#but this time they just literally make them faceless blobs they just don't exist

[elbiotipo]

"Bocchi is a lesbian!" I mean, yeah, but all the male characters in her manga are unnamed blobs. It's not like she has a choice innit.

[evolutionsvoid]

I already know that this entry is going to drive Eucella crazy, what with my...limited knowledge on this species. To be fair though, the information we have on this species as a whole is rather meager, but I feel like it would be a missed opportunity if I didn't write at least something about it! It is important that my readers know of every species, even those we have yet to fully understand! Indeed, I know Eucella is going to be furious at the idea of adding in an entry that is mainly scraps and shoddy guesswork, but when has her temper ever stopped me before? Onwards, I say!

This entry is on the Hundun, a species I feel that a lot of folk aren't even aware of. It would certainly make sense, as not a lot has ever been said or spread about this creature. One of the big factors for this is because the Hundun has (currently) only ever been found in one cave network in one specific region of the world. And even then, one needs to go in real deep to find them, so much so that discovering this species was pretty much an accident, done when an explorer got lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. Thankfully, a rescue team was able to find them and get them out so that their story could be told, resulting in a group of better equipped researchers going in to confirm their existence. At the time, most people thought the poor sap had gone crazy, losing their mind in the absolute darkness and silence only a cave can create. When researchers found the chamber deep within the network, the fantasy was found to be real.  

So what is a Hundun? A good question, because we are currently still trying to find a way to properly answer that. They got no bones, so we can strike a whole branch of life out the equation there. No real exoskeleton means another chunk of the tree taken out, but once we rule those pieces out, we have very little else to narrow it down with. There are a staggering amount of creatures out there that have no bones and aren't bugs, and we still struggle to even sort those properly! Now, we find a species in the depths of some remote cave network, whose anatomy makes even less sense. Back to the question of: what is a Hundun? The answer is that it is a blob of juice, jelly and odd organs that is wrapped in a thick membrane and given six "legs" and four "wings." I stress those words because we don't really have the confidence to truly say that those are what they are. The "wings" have had some folk liken them to gills, yet the Hundun has been seen flapping these appendages and gliding with them from time to time. But no real flight has been observed, and their use of them as a glider is quite sparse. As for their legs, they do aid in travel and climbing, as these are what they use to cling to cavern walls. However, despite their claws, there are no other rigid structures to them, and openings on the bottoms of these "feet" makes these limbs feel more like protruded orifices. And those aren't even the weirdest parts! If one ever got a good look at a real live Hundun, they would have the same question as every researcher: Where's its face?!

Indeed, the striking thing about the Hundun is that it doesn't appear to have a face, or head, or anything we could equate to a noggin. The front of them ends in a smooth membrane, as blank and curved as an egg shell. There are no eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing. Now some may point out that just because it doesn't have the typical organs and holes that common animals have on their face doesn't necessarily mean they are faceless. Surely there is something there, we just aren't seeing it! And aren't their plenty of cave animals with no eyes? Correct you are! However, when I say they don't have these things, I literally mean they don't have them. On the surface of their front end, we cannot find anything that we could equate to the usual sensors or openings that other creatures have. Perhaps, these special organs are found within the body, but that is another mystery we have yet to figure out. We can't exactly cut a Hundun open and lay it out for all to see. This is because their bodies are practically bags of gelatin just waiting to pop and slosh to the floor in a sloppy mess. Their organs and insides are so sensitive and fluid-like, that they pretty much melt into a puddle of useless juice once their hide is ruptured. Attempts at dissecting dead specimens has resulted in incomprehensible slop and zero answers. Some have used magic to freeze samples solid before cutting, but this process inevitably causes damage to the organs and insides, so we cannot observe them as they normally would be. It's just....baffling. 

If it has no face, how does it breath? How does it eat? Plenty of these questions arise when faced with such an enigma. Breathing is one we feel we figured out, pointing to the wing gills and the soft damp nature of their membrane. We think they can pull in air through these gills and even straight through their skin. As for eating, we have wondered if the skin breathing can also result in skin eating, where it can absorb particles from the air or stuff that settle on their skin. The discovery of their foot orifices now makes us think they eat through those, sucking up food as they walk or cling to the walls. What do they eat? Not really sure. Don't have much of a stomach to open up and poke around through. Probably lichens and tiny creatures that live on these cavern walls, as we have never seen a Hundun chase after food or hunt anything of notable size. What we do know is that their diet is so niche, that keeping them alive outside of these cave systems is near impossible. Specimens removed for long periods of time will starve to death, or die from complications due to eating something that doesn't settle well in their system. All attempts to keep them alive outside of their cave system has been met with failure, so all research is done just outside of these caverns, temporarily capturing specimens for quick tests and observation, before immediately putting them back.

Thankfully, we do know that they lay eggs, but how they get the stuff to make and fertilize eggs, we don't know. No mating rituals have been observed, and no mated pairs have been spotted in the cavern. They simply lay eggs, that then hatch into more Hundun. So even there, are answer is laughably simple.

So if we are utterly clueless about the workings of the Hundun, then what does the world think of them? To be fair, most of the world doesn't really know they exist. Live specimens don't survive long, and preserving dead ones isn't easy either. Any preservatives eventually melt them into colorless goop, and taxidermy doesn't really work on a bag of juice. And with our sad amount of information, most folk would think it is all a lame researcher joke. Locals wound up having stories about this species, but this was all veiled in legends and myth. Tales of ghostly spirits in the depths of the caves, of lost souls in the pits of a dark hell. Obviously, most folk thought these were ghost stories, but now with a glowing orb of living flesh, it feels that these were encounters with the Hundun long ago. Even now, the people of the region speak of this species as a primordial creature, one that has been around since the forming of the world. Some even claim that these creatures are tiny unborn worlds themselves, walking eggs waiting for their day to hatch. It is times like these where I do not turn to my usual scoffing of superstition and dramatics, because I feel that they are onto something here. A primordial being, not a bad theory! Perhaps the Hundun are truly a prehistoric species, one that existed countless centuries before! Isolated in the depths of the earth, far from other creatures and the ravages of nature and time, there is no telling of when they split from the rest of life, or perhaps when the tree of life diverted from them! This could be an incredible case where we found a pocket in the world where time froze, where the ancients still survive to this day! It is an incredible thought, now if only we could figure them out in the slightest!

One last frustrating note: one of the times I was doing research down in the Underworld, my travels took me to a remote cavern town in my pursuit of strange new specimens. While I was visiting, I spotted Hundun on some of the cavern walls, and just as I was going in for a closer look, I saw a demon and their imp playing with one! I was quick to ask about what they were doing, and they straight up tell me that these Hundun are like pets to them! Adorable little squishy beans! I nearly burst out of my own bark hearing this, because here was a community of people who have interacted with these things for decades, perhaps centuries! Such close contact with this species that has never been documented before! I almost threw all my current notes into the nearest fire, because here was my new research! My new thesis! My masterpiece! I would be able to find out answers about the species that puzzled researchers for decades! So I didn't waste any time, barraging everyone with questions about the Hundun and what they know of them. You know what I got? "No idea, but they sure are cute!" THAT'S IT!? YOU PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LIVING WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST ENIGMAS IN NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY FOR DECADES AND YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM?! I ask "what do you feed your pets?" and they say "oh we don't feed them, they somehow do it themselves." I say "isn't it weird you don't feed these things? Haven't you noticed what they do when they're hungry?" and to that they say "Yeah, it sure is weird, isn't it? Got no clue, but they seem to be doing fine!" I sadly admit that my research of this town and the Hundun had to be cut short for that trip, as my guides had to drag me out of there before I had a total mental breakdown. I will probably have to wait awhile before going back, because I think my crazed screaming rant in the middle of town left a rather poor impression.  

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

Oh good! An entire entry of you just saying "I don't know!" Wonderful! Excellent! Just what your book needs, Chlora! You are doing this on purpose, I swear! - Eucella -

[liliallowed]

slay the princess is so sansanomoly.

spoilers for the game btw:

I'm sorry I just can't unthink a scenario where sans is tasked to kill the anomaly cuz they will end the world.

but by killing them the world resets and ends, by sparing them it also ends, there's also the option of letting them out but that's a true reset...

all in all? I think he'd say fuck you to all three options and like... hang out.

like, just casually take a nap in the dungeon while talking to the anomaly.

the guy's too lazy to do anything 😭

and the greater collective consciousness of the player's routes would probably still linger. while the vessel is just salty he's being a troll.

he's not gonna fall for it lmao. he's just going like, abandon all logic and just defy physics as he does, going out of bounds to bring them a hamburger. or like... carry their heart in a safely contained space vacuum. around in a vessel that... maybe WON'T end the world when they escape containment...

he KNOWS how to manipulate the anomaly too.

it's a loop but I think he's going to stay calm and instead of blaming the narrator or the anomaly just... look for a solution with them. a compromise.

he knows how they tick. if he makes an interesting world or story, the anomaly will be curious and let the world live.

all in all, I think sans would even use the anomaly to his advantage. get a desired outcome. try risking for something.

maybe challenge them to reset. make bets.

he knows you're not a demon. he knows you're not an angel. just a chaotic entity who searches for more pieces and braches of the world and it's outcomes.

a timeline hopping explorer or a destroyer of worlds... when you're entire existence is based of a flimsy desire to be or not to be flickering between the two states I don't think sans would actually care.

he'd do what he can to preserve the world but SAVE it? that ain't his responsibility. it's yours.

also I keep imagining the skelly with an elderich horror monster 100 handed doll figure just casually sitting next to each other eating ice cream.

now to the slay the princess game itself!

anyways. I love these ships.

the princess does make a connection to us the player. she thinks we are similar. and we are! both even have the same motives in fact. she just... has more terrifying features with her vessel. ours is just a faceless blob of grey matter... so maybe we're both kinda creepy???

gurl you don't scare me. in fact. I already have my Dr strange "I'VE COME TO FUCKING BARGAIN" card ready to go. let's talk time loops. it's either me and you. so if you think IM scared of that? I PLAYED GENOCIDE FOR BREAKFAST BABY COME AT ME!

oh boi... you'd be surprised how many times I can endure the same conversation:3.

fite me! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A TIME LOOP DUEL!

I'm sorry that's cringe...

anyways I love this game. (saw a playthrough. didn't play it myself)

but I can definitely see a cross over... or would like to make one.

imagining dusttale player just looking at the princess face like it's their avrage Tuesday routine...

while the "hero" and dust stare at each other finding comradery in the voices in their heads.

also dust would yeet the princess into the void...

and player would probably get stabbed by the heros blade with a smug grin to show off they're also cursed with reset powers.

okay literally any of these four traumatized loop bound poor babies are gonna be hilarious to see interact