#like to me it isn't but what do i know

[giulliadella]

Speculative Biology of Euclydeans (and Bill Cipher) part 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4

Reproduction and growth

I highly recommend reading the second part before this! This part is the continuation of second part and it talks about Euclydean reproductive system. I separated it because some people find reproductive anatomy NSFW.

As always, this analysis is based on two assumptions:

Before Bill Cipher became a demigod, he was a biological, living organism and so were the rest of his species.

Even after Bill Cipher became a demigod, he still retained some physical characteristics of his biological form.

There will be anatomic diagrams and discussions of pregnancy in this part, so content warning if you're sensitive about those topics.

And without further ado, let's get into it!

Reproductive system

One thing that we know for certain about Euclydeans is that they reproduce sexually. Bill has parents, a mother and a father and that is only possible in species that sexually reproduce. Because we know that we also know that males have testes and females have ovaries. This is because of biological definitions of male and female - a male is an organism that produces a lot of microgametes (small reproductive cells that don't have nutrients to feed the embryo) and a female is an organism that produces far less macrogametes (large reproductive cells that contain nutrients for the embryo). Hermaphrodites produce both types of gametes and some organisms produce neither - those are sexless.

Euclydeans most likely had males and females. Bill understands concept of gender, but also the one of sex. He claims that his species had 14 billion genders, but when talking about sexes, he only uses two: male and female. Now I don't know for sure whether Bill is a biological male, however, most of the insane shit he says points towards it. Whether it is him making inappropriate jokes about knocking up your mother or adopting toxic masculinity traits that humans have and also refusing to possess women all point towards him being a male.

Bill gets extremely uncomfortable when someone wants to touch or measure his sides, especially his "hypotenuse". Bill is an equilateral triangle, so he doesn't have a hypotenuse, but I tend to believe that what he calls hypotenuse is actually his base. Since touching Bill's base makes him incredibly upset and he calls people who do so "creeps", it's fair to conclude that that is where his reproductive organs are located. And it makes sense: in vast majority of animals reproductive system is located on the body side opposite of the brain.

I believe that Euclydeans give live birth. Bill is usually grossed out by humans and when he is, he is very vocal about it. There are only two human body parts that he isn't grossed out by: the brain and the uterus. I believe that's because those parts are similar to their equivalents in Euclydeans. Bill said that he was born, not hatched and he seems uncomfortable around the idea of laying eggs. He is completely comfortable with the idea of a live birth and uteri, so much so that he has actually depicted himself inside a human uterus which is an honor only brain has gotten from him.

This means that Euclydean females probably have a very similar uterus to humans and they give live birth. This also means that the fertilization happens inside the female, so males very likely have some kind of copulatory organ. Copulatory organ is basically a means for a male to deposit his sperm inside the female. In mammals it's called penis, in reptiles a hemipenis and so on. I don't know how would Euclydean copulatory organ look like, but it acts like a hemipenis - it's coiled inside their shell when it's not in use.

Despite having a uterus, Euclydeans are for sure not placental mammals and they definitely don't feed their babies milk. Thanks to Bill asking Ford why he didn't eat Stan while they were in their mom's belly, I have a theory that Euclydeans feed their fetuses via adelphophagy. Also referred to as "intra-uterine cannibalism", adelphophagy basically means that the mother produces a large amount of yolk-rich eggs and deposits them in her uterus. Some of those get fertilized and the others serve as food for her embryo. However, the goal is to nurture just one embryo while the rest will get used as food for it! This is a technique used by some sharks and it fits so well with Euclydeans too, since they, just like sharks and humans give very few births throughout their life - less than 10 and it's almost always to one baby. Adelphophagy is very hard on the mother because she has to produce a huge amount of yolk for her baby to eat, so she will have to have a "recovery period" when she won't be able to get pregnant again.

This also means that Euclydean fetuses have developed teeth and ability to kill and digest their unborn siblings. That is fucked up, but it's normal for them. Hell, human pregnancy could be called "intra-uterine parasitism" because our babies feed on mom's nutrients. And the baby that turns out to be stronger that the other embryos has already passed the natural selection test and is viable to live outside of mom.

Euclydean babies are born with teeth and they are capable of eating the same things that their parents do. They are also born with a very soft shell. Since the mother has to push the baby out of her vagina, just like we do, their babies are super soft and squishy so that they could leave the womb with as little trouble as possible. That super soft exoskeleton is why baby Bill is shown having yellow arms. The shell is as soft as skin and when baby's limbs are retracted into it they can actually use it as skin. Besides, Euclydeans are cold-blooded so babies, who are smaller and thinner than adults and have very little protection might want to keep their limbs inside the shell as a means of keeping warm.

There's one part here about males that I didn't talk about and that's the hat. The hat is a living part of a Euclydean and out of Bill's parents only one is shown having it. Since Bill has it too and he's a male, his father was the one with the hat. But what is the hat? Well, "if it doesn't make sense it's used to attract females" is a saying in biology for a reason. Euclydean girls are seemingly attracted to males who have long and muscular hats. Besides, Bill himself says outright that he has a "seduction hat" and it's just a comically large cylinder.

So Euclydeans are sexually dimorphic species: the males are characterized by having a large growth in a shape of a cylinder hat on top of their head which females lack.

2. Growth and development

Baby Euclydeans are all soft and squishy, but they will harden as they grow. The shell gets more triangular as it hardens. The babies probably have very soft skin on their limbs too and that's why their parents give them shoes to wear to protect their little feet.

Interestingly, Euclydean eyes grow with them which is a rarity among Earth animals.

Also, I am aware that Bill said that he's a preteen, but he's lying. He has adult proportions and a fully developed hat. Hat develops as the male matures, so preteens wouldn't have it. Bill is an adult with emotional maturity of a preteen and he's using that as an excuse for his behavior. He sucks.

Also they aren't born without limbs, I screwed that up, the limbs are inside the shell, that's what I wanted to say, but I'm not English.

One very interesting thing that I noticed is that Bill's juvenile form has two rows of bricks, but his adult form has three. This means that he adds segments as he grows and there's only one way for that to occur - MOLTING!

Like all animals with exoskeleton, Euclydeans molt. Molting is a process of replacing the old, small exoskeleton with a new larger one as the animal grows. Some animals, like millipedes, add extra segments during molting process until they reach adult size. This is the case with Euclydeans.

This is confirmed to me by that little bit about Fiddleford seeing Bill remove his exoskeleton to feed. Removing the exoskeleton to eat would be the worst adaptation ever, not only because removing the exoskeleton takes a lot of time, but also because the animal would be completely unprotected during a very vulnerable time such as feeding. So what I think happened was that Bill was changing his exoskeleton to look all shiny when he comes out of the portal and, since molting is a very energy demanding process, he wanted a snack afterwards. And Fiddleford barged at the worst moment.

The exoskeleton of Euclideans contains their pigments, so they need to wait for it to fully harden until they gain color and the skin becomes invisible under it again. They are soft and vulnerable in this stage. And, considering how Alex Hirsch draws Bill in human form, I headcanon that Bill is a bit chubby, which you can see here XD

But, I know what my freaky fanfic authors need to know: Could Euclydeans and humans have sex?

Well, since Euclydeans are as intelligent or even more intelligent than humans, you can discuss consent. And with that, have fun. There are definitely ways Ford could have fucked that triangle.

@unoriginal-starwalker thank you for your support with this. My degree is burning in hell together with me after being used to write this.

[inkskinned]

we were sitting on the floor and i was cutting out tiny pictures to make a collage for a friend's birthday. you were on your phone and you laughed about something, and i was still in love with you then, so i asked what had you giggling.

"sorry. i was just..." you took a moment and went back to texting. "i was telling someone about how you're afraid of the dark."

i'm afraid of the dark because something bad happened. "oh." i felt a little slinky of shame crawl down my throat.

you glanced up, and maybe it showed on my face, because you rolled your eyes and held the phone to the side casually so i could see the group chat. "what? was it a secret?"

i looked down to the scissors in my hand. "i just..." no, it's not a secret. it just felt like something private, something serious. saying why would you tell someone that just feels like an accusation. it's unfair. i honestly am not even ashamed of it, it's just a fact about my person that i don't usually share.

what a strange experience. is this a human thing or a generational thing? for our grandparents: did they need to worry about how quickly someone can just... share your personal information? again, i didn't even really have a true objection. what could i say? i want any person in my life to feel they can be honest with their friends. it's not like i said don't tell anyone this.

i cut out another letter to complete the rainbow happy birthday, started hunting for the exclamation mark. i heard you sigh dramatically.

"don't make a big deal about this," you said.

this entire conversation was a pattern for us, and this was when we got to my least favorite part of the pattern. i would get my feelings hurt in some oblique not-technically-terrible way, and then it would be making a big deal about something. you'd get frustrated for me for being soft, but i was born soft. you knew i was soft when you pierced me. it's one of the things that made controlling me so easy.

"i'm not," i felt my voice crack. the question came without my wanting. "why are you guys talking about me?" and why are you saying that thing? why not like - i'm telling them how you're generous and kind and pretty.

you let out this low, tragic groan. "oh my god." you tossed the phone away from your body. "there, see? i just won't talk to them if you don't like it."

the rest of the hour went the way it always went, between us: i said i don't actually mind if you talk to your friends but -, you found a way to call my minor expression of discomfort "being dramatic." you got upset that i had been offended. i ended up apologizing, even though i hadn't actually done anything.

afterwards, you picked up the phone again. after texting for a little bit, you snorted. "okay," you said, "but it is kind of funny you're afraid of the dark. i mean, when you think about it."

[florbe-triz]

It's all in the name of peace and love!!

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[vaxxman]

"STOP TAKING THE HEALTH KITS"

He ubered the scout after this.

Additional sketches and some ramblings under the cut.

This is based on an encounter I had the other day, when a demoman took a medkit before my medigun connected with him. When he saw my health was down to 21, he would force me to stand at the spawn point and guarded me until I was healed. Wherever you are now, if you read this, you were a good lad and I love you.

Sometimes I think about how medic is emotionally very invested in the missions (which shows in his voice when he shouts at his team), but off-duty and during friendly taunts he seems to be among the most giggly, and fun-loving mercenaries in the team. I like to think he can get agitated very fast, but cools down just as quickly.

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[yuwuta]

you ask yuuta if he wants a bite of your food and when he says yes you offer your plate to him, but he’s just sat there looking at you with his dumb big bambi boy eyes and his mouth slightly open and he will not look away or blink or close his mouth until you lift your fork to his lips to feed him and then he grins like shit’s sweet and hums about how good the food is like nothing happened like he’s not ridiculously attractive. gonna chew on steel

[erinwantstowrite]

Do I look like him?

had a lot of people ask me to make a tiktok for it and i swear i tried but,,, making tiktoks just isn't working for me rn so we're getting still images until i can get my brain to cooperate. anyways!! i am obsessed with chromokopia and when i heard Like Him i ascended into heaven and also cried. and it very much reminded me of LoF

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

hope you feel better soon!

I am riddled with ailments, but I stay silly!

[v1p0]

[hyakunana]

I hate the sewers . jpg

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[daily-odile]

AUGH I’d love to see more time looping odile if possible,,,,, how do you think she’d like; “devolve” over each of the acts as compared to Siffrin over time :O

ok im gonna be honest i did like portrait edits months ago and just never finished them. so here you go

act 3:

act 5:

[knifearo]

i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a binary i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a sliding scale of "less" to "more" i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the only two options i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as significantly different things i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as all encompassing i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the two halves of a shallow concept of love that doesn't actually encompass anything at all i think we need to overhaul every popular conception about "types" of love so we can talk about things that are real and true for once

[suntails]

destiny