#ic ; swimming plankton

[seastarlily]

Art of SpongeBob and friends celebrating the 4th of July.

(Source)

[riemmetric]

You were thinking about home | Original Fiction

Note: based on today’s prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial​: sink or swim. It’s a sci-fi story because this were my mind is most days and it is slightly inspired by Jeff Vandermeer’s writing style in Dead Astronauts, because this is were my mind is these days. Written in one sitting. 

⁘

Your body is drifting with the current and your mind is drifting towards home. You thought that when you died, they would recover your body from whatever abyss you’ve last explored and ship it back to your mother. You haven’t talked to her in years and sometimes you wonder if she still loves you, but you have promised her she will get to bury you, she will get to grieve upon a grave. You feel the pressure of the alien ocean against your suit, and you think about offering yourself up as a sacrifice to appease the gods. You’ve broken into a pristine world and polluted it; the wreckage of your shuttle sinks to the seabed, trailing your fossil fuels, a gift from a past extinguished by a distant sun. You think about your mother and you open your eyes, although the world has lost all coordinates, and they aren’t much help. You think about Marina’s limp body, hanging by your belt, and you tilt your head, manifesting the direction of the sky. You check your oxygen levels, your thrusters and your locator, and shut down everything else. You’ve got time.

You read the controls from inside your helmet and make small adjustments to the thrusters. There aren’t any intelligent life forms on this planet, so time hasn’t been invented yet. You decide you like it that way. All non-essential systems of your suit are off, to conserve the energy, and the pain throbs in your shoulder unrestrained. You remember pulling Marina out of the wreckage of her shuttle, the effort that it took. You saw the warning light on her suit blink, a spark of life among a handful of dead helmets, and you thought about letting her die together with the people that she has led to their deaths. But then you thought about her mother; this empty grave would be on you, and you wrecked your shoulder pulling that wretch of a woman free. Your suits are now connected and you see the details of her life support systems inside your helmet. She’s unconscious, but she’s alive, a privilege no longer allowed to your comrades. You knew it was too dangerous and she wouldn’t listen. She pulled rank over you and now you’re pulling her body out of a tomb. You want to kill her, but you keep your thrusters on, because you hate her, but she’s human and this means something. You don’t know exactly what it means, but you decide not to think about it now. You have more important things to do.  

Her body is heavy and every joint in your body hurts. You want to punch Marina in the face. You look at your feet and see nothing but darkness and you think about letting her go. You think about letting yourself go. You look into the depths and see your mother’s face. You keep the thrusters on.

There’s a patch of light above you, a break in the darkness. The sight shocks you like a current and you let go of the thrusters. The ballast of Marina’s body drags you down and you kick at the water, regaining your course. You see strands of light caressing your dirty suit and you think about the sun, the daylight that will meet you soon, the warmth. You swim towards the light and then you see it. The stain of bio-luminesce spreading around you like a disease. A mass of light emanating plankton, living its endless life, mindless. You swim through it and hit your head on the ceiling. You look up at the ice sheet and at first you don’t understand. Then you do and the horror explodes inside you like the broken engine of Marina’s shuttle. You scream inside your helmet and every cell of your body is warring with itself. You press your palms flat against the ice and try to push it open like the lid on a pressure cooker, you smash your fists against it, but it’s stupid, you’re stupid, you’re an idiot and this is now the end.

Everything hurts inside you. You want to kill Marina. You miss your mother. You want to see the sun again. You haven’t told enough people you love them. You are tired and you want to sleep. You want to die. You’ve always known this is how you’ll die. Don’t be a coward. The thruster controls are in your hand. You let go of them. You close your eyes. The ocean shields you like a warm blanket, embraces you like a lover. You will succumb to it and it will be the greatest love story ever told. You feel your arms drifting. Every bone in your body hurts. You want to cry but you’re too tired. You’ll cry on the other side, if you still remember too.

Your body is drifting with the current and your mind is drifting towards home. You think about your mother. You miss your mother. You want to talk to your mother. You open your eyes and read the information provided by the locator. It knows something you don’t know. It knows where the mother ship is. It knows where its mother is. You can’t wait to yell at Marina. You hold onto the controls, the shoulder screaming in its socket. Hush now. We’re going home.

[theantiazdarcho]

Spectember day 12: alternate History

In this universe, after the Permian Mass Extinction, the Mesozoic began with a great Ice Age. Many unique animals came about as the world became colder and increasingly arid.

Dracosornis:

A ceolophysoid found across boreal forests in the southern parts of Pangea. They hunt small game like dictodonts, cynodonts, and lizards.

Kritorhinoraptor:

Large cynodonts, these are found in the vast “Fern tundras” of the northern parts of Pangea. They have adapted to these conditions by retaining their burrowing ability and giving live birth instead of laying eggs.

Paralidraco:

Large, skim feeding, pterosaurs, they are found all over the coasts of Pangea skimming the water for prey using their elongated lower beak.

Nanotherium:

Tiny, widespread, lystrosaurs, they have a coat of fur that covers their entire body which is used to keep warm in the freezing nights when the go to get food.

Kritotrachelosaurua:

Large silesosaurs found in the temperate and boreal forests where they browse for leaves and pine needles. They are surprisingly fast which they use to escape danger.

Paralisuchus:

Large coastal crocodyliforms, they have flattened body’s to help them go through shallow coasts and feeding on juvenile turtles and fish. They give live birth because of their fully aquatic lifestyle and hatchlings have the ability to go on land.

Pseudobaleena:

Massive icthyosaurs, they feed on “pseudo-krill” which are found across the open oceans in large abundance. These titans have forgone a carnivorous lifestyle but are still aggressive to anything that poses a threat to their offspring.

Dipustitania:

Red cephalopods, that are relatives to ammonites but have converged on a “squid” body plan. They are found on the sea floor eating anything they can grab.

Oryctoducus:

Bizarre, benthic feeders, they have a unique head that allows them to sift in the sand in search of crustaceans and mollusks.

Aepynatare:

These are semi-aquatic sauropodimorphs that travel from island to island in search of food. These giants are armed with large claws which they use to deter would be attackers.

Pseudoeuphousicea:

Strange arthropods, they have several long legs which they use to swim and filter-feed plankton from the water column. They live in shoals which can easily reach billions and are feed upon by a wide range of filter feeders.

Pogonotyrannus:

Large herrerasaurs with a feathery coat to protect them against wind chill, they are the largest predators of the “Fern Tundras”. They have long forelimbs that they use to dig into the earth to hibernate and to dig out small animals.

Megalophotherium:

Bulky lystrosaurs, they live in here that can have thousands of individuals. Males have large tusks and prominent head crests which they use in combat determined sexual selection.

Rubrumopteryx:

Small flyers, they feast on flying insects and pests on the backs of large herbivores. Males have bright red wings which they show off to females.

Gorgocanthus:

These sauropodimorphs have large menacing quills and spines which cover their neck and tail. These nocturnal feeders curl themselves up into a spiny ball to protect themselves during the day.

[gunelle]

@brianskerry

1-. A Basking Shark swims with its gian mouth open, feeding on plankton in the nutrient-rich waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts

2-. A Blue Shark swins beneath a calm surface 30 miles off the coast of Rhode Island

3-. A diver encounters a Southern Right Whale on the sea floor in the Auckland islands of New Zealand

4-. A great White Shark swins in shallow water at sunset in the waters of South Australia

5-. A great White Shark swins just below the turbulent surface in the waters of South Australia

6-. A harbor seal peeks out over sea grass on Cortes Banks, an underwater mountain range located 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, California

7-. A harp seal pup waits on the ice for it's mother to return from a dive beneath the ice pack in Canada's Gulfo of St. Lawrence

8-. A large Tiger Shark swims over a coral reef in the Bahamas

9-. A large tiger shark swins in open, blue water in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa

10-. A pair of Great White Sharks cruise beneath rough seas at sunset in the waters of South Australia

11-. A Shortfin Mako Shark in New Zealand swins towards the surface in afternoon light

12-. A Shortfin Mako Shark in New Zealand swins towards the surface in morning light

13-. A Southern Right Whale and diver swim together over a shady sea floor in New Zealand's Auckland Islands

14-.A Southern Right Whale and diver swim together over a shady sea floor in New Zealand's Auckland Islands

15-. A tiger shark swarmed with remoras swims through blue water in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa

16-. A Whale Shark cruises just below the surface in Western Australia while a free diver follows behind

17-. A wild dolphin plays with diver Nigel Motyer off the west coast of Ireland

18-. An Oceanic Whitetip Shark swims just below the surface in the blue waters of The Bahamas

19-. Caribbean reef sharks swim over a beautiful coral reef in the Bahamas, a country that has been progressive in regards to protecting sharks

20-. Dusky Dolphins in Golfo Nuevo Argentina feed on anchovies they have herded into bait balls

21-. Sea Angel - A tiny pteropod, about the size of a Tic-Tac candy, swims underwater beneath pack ice in the winter seas of Japan’s Hokkaido Island

22-. The largest fish in the ocean, a whale shark, feeds on plankton and fish eggs in the waters off Isla Mujeres, Mexico

23-. A Caribbean reef shark samples a Pacific lionfish near the Mesoamerican

[ammg-old2]

In the fall of 1819, William Edward Parry and his crew prepared to spend the winter in the Canadian Arctic. For this team of British explorers, the unforgiving cold and round-the-clock darkness were obstacles to be overcome in their search for the Northwest Passage. Looking out across the flat, treeless expanse of ice and fog, the barren landscape must have seemed wholly inhospitable. “It was a novelty to us,” he later wrote in the account of the expedition, “to see any living animal in this desolate spot.”

From Parry’s accounts, and those of other travelers, scientists built a picture of the polar night as a period of Arctic dormancy, an extended slumber in the endless twilight—when all but the hardiest of life either fled for warmer climes, or hunkered down to wait for the Sun to return. But now, researchers are discovering that the explorers had it all wrong.

A pair of new papers describing the latest discoveries reveals that the Arctic night is far from desolate: it’s alive with activity. It’s a time when microbes and animals feed, grow, and reproduce in the polar ocean, with special adaptations allowing them to thrive in the dark.

Many Arctic creatures have evolved to make use of light that is invisible to the human eye. Meanwhile, “an astonishing number” have developed bioluminescence, says Jørgen Berge, lead author of both new studies. Others live by moonlight, or by the soft red and green glow of the aurora borealis.

Berge, a marine biologist with UiT The Arctic University of Norway, is no stranger to life above the Arctic Circle. Berge has spent 13 years studying zooplankton in Svalbard, a group of mountainous, ice-covered islands far off the northern coast of Norway. Yet while cruising around a fjord in January 2012, he leaned over the side of his small boat, peered into the water, and saw something new.

“I saw a fantastic cosmos of blue-green light in the middle of the fjord,” Berge says. “That’s when I decided we needed to study the polar night.”

Berge and his colleagues have since discovered algae that grow without normal sunlight, and zooplankton that maintain their circadian cycles even without the Sun’s cues. And with these minuscule organisms forming the base of the food chain, larger organisms have adapted to prey on them.

Berge found healthy seabirds in winter with stomachs full of krill and Calanus glacialis, a fat-rich copepod that he calls the “avocado of the ocean.” How the birds located their prey in the dark remains a mystery, but he suspects that they spot the planktons’ faint bioluminescence.

Iceland scallops, meanwhile, can detect enough ambient light from the weak glow of the sun over the horizon to swim and feed on a summer-like schedule. “For me, seeing the bivalves grow through the polar night was the most surprising,” says biologist William G. Ambrose, Jr., a coauthor of the Current Biology study.

Life in the polar night is “far more active than we ever thought,” says Carin Ashjian, an oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who was not involved with the new papers. “This is a paradigm shift.”

Now, researchers are working to determine if the burgeoning life they see is common across the Arctic, or if it’s an abundance particular to Svalbard. Then, they’ll need to figure out the whys and hows. “It appears you can’t understand the system fully by just focusing on the period of time when the Sun is up,” Ambrose says wryly.

But the rapid onset of polar warming, driven by anthropogenic climate change, means that the time for discovery may be running out. “We need to first understand the processes currently occurring. We call this the baseline,” says Kim S. Last, who worked on both of the new papers. “Without a baseline we have no way of assessing change in the biological system.”

Like the old explorers, scientists still have much to learn about what goes on when the Sun goes down.

“We have lifted the curtain on the darkness,” Berge says, “and now we’re watching the active players on stage.”

[largethingslargerthings]

Meditative Week of Poetry: Kinsale Drake

1. In winter we are closest, in the desert, to the ocean that once held nautiloids, corals, cartilaginous fishes … We do not unearth their fossils lest they sit in museums. Diné tour guides make signs on the side of the road, usher cars into invisible parking spots amid the pools of half-melted snow. They remove nothing, pushing bills down into their pockets.

2. Clouds leave our bodies like great whales when the desert swims in song from a truck’s thrown-open door. The heat escapes into the ocean of sky.

3. White historians claim that the Spanish brought over the first horses. Modern genetics and scientific opinion suggest that there is no evidence that these horses are not the same as the ancestors that once roamed the continent before traveling to Eurasia. The ocean had given way by this time to swamp, ice, and fire. Rocks are the oldest storytellers, my friend Gusti tells me. The Badlands shrink behind us, gray teeth swimming in ghosts.

4. It was a warm, shallow sea. This brings comfort during a blizzard in the Northeast.

5. Mid-19th century scientists claimed to know these fossils better by cataloging, sectioning off, drilling holes, carting off to museums. Locals told stories and left them where they always had been.

6. Algal reefs shroud the sun, three hundred feet high. Water becomes shadow, then bright bursts of plankton, fiery, hurtling towards the sand.

7. A whale’s song can be heard from nearly 10,000 miles away.

8. Today, the formations of Capitol Reef, Utah, create a barrier for travel. Sediment mushrooms in petrified waves. Waterpocket Fold tilts the small heads toward the ever-growing sun, the dynamite scorch-marks almost invisible from the platform.

9. We loop, loop, loop the Badlands. Is it all the same ocean? I say it is, out loud, so the tourists lose their footing. I toss it out the window, bringing new friends for these fossils.

10. At night, the rocks glow. Uranium, yellow pollen, fossil dust, virgin sun. All the once-children of the ocean orbit the seascape.

[spidermilkshake]

Ancardia's Unusual Animals--The Great Iceworm

Classification: Beast (mollusc)

Habitat: Arctic and Anctarctic seas, concentrated under consistent areas of sea ice.

            The Great Iceworm is a gargantuan species of seaworm which until recent Ages was scarcely researched due to its difficult and remote habitat. The second largest of all of Ancardia’s invertebrates, the great iceworm spends its entire lifecycle in the icy waters of the two polar zones of Ancardia’s seas, depending upon the rich biomass of the oceans below and close to permanent sea ice. It is known to be particularly common in the very southernmost ranges of Sostuniland, where many tens of thousands of square miles of sea ice remain throughout the summer and the density of large calved icebergs remains high throughout the year, but they do also occur in significant populations under the northern ice cap to the far north of Tvearban’s coasts. Like many of the ocean’s largest creatures, it is docile to most other creatures, only feeding on the smallest of lifeforms in its environment. The majority of a great iceworm’s diet is krill mixed with larval crabs and fishes, supplemented by various somewhat larger invertebrates such as basket stars, polychaete worms, and sea spiders. Several species of large amphipods have evolved seemingly to live only on the dead tissue and parasites that afflict the great iceworm, and so you will seldom find one of these huge creatures swimming without an entourage of several dozen to several hundred palm-size red and gold primitive crustaceans.

            While the worm itself is not particularly aggressive, it is possible to startle it which brings on the danger of such a huge animal responding by a defensive thrashing. Its mouthparts are relatively small, but still large enough for bites to be injurious to humanoids, and if directly attacked it will not hesitate to retaliate. Most of the danger from great iceworms comes from their boreholes in the sea ice layer in order to periodically breathe air, which are as wide as the worm’s body itself (usually 2 to 3 meters in diameter) and have been known to very lightly freeze over or have loose snow blow into them, creating a brittle thin area that is not immediately obvious as an environmental hazard. Dropping several meters into below-freezing water in such situations is almost always fatal even with assistance in escaping the frigid water, and so Sostunians living and working around sea ice often are careful to bring walking poles to test the areas along their route for hollow sounding ice and unusually-placed deep, loose snow.

            Great iceworms are extremely large, and vary in size depending on their age and the density of food supply they have encountered so far. Most adults measure a minimum of 14 meters in length as either younger individuals or those in areas with less abundant plankton life, but can also reach astounding lengths of 25 or even 30 meters. The average length is closer to 20 meters, though as newly-hatched larvae they begin life as only about 5 centimeters in length. Great iceworms breed whenever they encounter abundant krill for longer than a few weeks at a time, and can breed multiple times in a year (though this is very rare), and will either seek out a mate or undergo parthenogenesis if a mate is nowhere to be found. Eggs are laid in masses on the underside of sea ice, in bundles of 20,000 to 40,000 at a time, though most will be picked off by various sea life before hatching. A larval great iceworm grows exponentially in its first year, usually reaching several meters very quickly. Before reaching adult size, juvenile great iceworms are subject to predation from a number of sharks, other large worms, seabirds and seals. Great iceworms are not known to die from old age, their population mainly being controlled by parasite numbers, predation on larva and eggs, and scarcity of food.

[nikitalovesmelissa]

Makise Kurisu: Lets go to the Beach Plankton

Plankton: What for

Makise Kurisu: For Swimming duh

Plankton: All right then lets go

Makise Kurisu: Yes Maybe we buy some ice cream

Plankton: Okay

[chickenpeep77kirbyau]

An alternate Kirby

Kirby as he appears in my au. (The paper taped onto the sheet is my solution to not having to redo the whole thing every time I want to change something) He is not round, just because. He is a little chubby though.

While canon Kirby seems to be eternally a child, this one is an adult now.

I call their homeworld Popopo, after Kirby's original name, and they are known as Popopons. The world's atmosphere and gravity are just right to allow them to be able to do that floaty thing. Popopo is a moon orbiting a gas giant. It has less water than earth does, but it is more evenly spread. Its average temperature is colder than (our) earth. I gave them an amphibious design, making their feet and hands more froglike. Kirby's feet look like they would be more useful underwater anyways. When not in use for swimming or a slight boost in air they scrunch up their toes a bit so they can walk easier. They are semi-aquatic. When they suck in air it goes into their lungs and air sacks(similar to a bird's respiratory system) then it might go into a stretchy cavity beneath the skin to puff up. Two siphons(like octopus have) in the back and two in the front connect to the cavity and can expel the air or water out for jet propulsion. Aside from Mass Attack, Kirby has seemingly been able to breathe underwater, so they are able to breathe through their thinner inner layer of skin underneath the cavity, by pulling water in and out through the siphons. The cavity layer contains a good bit of mucus to keep it moist and protected from germs. The popopons are somewhat squishy, due to the extra skin layers and a light layer of blubber(depending on climate). They can make a noise similar to purring; less like a cat's and more like a chicken's. A good portion of their diet is 'sky plankton' and other small airborne critters that they vacuum from the dense air. They also do something similar underwater, but only using their mouths, like they way we see some underwater predators on Earth do. They also eat fruits and other plant matter. Their children hatch from eggs laid in special nursery pools. (Haha they look so funny inflated bobbing around like little beach balls.) In the early days in small settlements the young children were raised together in a central community pool, as it was beneficial to have as many eyes watching them as possible to protect them from predators. In the later more advanced society in bigger cities this communal child care was less needed since predators were better protected against. In the games, Kirby and friends are able to share food by kissing. I've interpreted that to mean that this is normal for his species to do this, and feed their babies the same way that penguins do. The family takes turns guarding the babies and hunting for food to give them. Their civilization was in the early spaceflight stage, and had ships that can travel to the edge of their solar system.

Abilities work differently in my universe. There aren't any exactly. Popopo's magic levels are relatively high, allowing widespread use of magic. They can do many forms of magic, but individuals usually tend to gravitate towards one area of magic, determined mainly by genetics. The most common ones correspond to simpler, elemental based abilities: fire, water, stone, tornado (I'd rather call it wind), ice, esp, and spark. The more basal, average members of his species has colorations of mottled purples, mauves, browns and greys, but since they began civilization other colors like pink are appearing more. Unfortunately, many of the Popopons were wiped out by one of Nightmare's monsters a few hundred years ago.

Now I will tell you the story of how Kirby got where he was at the beginning of the anime. Kirby was a seemingly normal child at first, but his destiny was super important. (I'm undecided whether he was born into a fire or stone ability lineage.) He was kidnapped, by himself from the future. You may know this character as Galacta Knight. In the far off future, he becomes very powerful, as he was chosen long before he was born, by magical forces, to become a great hero. Also because he's an incarnation of a higher being. Basically there is an entity from the magic universe living in his mind layer. This allows him to open micro rifts to get more magic. Given his different shape in my au, abilities are copied differently. Things can be absorbed into him. Or he can just touch and focus on a thing to copy a skill. He seems strangely more amorphous than the typical popopon. (you put your hand into his squishy mass and it just keeps going!) He is able use a vast variety of abilities his people could only dream of mastering so many. But it will not be till a long time later that he discovers all that he is capable of. Anyways, Kirby is placed in stasis. He awakes from stasis at the beginning of the anime, and the rest is history. (Though my universe's Dedede isn't that mean. However he was upset that Kirby arrived on his birthday and made him jealous.)

If you are wondering, I have determined that Meta Knight's main magic ability is wind, by looking at his moveset. No, his wings are not due to his ability or his cape, but why he has wings goes along with a story which I will tell at another time.

[realfoofighters]

blog promo!!

hello!! my name is foo fighters, or f.f. for short! i hope to make friends here!

[julianrahmat]

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon

"Got word from my folks, they said while they're hauling their catch near the Shoal Cave, this iceberg suddenly made its way towards them and collided with their boat! Good thing they're able to swim to safety, but someone really needs to put an end to this Pokemon masquerading as an iceberg!"

-Young fisherman

Regice, the Iceberg Pokemon is the second in a series commissioned by Patreon supporter Cholulorax. It is one of the Legendary Titans.

Pokemon

Regice is a legendary Pokemon that inhabits the artic seas and islands of various regions. Like its brethren, it is rarely seen by people, and its appearance in unusual locales indicates incoming ecological upheaval

Regice's shells are a mix of chitin and ice crystals arranged in a complex weave that allows it to generate ice crystal anywhere on its body, and in any shape. In  water, Regice can pass off as a floating iceberg from a distance, and it is not unusual for other Pokemon to live upon its back. Drifting through the water, Regice feeds on plankton and small marine Pokemon. It can also freeze its food to save them for later.

In battle, Regice generates its ice armor to protect itself. When damaged, Regice can reform the armor, giving it the illusion as if the ice never melts, even if warmer climates. It can also form weapons with its ice.

Regice tend lead solitary lives, choosing to spend its time drifting or hibernating in ice caverns. Its usually docile nature and unfamiliarity with other life leads it to ignore them, unless threatened.

Armor

Regice armor is made out of ice crystals that regenerates quickly, which lowers the need to repair and maintain it.

Weapons

Regice weapons can quickly regenerate any wear and tear, reducing the need to sharpen them, if at all.

Outro

Up next will be Registeel. For all Patreons this will be free, thanks to Cholulorax for commissioning this piece.

[tribbetherium]

The Early Temperocene: 140 million years post-establishment

Ocean In Motion: Marine Life of the Early Temperocene

A global increase in temperatures following the end-Glaciocene mass extinction has opened up new ecosystems in the oceans of HP-02017. Indeed, as the ice caps melted in the Temperocene temperatures the sea levels once again have risen, to an extent that coastal regions have flooded into shallow seas, and now as much as 80 percent of the planet's surface is covered by water.

It is tempting to think of the ocean as merely one big biome, but the truth is far more complex. Here unusual dynamics in the ecosystem allow a far wider range of ecological niches to overlap and coexist, and a tangled food web with numerous trophic levels exist due to the existence of numerous types of producers at its very base, with algae, marine plants and phytoplankton to name a few, which in turn allows a staggering diversity of life to thrive. Floating mats of seagrass, forests of kelp, shallow reefs, open seas and coastal shelves all harbor different, specialized organisms, just as how jungles, tundras, savannahs and deserts would on dry land.

And there was no better age than the Temperocene to showcase marine biodiversity, as a wide range of separate unrelated clades now make a living in the sea: both creatures native to the seas since the beginning, to secondarily-aquatic species descended from numerous hamster lineages: all converging on the abundance of resources and vacant niches that the sea had to offer.

In the shallows, enormous reefs rise above the sea floor like castles, providing homes for a wide diversity of sea life. But, as with nearly everything on this planet, appearances can be decieving, and not everything is what it may seem.

Some of the reefs are comprised of millions of small, hard-shelled barnacle-like creatures rooted in place and extending long feathery appendages to scoop up drifting particles and plankton, while six-limbed starfish-like creatures crawl slowly across the seafloor, foraging for food and feeding upon the shelled reef-creatures. But despite appearances, both of these invertebrates are actually snails: the sessile filter-feeders are quillnobs, hard-shelled snails that have free-swimming larvae, juveniles that settle to the bottom and slither about like typical snails, and as adults finally fuse themselves to one spot and never move again, using modified extensions of their gills to feed. The "starfish", on the other hand, are asterisks: shell-less gastropods with six extensions of their foot that, equipped with suckers, can anchor themselves onto surfaces with incredible strength.

Meanwhile, drifting through the currents are transluscent, tentacled cnidarians: mockjellies. They are, true to their name, not jellyfish, but neotenic coral larvae that never matured into sessile reef-building adults, becoming what are technically speaking enormous plankton. Some, such as the smaller, stinging stheno, are predators: possessing stinging cells in their tentacles used in capturing small prey such as swimming crustaceans, while their bigger relative, the euryale, have developed a unique symbiosis with photosynthetic algae: allowing them, once adult, to live almost entirely on sunlight alone: but still possessing stingers that ward off most predators from eating them.

In the absence of fish, Earth's most abundant marine swimmers, the ecological niche was instead filled by the shrish: descended from krill, these shrimplike swimmers dominate oceanic and freshwater habitats alike, in a staggering thousands of species: not quite as diverse as they used to be in the Rodentocene when they were the sole rulers of the sea, but still ever present wherever aquatic ecosystems were: as the long-bodied centipede-like shreels, the bottom-feeding trilobugs, or the predatory shrarks, which once were the top of the food chain, but with the coming of aquatic hamsters have now been relegated to smaller mesopredator roles, with none growing larger than two feet.

The success of the shrish has even brought about an evolutionary trend that occured so frequently on Earth that it would have been more surprising to not happen here: a crustacean with a reduced, folded abdomen, an armored thorax, a rounded body shape and two pincers for feeding--basically, a crab. Known as the shrabs, these amusingly-familiar shrish are bottom-feeding opportunistic omnivores, eating carrion, small animals, algae, corals and even one another. And most remarkable of all are some shrabs that have left the sea entirely to make a living on an entirely new frontier: dry land. These terrestrial shrish are the first of their kind to leave the sea, and are able to survive near-indefinitely on land, as long as their gills remained moist.

But the shrish are not alone in the seas. In the Glaciocene, another marine clade had rose to prominence: the pescopods, a group of swimming sea slugs that propelled themselves with rhythmic undulations of their fin-like foot. In many niches the pescopods have supplanted the shrish thanks to their rasping radula that allowed them to feed on a wide variety of food. However, shrish and pescopods alike have thrived side-by-side thanks to niche partitioning, and due to their widely-disparate anatomy-- shrish being armored and exoskeletal and pescopods being soft and rubbery-- the predators that feed on them have also evolved dentition suited for one or the other, allowing again for partitioned niches that permit a great diversity of clades in the sea.

Another successful gastropod is the skwoid: a marine gastropod descended from the shelled, tentacled notilus, which is also still very abundant today. Skwoids, however, have ditched their protective shells for an internal support pen, as they are speedy predators suited to chase down their prey with the help of excellent vision from eyes mounted on retractable stalks. To defend themselves in turn from their own enemies, they spray thick mucous secretions to ensnare an attacker: though some skwoids have innovated on this defense and instead became ambush hunters in reefs: spinning mucous webs like some undersea spider for some unlucky shrish or pescopod to blunder into and find itself trapped.

With such a wide range of available resources, the aquatic hamsters of the sea have equally reached enormous diversity. Niche partitioning came to govern their evolution in unusual ways, producing numerous, disparate and completely unrelated species living side-by-side with minimal competition.

The mass extinction at the end of the Glaciocene, partly the work of changing climes and partly the work of the long-gone harmsters, had freed up many marine megafauna niches, and the Temperocene began with a race to fill it from all sides. With so much food available there was enough for everybody so long as they were adapted to consume it: and so marine megafauna hits its peak in the diverse and productive Temperocene seas.

The old rulers of the sea are still here: the seavers. Now, however, they are a fraction of their former glory, though still quite plentiful. Descended from the last Glaciocene survivor, the derelict seaver, they are now much smaller, as warmer seas and fewer cold-water upwellings were no longer conducive for giant filter feeders. Today, the derelicts have rebounded, feeding on swarms of small shrish and zooplankton, but now they never exceed more than eight meters in length.

Cricetaceans and bayvers as a whole still dominate the seas, but they have plenty of new neighbors. Among them are aquatic blubbats from the continent of Peninsulaustra, who, while heading out to sea to feed, came to colonize small island archipelagos in the open ocean and are now a common sight across the Centralic Ocean. They coexist by specializing on different prey: blubbats, with pointed conical teeth, are well-suited for tackling soft-bodied pescopods, while the seal-like bayvers with sharp slicing incisors and crushing molars are well-adapted for shrish, and the long-snouted roddolphs prefer skwoids, learning through social teaching on how to remove the mucous gland and sharp internal pen to make them safe to eat.

Herbivorous hamatees also cruise the warm shallows, with the largest, the whalerus, specialized to eat a floating seagrass known as coast kudzu, which, fittingly, grows at an absurdly fast rate and can form immense masses that blanket the surface. They are also an extremely abundant source of food for whaleruses that they can sustain sizes exceeding ten meters, and gradually shift away from filter feeding to specialize on this resource: an adaptation that may have been a saving grace of the derelict seaver that earlier had declined from their competition.

The rattiles too have taken to the seas, with the monisaurs: some now fully aquatic and bearing their independent young in the sea. The vast majority of them, with a few herbivorous exceptions, are durophages: equipped with broad, blunt teeth and strong jaws, eat mostly hard-shelled invertebrates, with shrabs, quillnobs and bivalves comprising most of their diet.

The monisaurs now are not the only rattiles in the sea: aquatic shingles, known as sterapins, have made their way in too. Their armor-plated terrestrial ancestors being resistant to irritating chemicals from eating land plants and invertebrates with such defenses, the sterapins were well suited to take on something in the ocean that no other animal eats-- the mockjellies. Mostly water and armed with stingers, hardly anything else bothers with them, as they are scarcely worth the effort. But where there is a niche something will evolve to fill it: and the sterapins did, uncontested in their unappetizing diet by any other competition, even if they did have to eat plenty of mockjellies just to gain sufficient nutrition.

Another common species in the seas are rodders: small remnant searets of distant relation to the now-gone leviahams that once roamed the seas. They avoid competition in the hectic ocean environment not by specializing as others have done, but by becoming generalists. Thus they are not limited to one food source as competitors come and go, and these small, semi-aquatic omnivores forage both underwater and on the shore, their flexibility being their key to success to survive where their giant cousins could not.

With so many new competition some of the bayvers and cricetaceans have adopted odd new specializations to ease the pressure of sharing their food sources and territories with crowds of newcomers. The whiskered walmus, a species of hamatee, has returned to a mostly-carnivorous bottom-feeding diet, probing out the bottom substrate for buried invertebrates such as clams, worms and shrabs. Meanwhile, the porpoid, a cricetacean relative of the roddolph, relieves competition with its long-snouted kin by specializing on shelled notiluses, aided by rounded, globe-shaped teeth that can easily crack the shells to get the soft meat inside.

One of the more unusual hunters in the sea, however, comes not from the water, but from the sky. The pterodents, a young but very promising clade, too have made a foray into the blue depths, in the form of the wanderganders: sea-adapted soaring flyers that, in just five million years, have radiated into over a dozen species, comprised of surface-skimmers, plunge-divers, shore-probers and even sky-pirates that harass smaller pterodents and ratbats in order to steal their food.

With such a vast diversity of large prey species it was no surprise that marine predators too would experience a boom of diversity themselves with so many different prey to hunt. These were the phorcas, cricetaceans adapted to tackle large prey, and with the disappearance of their old rivals, the leviahams, at the Glaciocene-Temperocene boundary, they would quickly fill the role of top marine predator left in the leviahams' wake, now spanning over twenty distinct species: all adapted for taking on different game.

Some, such as the sheartooths, specialized on small, fast prey, like blubbats and small porpoids and blippers, which they pursued in short, quick bursts and dispatched with conical stabbing teeth, primarily hunting quarry that could be consumed in a bite or two. Others, such as the whillers, went after larger prey, coordinating in social groups with the help of distinct dark-and-light contrasting markings for communication, allowing them to fell large whaleruses and seavers. Still others adapted to armored, slow-moving prey like sterapins and monisaurs, like the striped shellbanes, with broad pointed teeth with fewer cusps designed to concentrate their bite force onto small areas and penetrate even thick rattile scales.

With many predators abound and even more prey, death was always around the corner and carcasses were not hard to find: either by natural causes or the leftovers of predatory phorcas. As such, a specialized scavenger, the seayena, would diverge from the shellbanes, adapting to feed upon bones to access the marrow. Broad crushing molars and the strongest bite force of any living animal on the planet allow the seayena to exploit a resource others could not: consuming not only the marrow but the bones themselves, which powerful digestive juices can handle perfectly well to extract the maximum nourishment from their unsavory diet.

Predatory phorcas have become so abundant and numerous in the Temperocene that they now occupy virtually all the ranges in the oceans worldwide, sustained by the vast abundance and diversity of megafaunal prey that flourish in the seas. This has reached such an extent that an entirely new ecological niche would open up in the marine ecosystem: a predator that specializes to prey on phorcas themselves.

Enter the sarchon (Phorciphagus tyrannicus): ten meters in length, it is unquestionably the top rung of the Temperocene marine food web, and in fact is on an entirely new level of its own-- a top predator specialized to eat other top predators. Its diet, based on local availability, too includes other, more placid prey such as seavers and whaleruses, and likely began its predation of its fellow phorcas from initially just killing them to dispose of competition, before finding them an equally nutritious and abundant food source in their own right. As such the sarchon has attained truly impressive weaponry: rather than the sharp-cusped molars of more-typical phorcas, it relies on its incisors, ever growing like those of a more typical rodent, as flesh-slicing shears, with its first molars modified into broad cutting edges and its second and third molars gone entirely. Its head is heavily armored with thick, keratinized plates to protect its vulnerable snout from the bites of smaller phorcas, leaving them defenseless while the sarchon deals its lethal blow.

Unchallenged by virtually anything else in the sea, with no natural enemies of its own to fear, the sarchon spends most of its time lethargically floating near the surface to rest and digest, and, contrary to its fearsome feeding strategies, is otherwise a very lazy creature: like all cricetaceans, it only rests part of its brain at a time to breathe at the surface, and can spend as much as twenty hours a day just drifting around in a half-asleep stupor, occasionally floating belly-up at the surface to let sea ratbats pick parasitic louse-like shrish off its skin. Subsisting off such a nourishing diet, and without any danger to concern it, the sarchon hunts only once every few days, sometimes as little as once a week after a large meal, and spends much of its free time in a surprisingly relaxed state: its epic hunts towards other predators, which have come to define it, actually taking up very little time in the long, fascinating and complex life of the Temperocene's ultimate ocean carnivore.

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

[tigerkirby215]

5e Nami, the Tidecaller build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Katie “TeaTime” De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

In terms of fantasy archetypes the water magic is a fairly common staple... shame that 5e doesn’t have many water spells. Regardless Nami is one of League’s staple champions, having been in the game since 2012 and having always been a decent pick if you were good at her. It’s fun to heal and harm with the power of the tides, so hopefully we can make due with what few water spells exist in 5e.

GOALS

People and their air... - A bubble is a good a stun as any to keep foes at bay.

Ride upon the waves - We need to do equal parts healing and harm with a bouncing wave that can sure through our allies.

Oceans spill forth! - When a fight grows dire we need to be able to summon the entire ocean!

RACE

You know I don’t get to make Tritons often, but then again aquatic races aren’t all that common. Well +1 to 3 stats doesn’t help, but at least Tasha’s lets you put them into Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. (And I think Monsters of the Multiverse will give you much more flexibility.) You’re Amphibious of course and can breath underwater, and being used to underwater you’re a Guardians of the Depths with resistance to Cold damage.

You’re an Emissary of the Sea, allowing you to moonlight as a shark caller and communicate ideas to sea creatures. And finally Control Air and Water will give you some innate spells based on your Charisma, which is a bit of a shame given our stat array. But I’ll discuss those spells when we get there. Oh and you get Darkvision too.

ABILITY SCORES

15; WISDOM - Understanding the tides will be the key to understanding our magic.

14; CHARISMA - Nami may be a fish, but she’s a sweetheart of a fish. That, and we need it for our innate casting.

13; DEXTERITY - Something something medium armor that definitely doesn’t hinder your swimming.

12; CONSTITUTION - Feel free to swap Constitution and Charisma but we don’t need the other stats much.

10; INTELLIGENCE - As a Marai you haven’t learnt much of the outside world.

8; STRENGTH - You’re a fish, and an enchanter fish at that.

BACKGROUND

You certainly are a Far Traveler on land, and it’s good enough for our intended purposes. You get proficiency with Insight and Perception as well as a language and tool of your choice. Your feature All Eyes on You will get you around by virtue of being a very uncommon vastaya who scholars and socialites would gladly like to spend time with.

Depending on how common Tritons are in your world you might want to try for the Acolyte background instead, as you are essentially going on a holy quest to retrieve a religious artifact and find a demigod.

(Artwork Jessica “OwleyCat” Oyhenart. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - DRUID 1

Starting off as a Druid for now and forever more to attune yourself to the magic of the waves. You can grab proficiency in just about any Druid skill (I chose Medicine and Survival personally but legit all the Druid skills make sense for Nami.) You also learn Druidic to speak the language of the Marai (and other fishfolk perhaps.)

But most importantly you get Spellcasting. You get two cantrips but unfortunately Druid cantrips suck ass, so take Magic Stone to at least have something to defend yourself with and... well I mean Shape Water is kinda mandatory, isn’t it? At least your leveled spells are better, as you can prepare Healing Word to keep your allies alive in the fight, Goodberry to keep your allies alive out of the fight, Ice Knife for some offensive power, and Faerie Fire to surround your foes with luminescent plankton to make them easier to hit. You can also cast Fog Cloud once per Long Rest thanks to your Control Air and Water feature.

LEVEL 2 - DRUID 2

Second level Druids get Wild Shape to turn into an animal although you can’t turn into a fish yet, or Wild Companion to cast Find Familiar without material components. But if you choose the Circle of Stars for your subclass you get Starry Form, which allows you to use Wild Shape without transforming from a vastaya! You can call upon the moon to help turn the tides, causing you to sparkle and gaining an additional effect based on your choice of constellation. Archer lets you deal more damage with your Bonus Action, Chalice will let your healing spells bounce to nearby targets, allowing you to heal additional allies when you heal, and Dragon boosts your Intelligence and Wisdom checks (as well as your concentration saves) to make any roll of 9 or lower on the d20 into a 10.

Additionally you create a Star Map to help find the aspect of the moon. You can use it to cast Guidance as well as Guiding Bolt, and you can cast Guiding Bolt a number of times for free each Long Rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Also speaking of spells you can prepare Create or Destroy Water because... well I mean duh it kinda fits.

LEVEL 3 - DRUID 3

3rd level Druids can prepare 2nd level spells. I’d suggest getting rid of Faerie Fire and Ice Knife by this point to cast Healing Spirit for a bunch of healing spread around like waves, Hold Person for an early way to bubble your foes, and Wither and Bloom to actually damage your foes with the waves while healing your allies! And finally Control Air and Water lets you cast Gust of Wind once per Long Rest.

LEVEL 4 - DRUID 4

4th level Druids get the first of many Ability Score Improvements, but I kinda forgot that Druid cantrips are terrible (especially since we can’t take Produce Flame which is basically the only good one) so grab Magic Initiate to actually have some offensive power while concentrating on defensive magics. Take Cleric spells for good ol’ Sacred Flame as well as Spare the Dying to save your ADC. For your leveled spell Shield of Faith can be good in a pinch against powerful foes, even in the late game.

Hitting level 4 also means your Wild Shape can now turn into beasts of CR 1/2, and can also turn into one with a swimming speed! Of course keeping to a half-fish is still probably your best bet, but transforming completely gives you some unique problem solving tools.

Finally you can get more cantrips, and you can replace Magic Stone with something more useful. Grab Druidcraft for some more natural magics (which perhaps aren’t water-based, but you are the resident Druid) and Mending to keep your staff in good condition. You can also prepare a leveled spell but I’d suggest waiting until...

(Artwork by Michelle Hoefener. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - DRUID 5

5th level Druids get 3rd level spells and we’ll be grabbing your Tidal Wave with... Tidal Wave! I’d also suggest taking Aura of Vitality (ty Tasha’s) because it’s an incredibly strong healing spell that synergizes great with your Starry Form chalice.

And to top it off you get your final spell from Control Air and Water: Wall of Water! Along with Tidal Wave this will let you master the waves by level 5! Honestly if you don’t mind reflavoring some abilities you have a fairly good build for Nami by this point!

LEVEL 6 - DRUID 6

6th level Stars Druids can get a Cosmic Omen to aid them with their quest to find the Moonstone Pearl. When you finish a long rest roll a die (and die will do!) Until you finish your next long rest, you gain a new reaction based on whether you rolled an even or an odd number on the die.

An even result means Weal, allowing you to target a creature (ideally an ally) you can see within 30 feet of you when they’re about to make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. When you use your reaction, you roll a d6 and add the number rolled to the total.

Odd however means Woe. When a creature (ideally an enemy this time) you can see in 30 feet is about to make an attack roll / saving throw / ability check, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 and subtract it from the total.

Regardless of which option you get you can use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. And finally you can cast Elemental Weapon on an ally’s weapon (assuming it isn’t already magical) to give them the Tidecaller's Blessing’s to turn their weapon into a +1 and make it do an extra d4 of damage on hit!

LEVEL 7 - DRUID 7

7th level Druids can cast 4th level spells like Watery Sphere, which officially gives you Aqua Prison for all your League abilities! What now? Well I guess we may as well finish the build.

LEVEL 8 - DRUID 8

8th level Druids get another Ability Score Improvement and more Wisdom would probably be good at this point so your spells can actually... ya know: hit? Magic Initiate perhaps isn’t the most useful feat but having good cantrips felt more important for Nami, since you’d usually be concentrating on healing magic.

Well at least you can prepare other spells like Freedom of Movement to give your ADC a Mikael’s, and Polymorph to turn your ADC into a fish. Trust me: it’s better this way. And speaking of better this way: you can Wildshape into beasts of CR 1; even beasts that can fly! It would be pretty easy to find the aspect of the moon if you could just fly up Mount Targon, huhn?

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - DRUID 9

9th level Druid: 5th level spells. Grab Maelstrom because if you can’t tell we’re basically taking every water-themed spell available.

LEVEL 10 - DRUID 10

10th level Stars Druids are so attuned to both the stars and the tides that their Starry Form is full of Twinkling Constellations. Both your Archer and Chalice form gain an extra d8, and while in your Dragon form you gain a 20 foot flying speed. (Arguably) more important however is that you can change your form at the start of each of your turns while you have Starry Form active!

You also get another cantrip at this level, so take Primal Savagery to actually be a threat in melee range. And of course you get more leveled spells too! Should we have taken Lesser Restoration before? Well at least now you have Greater Restoration in case of emergency. But honestly Lesser Restoration is probably better.

LEVEL 11 - DRUID 11

More spells, this time of 6th level. And I mean Heal is kinda the only one that makes sense, right? I mean feel free to prepare Heroes' Feast from time to time but all the other spells don’t make sense for a Tidecaller.

LEVEL 12 - DRUID 12

12th level Druids get another Ability Score Improvement which means you can finally max out your Wisdom! And sure you can also prepare more spells (like you should really grab Lesser Restoration by this point) but again there isn’t much I want from this level so...

(Artwork by Pyeongjun Park. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - DRUID 13

7th level spells time! Regenerate is great to help your teammates stay in the fight but... that’s about it for spells that aren’t just... fire with fire all around? So maybe jump back to the earlier levels for options like Reincarnate? Honestly we’ve reached the point where you can pick whatever you fancy.

LEVEL 14 - DRUID 14

14th level Tidecallers are Full of Stars, resisting Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage while transformed which is good to keep your Concentration spells up.

And you get even more spells you don’t need! Just prepare whatever you think would be good in the moment.

LEVEL 15 - DRUID 15

Guess what you get now! I’ll give you a hint: it’s one above seven. Tsunami is a really big Tidal Wave that will do much more than your regular Tidal Wave! And uhhh... you can prepare something else instead of another 8th level spell that you won’t be able to cast.

LEVEL 16 - DRUID 16

Hey look at that another Ability Score Improvement: you’ve probably noticed that uneven Constitution score for all this time. Take Resilient Constitution to increase it and also increase your Concentration checks now that foes are truly hitting hard!

Oh and you can prepare more spells but I have nothing particular to suggest.

(Artwork by SixMoreVodka Studios. Made for Legends of Runeterra by Riot Games.)

LEVEL 17 - DRUID 17

I’ve been ignoring your spells in these later levels (because you honestly have too many to prepare lol) but I won’t ignore the 9th level spells! Sure Storm of Vengeance is cool and thematic but I’m going to suggest good ol’ Shapechange. Turn into a good ol’ dragon! Or like, a Category 3 Krasis. But you’re going to turn into a dragon let’s be real.

LEVEL 18 - DRUID 18

18th level Druids have a Timeless Body, causing you to age 10 times slower than everyone else so you can defend the ocean without tiring. Speaking of which have you been wondering what you’re supposed to do when Wildshaped into a CR 1 beast? Well at least with Beast Spells you can perform the somatic and verbal components of a Druid spell while in Wildshape. You still aren’t able to provide material components though.

Speaking of spells: more prepared spells which I do not have the energy to tell you specifically what to get. Prepare what you think will be useful. Maybe even prepare a Fire spell.

LEVEL 19 - DRUID 19

19th level Druids get one last Ability Score Improvement and honestly by this point the world is your oyster. Take a feat you think is fun! Or if you want to powergame just take Warcaster I guess.

Oh and more spells too I guess.

LEVEL 20 - DRUID 20

20th level Druids become an Archdruid! For one you ignore basically all the components for spells (which means you can’t be counterspelled, among other things), but more importantly you gain an unlimited amount of Wildshapes! Not only does this mean an infinite amount of Starry Form uses, but you can also constantly turn into wildlife to hide your presence from air-breathing people (and also constantly give yourself temporary hitpoints.)

And after reaching the peak of Druid power you can prepare just about any spell you want too.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

The ocean will sweep them away - I don’t make a lot of single-class builds, which means I don’t get to talk about capstone abilities quite often. Being an Archdruid makes you one of the best casters out there, and unlimited Wild Shapes allows you to dance around a lot of danger. Not to mention unlimited Starry Forms, and 9th level spell slots!

I'll find my path - Starry Form is also very powerful, giving you either a consistent source of Bonus Action damage, very strong healing amongst the party, or insurance for all your Concentration checks. Resisting damage and swapping between forms also helps to always be on the right path towards the aspect of the Moon.

Wash them away - You have plenty of damage and crowd control with your water magic, as well as plenty of healing to spread amongst your party!

CONS

We are all tied to the ocean - The choice to only take water spells is an odd one to be sure. A lot of the Druid spell list is strangely tied to fire or other elements which aren’t in-flavor for Nami. You’re obviously welcome to take them, but at that point you’re pretty much just playing a generic Druid.

Feet are strange - A universal problem of spellcasters is that your magic will run out over the course of a day, and a universal problem with Druid is that most of your spells are Concentration. It can be hard to pick the right spell for a chosen task just to be forced to swap them out on the fly.

My quest beckons - This build honestly peaks around level 8 or so, and while a 20th level Druid is more than powerful you will feel the roleplay restrictions and general weaknesses of Druid around Tier 3.

But the complications of where to go after your quest is too much to ask. Focus on the present and know that you’re on a quest to save your people, not for personal greatness. Use the ocean’s strength to empower your allies and flood your foes, knowing that your greatness is written in the stars.

(Artwork by West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

[hanafubukki]

Convert Anon💜 here!!

So i’m still sick with the cold and i’m feeling so so(fam brought back dinner which was very funny of some fried chicken and mashed potatoes) and i’ve been trying to sleep it away(and yes I would share the chicken with Azul bb💜💜💜)

Aquarium date and learning more about the fish is *chefs kiss from a distance to not get ye sick* and having to stop Floyd from swimming with the fishes is hilarious and stressful

And them talking to the fish is great and i will pay them in kisses for their time(once not sick)

And having to keep Silver awake but tbh falling asleep in an aquarium feels like a mood and gosh do i wish to be Silver in that instance

And the hats💜💜💜yes

I name my hat Azul Jr and make sure Azul(sr(hehe)) gets just as much love as Azul Jr

And I love his Jellyfish hat and the tweels probably get plushes of eels and I love them for it

And Malleus with a dolphin plush is so cute!!💜💜💜 and Lilia would get a fish pun shirt I feel or a shark plush

And home dates are so nice!! Like if you want some quiet time alone you can go to a comfy spot and no one feels bad and it’s safe to take naps in(I have a love of naps lol sorry) and cuddles and watch what you love and is nice and cozy and maybe trying to make a pie together(I have a good apple pie recipe from an older cookbook my mom owns) or make some nice tea and enjoy rhe sounds of nature with the windows open and reading some books

Very nice very nice

Convert Anon 💜 I hope you feel better soon 🥺🥺, sleep a lot and drink lots of water and make sure to eat 💕💕😘😘🤗

They hear even a sniffle from you, they will tease you and then wrap you up in all the blankets. No, Floyd, you are not a blanket and no you can squeeze them the whole time. Convert Anon needs to breathe

Omg yes! Lilia would definitely get a fish pun shirt 🙌🙌 great idea Anonie, I could hug you and kiss you 😘 it’s okay, I won’t catch a cold 🙌🙌

I had to look some up lmfaoo:

Seems a bit fishy to me.

Dear Cod, I laughed so hard!

He really schooled you then.

I’d make him walk the plankton for that.

Not bad, cod do better…

We should dolphinitely scale back on the fish puns.

Any fin is possible, just don’t trout yourself!

Ahh guys, you’re krilling me now!

———-

Lolol I hope that cheered you up some

No! I agree! Naps are the best! Especially when you can cuddle 💜💜💕💕

Yum! Apple pie with some ice cream 🤤🤤

Yes yes yes nature and maybe some slight rain and cold while reading a book is heavenly 💗💗💗

[kaykay-13]

far off Arctic yun falls asleep on an ice floe or a big ship returning to the tropics from the Arctic and he sees xq

OKAY BUT THE ICE FLOE IDEA IS SO CUTE THO?????

but i was thinking: xingqiu napping and getting dragged away by the ocean waves. ends up near the arctic. he’s freezing and lost, and suddenly he sees the most gorgeous being he’s seen in his life, sitting on an ice floe and singing. BAM. xingqiu is bamboozled. he’s crushing hard. he’s so ashamed of his crush that (after catching a few plankton in his gaping mouth), he swims away, and manages to find the search party out to find him (perks of being royalty i guess)

[mostly-history]

A killer whale swimming amid floating ice in the Ross Sea (Antarctica).

The melting and freezing of sea ice encourages ocean circulation, and brings nutrients to the surface.  Nutrients are also released directly when sea ice melts.  These nutrients nourish phytoplankton, and the growth of phytoplankton feeds animals further up the food chain.  Melting ice also exposes the ocean water to sunlight, which encourages photosynthesis in the plankton.