actually really cosy having an affini in your living space! They help clean, (they do all of it while you desperately try to help) they read you bedtime stories when you can't sleep... sometimes they even offer side-effect free drugs! Stuff gets hazy after that though but I do know that I had a good time with my Warden...

But anyways! I always am happy to have new friends, and being friends with florets is a key step to "getting my life fixed" as my Warden put it! Happy to talk to you~

[jasper-the-menace]

Jasper's Barely-Hinged Discord Scorpion Rant

Alright, context, I started this rant because I was mad about how the tlincallis (of Dungeons and Dragons second and fifth edition) were designed and handled. I put my foot down at the point where they were reported to have eggs. No, I refuse to accept this.

PLEASE NOTE! While I will not be showing any actual images of real-life scorpions, there will be drawings of them and drawings of fantasy and sci-fi characters inspired by scorpions. Some of them are even weirder-looking than actual scorpions. Fellow arachnophobes, continue at your own risk.

We are also going to be talking about scorpion sex in the context of how they mate and launch babies out. This is my second Tumblr post on the subject and I'm afraid that this might become a repeating pattern. Everyone on Tumblr thinks I'm the scorpion person now.

With that said, have this barely-edited compilation of my feral Discord messages on the subject.

You can tell someone who doesn’t know a lot about scorpions wrote the lore for the tlincallis because there’s a heavy emphasis on egg-laying for their reproduction. Meanwhile, scorpions are one of the only arachnids that give live birth.

I’m not expecting WOTC writers to watch videos of scorpions molting or launching baby missiles over and over again, but I am expecting them to at least skim the Wikipedia article, ya know? I understand that I’m Scorpion Research Georg, but still.

Scorpions fuck weird. Both “sexes” have the same thing - an orfice known as the genital operculum (plural: genital opercula). In order to reproduce, the male will drop a sperm packet on the ground and “dance” with the female to lead her over it. If she’s game, she’ll squat and just kind of vacuum it up into her genital operculum. This is followed by what is called a “mating plug” to keep the sperm inside. The two scorpions will then split away from each other, because scorpions don’t believe in cuddles and aftercare.

Then we get to the actual birth. Or as I like to call it, the Fedex packages.

A scorpion will give birth to between 3 and 100 young, depending on the species - though notably, the size of the scorpion does not impact the number of babies they can have.

The babies are folded up very nicely inside of the mother, and when she gives birth to them, they launch out like little missiles into her waiting pedipalps and front legs, unfold, and then climb onto or are placed onto her back while their next sibling is launched. A mother scorpion is actually a super good parent, and the entire brood will attach to her with little suckers on their tarsi, because they can’t eat or sting yet.

Depending on the species, it will take between 5 and 25 days for them to undergo their first molt - in unison as a brood, taking between 6 and 8 hours - and reach the juvenile stage. Juveniles resemble small versions of the adults and can eat and sting, though they’re still soft and unpigmented. They’ll leave the mother’s back to explore in safety, but then scurry back to her if there’s danger around. Once their carapace hardens and gains color, they can start hunting on their own and will often leave their mother.

A scorpion will undergo an average of 6 molts to reach full adulthood, which, depending on the species, can take between 6 months and nearly 7 years. The average lifespan depends on the species, with some living up to 25 years.

Re: the biological terms I used, here’s a picture and explanation from the Wikipedia article:

1 = Cephalothorax or Prosoma; 2 = Preabdomen or Mesosoma; 3 = Tail or Metasoma; 4 = Claws or Pedipalps; 5 = Legs; 6 = Mouth parts or Chelicerae; 7 = Pincers or Chelae; 8 = Moveable claw or Tarsus; 9 = Fixed claw or Manus; 10 = Stinger or Aculeus; 11 = Telson (anus in previous joint); 12 = Opening of book lungs

Post-coitus cannibalism has never been reliably reported in scorpions.

Scorpions are also kinky fuckers but no one’s ready for that conversation.

So, I will give this much to WOTC writers regarding the tlincallis - most species of scorpions do actively hunt their prey. (Though there are several species that are just sit-and-wait predators.) They are also opportunistic hunters, eating primarily invertebrates but occasionally also going for things like lizards, snakes, and small mammals, though scorpions with larger claws will also go after earthworms and mollusks.

What I will not give them credit for is the method of hunting. A scorpion’s primary hunting tool is its claws. Only large and aggressive prey is given a sting - the method of death is still typically via claw, even in that case.

They also don’t chew. They rip off pieces of their prey and put those pieces in a pre-oral cavity, which uses digestive juices from the gut to start the digestion process. Once it’s liquid enough, it gets sucked right into the gut. Any indigestible matter is ejected at this stage.

They do have an anus separate from the genital operculum, and it runs up into the tail. Scorpions will eat a large amount of food in one meal, and when this is combined with their low metabolic rate and relatively inactive lifestyle, it means that they can survive for 6 to 12 months without starvation.

So no, Wizards Of The Coast, a band of scorpion people would NOT be migratory by compulsion, even if they were aggressive.

And yeah, scorpions are mainly found in deserts, but that’s so limiting. They’ve adapted to nearly every sort of biome and appear all across the world, except in Antartica. So you can literally put them anywhere.

The scorpion is found in Greek mythology (Artemis or Gaia sending it to kill Orion) along with in a page of the Anglo-Saxon Herbal.

Despite the scorpion’s usage in myths, stories, and weapons of war, very few of them are actually capable of killing a human (barring allergy). 25 species out of more than 2,500 have venom deadly to humans. Most of, if not all of these, belong to the family Buthidae, which is the largest family.

Now it’s time for “Jasper analyzes scorpions from different media”! I’ve already dragged the tlincalli for filth, so we’ll pivot to look at another WOTC media: Magic The Gathering.

Scorpions don’t get a lot of rep. At best, they appear as one-off cards. However. Thanks to vising two primarily-desert planes (Amonkhet and the Vorthos-panned Thunder Junction), we have some Guys.

We’ll start with the Scorpion God of Amonkhet. This guy did not used to look like this, but once Nicol Bolas got all up in everybody’s business, he twisted the Scorpion God, Locust God, and Scarab God into giant monstrosities and erased knowledge of their names, even from themselves, and then used them to “harvest” the mortals he had been cultivating to create an undead army. The Scorpion God killed the gods Rhonas, Oketra, and Kefnet, before finally being killed by Hazoret and a group of rebelling mortals.

He is notably the only one of the “twisted” gods to have been killed – the Locust and Scarab Gods both survived, as did Hazoret, and all three defended Amonkhet later from New Phyrexia getting all up in everyone’s business.

(Re: that third artwork, why is he kinda...)

Meanwhile, on Thunder Junction...

Oh, Thunder Junction. If not for the fact that no one in the design and writing department could agree on and work together to determine the right approach to Western tropes, you could have been interesting.

Having said that, the scorpion dragons? Not native to there. Instead, they’re from Gastal, a plane that was mentioned one (1) time back in the day. I’m willing to overlook some questions about these blokes for the sake of blaming the dragon half on everything I don’t think are scorpion-enough when it comes to these guys.

Now, for my third example... I’m going to preface this with the fact that LEGO’s Legends of Chima theme was a problematic mess in hindsight. I still love it with my entire soul, but it was a fucking nightmare.

But within that is the Scorpion Tribe, what is possibly my favorite current example of what you can do with scorpions in a (science-)fantasy setting.

The Scorpions were accidentally evolved with the magic MacGuffin of the series (Chi) thanks to some foolishness going on, and they were the antagonists of season two (or rather, wave two, as they were technically the latter half of season one and the beginning of season two). They’re led by a king, Scorm, and a general, Scolder. And yes, they all stick to the Sc- naming theme, with one exception from the online game.

So, how do you create an anthro Scorpion Lego figure? Like this, of course!

Now, something interesting to note is that because the Chi was not safely introduced to these guys, some of them didn’t “evolve” all the way and still have a scorpion lower body, like a weird centaur. Meet Scutter, posterchild for this, even though his brother Scrug speed-“evolved” to humanoid form.

Something interesting to note is just how flexible and catlike the tails of these Scorpions are. They can flick around and even hold things when curled up.

Another fun thing about Chima is that they don’t put my boys in the desert. Instead, they live in caves in a very hostile jungle. I’m so proud of them.

Analyzing the venom of these guys, though...

Scorpion God = full of god-killing venom

Akul = a "dark curse" that's basically fantasy tuberculosis

Scorpions from Chima = hypnosis mind-control agent that wears off fairly quickly

(Preface for this section: These were random additions that I sent a while later, with little connection to each other.)

Scorpion dads do tend to be deadbeats, but a scorpion mom figure? I would chew that right up.

Re: molting, it is a long, long process, even for something as small as a scorpion. So the bigger they are, the longer it's probably gonna take. It requires a lot of calorie-loading beforehand and can be predicted based on “air pockets” that appear at the sides of the exoskeleton, to give them wiggle room. Scorpions are soft for several days after molting and avoid eating anything until they harden back up.

And did I mention that scorpions glow under ultraviolet light?

So...yeah! Scorpions are so fucking cool, and this is just an overview! This isn't even getting into any particular species! There's just so much to explore in terms of scorpions in fantasy settings, so seeing them reduced to Desert Bad Guy over and over again annoys me.

Put these animals into some situations.

[aculeus]

anyway

saintedwhore -> aculeus

[morbidsmenagerie]

Centruroides Identification

Was double checking the medical significance of Centruroides margaritatus before I decided to officially downgrade them to not being medically significant and discovered that Centruroides margaritatus were actually the subject to a revision in 2011 because they were frequently misidentified.

The paper is here:

"Comparisons. This species was largely confounded with C. margaritatus, from which it clearly differs by having pedipalps profusely pilose, hand with dorsal marginal carina almost smooth and very pilose (Fig. 4 C–D), telson with subaculear tubercle close to aculeus and directed towards its basal one-third (Figs. 4 G, 6 C, D), carinae on the pedipalp femur and patella with smaller and closer granules. Also, when same-sized adults of both species are compared side-by-side, it becomes evident that both sexes of C. edwardsii have pedipalps (especially chelae) and metasoma shorter and more robust than in C. margaritatus (see our Figs. 1–7)."

Compared to my scorpions:

So it appears these are in fact Centruroides edwarsii, and I'll be updating their tagging from now on. Of course having an accurate location would help immensely with identification errors but most sellers don't provide this with the animals they sell.

[drhoz]

#2133 - Rosa rubiginosa - Sweet-Brier

AKA sweetbriar rose, or eglantine (Middle English eglentyn, Old French aiglantin, from aiglent 'sweetbrier'), from Vulgar Latin aculentus, from Latin aculeus 'prickle'. The leaves do indeed smell pleasantly of apple.

A native rose uncommon to rare across most of its native range - most of Europe - but a highly invasive weed everywhere else. The seeds, eaten with the very Vitamin-C rich hips, are easily spread by cattle.

Cooma, NSW

[toast-com]

Arrived (1-29-23)

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Day, Dawn and Night... But the High Lady of the Spring Court was absent.

Rhysand glanced at the empty seat. Where was Tamlin? This meeting was important, she couldn't be running late.

But she was. He felt the bond between them grow taut, as she grew closer to the meeting hall. Six heads turned towards the door, as a tall, blonde female entered, followed by a red haired male.

Tamlin Aculeus, High Lady of Spring, and her silver-tongued courtier, Lucien Vanserra. Eyes as green as spring surveyed the room, missing nothing in their observant look. Those green eyes landed on Rhysand, and subtly widened, the flecks of gold in them glowing faintly.

Long, lithe legs carried Tamlin to her seat, beside Tarquin Aestas, High Lord of Summer. He smiled as she sat beside him, eyes as blue as the summer sea, bright and friendly. Tamlin was quiet as she looked each of the High Lords over with sharp green eyes, inclining her head towards each of them, starting with Tarquin.

Kallias Stiriacus, and his wife, Vivienne, of the Winter Court, hair as white as freshly fallen snow, and eyes a pale, winter sky blue.

Eris Vanserra, the new High Lord of Autumn, who returned Tamlin's stare with a sharp glower, russet eyes wary.

Helion Lumen, High Lord of Day who grinned broadly at her, golden accessories and bright amber eyes gleaming as he gave her a wink.

Thesan Prima, Lord of Dawn, who lowered his head in response to Tamlin's inclined head, brown eyes warm.

And... Rhysand Tenebris. His star-flecked violet eyes bored into hers, and Tamlin felt the bond, the mating bond that tied their souls together, grow hot. Her high cheekbones warmed with a blush, and she sat down, gaze flickering to Lucien, who placed a broad hand on her knee. A comforting, reassuring touch. Tamlin could still feel Rhysand's eyes on her.

"Now that we are all present," Helion's voice, a warm baritone, caused her to look up. "The meeting may begin." Tamlin meet Rhysand's gaze squarely, bright spring green colliding with cold violet.

[commoninfected]

Foxfire the Brown Aculeus

[klondork]

Unlike most changelings, Aculeus' horn is larger than normal. Not by much but he prides himself in having a horn that is five percent larger than the typical drone.

Unfortunately, while this is true, it is overlooked because of his other major trait

[trinitymage]

Happy Birthday Hawks!

"Seriously, Feather-Head, every time I sit down?"

"Hmm? What d'ya mean? I have no idea what you're referring to~"

I started working on this on the 28th so it counts

[chainsawgirlfriend]

🌈It's FUCKING Mish-Mash!!👾