#and horrible squid monsters | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spacexseven · 2 years

Note

that mermaid childe thing you reblogged totally put me onto sea monster dazai (imagine that dazai anon thinks about dazai call the news)... like imagine those giant empty eyes staring at you intently from underneath the still water. actually terrifying. hed probably be something fucked up looking too like a snake thing or an angler fish or something like that.... could also see him as a siren.... like ur too stubborn and well versed on the sea and its inhabitants to fall for his Beautiful Mermaid facade and hes initially got this horrible vendetta against you about it but eventually his obsession with getting you in the water with him Less so he can rip you apart and finally prove hes smarter than you and more so he can shove his weird fish tongue down ur throat i mean swim with you in a very well behaved fashion

ALSO adding an akutagawa thing cuz no one ever talks about my husband as often as they should. yan sea monster/mermaid akutagawa. he gets washed up on the beach, greviously injured, and despite the fact he keeps BITING AND SCRATCHING AND BEING SO MEAN 2 YOU you do your best to nurse him back to health in ur old pool u never use anymore (well, as healthy as aku Gets) until hes set to go back to the ocean. akutagawa has always known that humans are awful creatures who need to be killed before they kill him or his ilk, but maybe you're not so bad? first time for everything, he supposes. dont be shocked if you see some familiar scales glittering under the beach sun. or if people you know start washing up on the beach with a few less limbs than you remember them having. I was gonna immediately say aku is a shark but maybe octopus or squid would work cuz of how rashomon looks..... much to think about

- 🩹

you're so funny i can't breathe omg i too would like to swim with him in a well behaved fashion

cw: yandere characters, vague descriptions of sea creatures(?), mentions of cannibalism (well sea creature eats humans), obsessive behavior, non-con kissing, mentions of kidnapping and imprisonment, possessive behavior, jealousy, mentions of biting, scratching and self-inflicted wounds

siren dazai? no way sea monster dazai is the way to go! nothing about that guy looks safe but you know, he has a way with his words that you just can't help but think he's misunderstood and lonely. everyone thinks he's up to no good, but that's not the case at all! it's so unfortunate, you think, that dazai's being judged by the way he looks because he's really such a wonderful friend! what a shame that even the other sea creatures avoid him and his territory, of course it couldn't be because something was wrong with him. they were just being rude and outcasting him for something he couldn't control. you've spent enough time with him to know he was funny (in an odd way...it works on him, but if anyone else were to say his 'jokes' about eating you up and dragging you down to his cave and chaining you there, it would have terrified you. oh well, dazai's just never learned what jokes are supposed to be, so he just says the things people say about him. poor dazai, really) and he was really sweet, eager to help you with your troubles and offering his waters as a place for you to come to when you need to be alone and clear your head. not because he wants to be the only person you confide in and trust, definitely not!

and honestly, dazai was just bored. and what better way to spend the time than to trick some poor, unsuspecting human before making them his lunch? yum. sure, chuuya and a few select others were the only other mers that visited him, but that didn't mean he was lonely. he simply didn't care. of course, playing it up to you about how unfriendly everyone else was surely won over your sympathy, and it felt...sort of nice when you rubbed his cheek and looked at him with your sad eyes and told him you'd always be there for him. oh well, little human. he hopes you know he was going to hold you to that :)

his initial plan was just to earn your trust for a couple of days (because he knew how stupid and trusting humans were. terribly useless species, really. how did they survive for this long?) and then, under the pretense of an injury he couldn't reach, would coax you into getting into the water, where he could happily prepare you for a meal. but he began stalling, not wanting to eat you just yet. maybe you could entertain him a little while longer. playing with his food or whatever humans said. the more you talked to him and he learned about human relationships, the more curious he got. what did you mean, humans licked each other's mouths? how disgusting, he definitely wasn't interested in trying. what was so special about hand holding and cuddling and whatever the hell kissing was???? and why did he want to do it to you??? one day, he can't hold back his curiosity and drags you into the water off your boat, ignoring your screaming just to try and see if he "can shove his weird fish tongue down ur throat". and maybe more. obviously the talk about consent flew over his head, because what do you mean, you didn't want to do this with him? didn't you kiss people you like? and if you were coming to visit dazai this often, you definitely liked him right?

regardless, it wasn't anything he couldn't change with a little bit of time :)

akutagawa hm i think as much as i would love for him to be a sparkly shiny mermaid i think that role is more suited for chuuya aka the prettiest person EVER sorry anyway akutagawa octopus ver kinda reminds me of the kraken but shark akutagawa is also a wonderful picture i will figure that out eventually don't worry

so just another day of strolling on the beach admiring the sparkling water and woah what's that? a wild akutagawa has appeared! you find him beached and bleeding and you must obviously help him out! how could you leave him out there, alone and vulnerable? it's a little difficult to bring him to your conveniently close to the beach house, especially since he keeps growling and biting at your arms, but you finally make it and help him into the pool where he finally calms down enough for you to dress his wounds and give him something to eat.

and as much as he hates to admit it, he kind of likes it here with you. you're unexpectedly nice and not annoying or overbearing and your food tastes pretty good. sometimes, he's still waiting on you to ship him over to some evil merfolk killing people or a zoo or something terrible, or maybe you want to kill him yourself for his parts. but you don't do any of that. like you promised him, you bring him back to the ocean and wave him off.

except now, he really doesn't want to leave.

a week or so later, when you're back strolling by the shore, a familiar lump of something is waiting for you, wounded and stranded. you don't notice the way his eyes light up when he sees you, but you definitely notice that he wasn't biting you this time. sure, he has an iron-tight grip on you with his appendages, but maybe he was just scared? and the cycle continues. sometimes, you find fresh fish and seashells on the spot where you found him first, but most of the time, you find him, injured and waiting for your help. you don't suspect him of purposely hurting himself in order to see you and feel you nursing him back to health, but it does start to get a little suspicious. maybe he just got bullied a lot.

oddly enough, he's never friendly when you bring someone else with you. if by chance he's on the shore and you are with another person, akutagawa becomes hostile, growling and scratching at your companion until they run away and it's just him and you again. the way it should be :)

279 notes · View notes

theminecraftbee · 2 years

Text

random rundown of fic ideas I have on the docket for at some point in the future, if anyone is curious (or wants to take from these concepts to use themselves because these are Long Bois so I’m probably saving them for november):

in a timeline where ren’s kingship immediately goes horrible dictatorship, joe hills accidentally discovers he has the superpower of Time Loop, and sets out to figure out what went wrong, fix it, and save his friends. the trick with this fic, however, is that it would be a single king oneshot taking place entirely over one of the loops, at least a dozen attempts in, and ending with the end of another failed loop. it’s all about the middle bits here.

pearl wakes up as a horrible monster in an unknown laboratory with no idea how she’s gotten there, what she is, how to talk, or what to do from here. fic is about her escaping, piecing together what happened to get her into the situation she wakes up in, and getting back home again, somehow.

xisuma tries to deal with his emotions about season eight. bluntly this one would be about abuse, and reconciling that is the word that describes what happened to you. I’ve wanted to write this for months. we’ll see.

double life cast is mysteriously swapped with their hermitcraft selves, as told from cleo’s perspective as she’s suddenly in a world with a person who claims to be her best friend that she doesn’t remember, on this massive ocean base that she doesn’t understand, trying to just… deal with that. this would be a very focused on “joe and cleo as friends” fic, but with the angle of “cleo wakes up suddenly not knowing who joe is and joe is faced with a cleo who doesn’t have a decade of history with him”. really want to write this in some ways.

vague “something about helsknight because I have ideas about what helsknight is but I have since ditched the fic concept I originally had for the helsknight interpretation I wanted to use so I need to figure out where else I can get it to work and also NOT have him be too much like the man in the striped suit in my recent fic”

rare new techno/sort of sbi fic from me, recycling aspects of a VERY old bedrock bros concept I never wrote. set in a world where people have various minor magical gifts/superpowers, old war god/demon technoblade is retired, thank you very much, and largely haunts a farmer’s market where he’s in a totally normal competition with the other local potato salesman and is maybe friends with the farmer’s market gang (featuring niki and sophie and probably connor along with obviously squid, amongst others). one day however one of his regular customers, out of desperation, summons techno to make a pact, a thing techno hasn’t done in decades. this person is tommy. wilbur is missing. he wants techno to help save him. cue adventure. at some point in my head this was supposed to be a superhero sbi fic send-up so there MAY be superheroes in the background but this has turned way more into the magical realism wheelhouse I reside in over time so you know. maybe not. anyway this is a BIG maybe since I largely sit in hermitcraft these days but I am still fondly attached to “old god techno and tommy, desperate regular human, end up bonding” because I came up with the basics back in november 2020 and have just never have successfully written it and also it’s morphed actual plots and basically every beat but that part like twelve times so we’ll see.

false ends up back in her homeworld, but fwhip and I think maybe shelby also end up there accidentally with her and also it turns out that false’s old world kind of sucks so they have to try to get fwhip and shelby home while false faces internal conflict over whether she stays in her homeworld or goes back to empires. this one relies on knowing a BIT more about false before I’m comfortable writing it though.

anyway I think those are all the main docket ideas for “next big thing second tries to write” but this guarantees none of them because, like, you never know if a new idea will take over my brain between now and november or anything else,

#and as always y’all are allowed to riff off of these yourselves. i haven’t actually written them. lol #just sorta talking into the void #also sometimes interest makes me more likely to write a thing. not always tho.

154 notes · View notes

sunshinemoonrx · 10 months

Text

Dynaman 16-20 is a wild ride because they're like "we now begin a series of episodes filmed in Kyushu!" and set up some recurring locations and new summer outfits and then they do...two episodes there and go home. And then a couple episodes later they remember they promised more and contrive a reason to go back? I dunno what went on there

Anyway the theme of 18 is "fuck this specific set"

You can see pieces flying off the faux machinery, it's great. I've seen plenty of toku heroes come crashing through the walls of evil bases but I think this is the first time I've seen one on a surfboard

(Continued after the cut: Wet man-tits, horribly unsafe stunts and sapphic duels)

Shima's always been the weakest characterised of the team but I've now realised he's here to be the fanservice guy. I mean at least I assume that's the reason he has all these scenes dripping wet in swimsuits of various sizes.

Kinda wish they just leaned harder into making him a swimming obsessive and just made the wetsuit his default outfit because his default summer outfit with the sweater is really boring compared to everyone else's. Oh well!

Well, sir, you're in luck!

Anyway in 19 Dynaman must defeat a bunch of sticks of dynamite, which feels kind of rude because that's their whole thing. 20 is the real shit, though

Ryu dangles off a midair cable-car for a good few minutes, and because this was the era of the combined face actor/insane stunt performer, the show goes to great lengths to show you yes, Junichi Haruta is really doing that

We have fun here

It's a big day for fans of Princess Chimera (me), as we get to see her try a bunch of disguises and getups:

Plus a POV shot of her stepping on you, if that's what you're about, like a sensible person

So then as usual as soon as she sees Rei she goes all TARGET LOCKED and they start to duel again, and uh, a low flamenco track starts playing while they strip each other with their weapons and look really pleased and excited about it?

Like hello? Ladies? What is this? Do you need a room? Because these are some serious bedroom eyes

Finally: I know there's only so many ways to turn a squid into a tokusatsu monster, but like, this is just Ikadevil. Right?

Anyway! Show's good!

#kagaku sentai dynaman #super sentai #catia liveblogs

10 notes · View notes

crowcussion · 2 years

Text

redoing my intro post because it was so bad

some other names you can call me : oat, oats, squid, damian, toast, sprite

cuphead ask sideblog @ask-insomniac-cuphead (asks are encouraged!!)

some basic info abt me, im a wacko bird who like viruses, pathogens, video games, drawing, music, and my fav checkered pants. i’m a demiboy who prefers to keep his sexuality unlabeled cuz it just makes me uncomfy. i’m a bad speller with horrible grammar so ye get used to it your gonna see a lotta that here

i’m part of a system of 200+ and my simplyplural is bubonicplague feel free to add me!!

shit i like (will be updated whenever i want) : utmv, deltarune, villainous, monster prom, fatum betula, invader zim, doki doki literature club, crush crush, tbhk, eddsworld, sanders sides, tim burton, monster high, gravity falls, the owl house, schitt’s creek, tawog, dhmis, happy tree friends, hollow knight, batim, splatoon, slime rancher, cuphead, plague inc evolved, little nightmares, stardew valley, vocaloid, overwatch, dicey dungeons, unicorn wars, identity v, chainsaw man, cult of the lamb, and much more (im very much a nerd)

DNI TIME BITCHESSS

harass those you don’t agree with, p3d0s, n30 n4z1s, 4lfr3d’s pl4yh0us3 fans (idc if you support the creator or not). l0l1/sh0t4/any of that weird shit, anti-furry, racist, ableist, anti-lgbtq+, mock people for being “ugly”, singlets who speak on plural issues (sorry but it is not your place to talk), 3d/$h blogs (respectfully seek help), endos/tulpas and their supporters (neutrals can stay), basic dni criteria

(last updated : March 26th, 2024)

(gifs, userboxes, blinkies, etc under the cut)

credit • credit • credit • credit • credit • credit • credit • credit • credit

#crow’s brain vomit #pinned post #introductory post

113 notes · View notes

samwontshare · 2 years

Text

Multiverse of Madness stuff

The Good:

-I think the cast really made an effort to do the best they could. They did great.

-Wong. I love Wong. I want a whole movie of Wong.

-Maria Rambeau, my beloved. What a treat to see her as Captain Marvel. Restored my heart after the big cry WandaVision gave me.

-Captain Carter. Also a delight to see her again.

-Captain Picard I mean Professor!

-The movie theater clapped so hard I couldn’t hear the exchange between Strange and Reed. It was fun to see him.

-All of them dying horribly two minutes later was a laugh tho. Imagine introducing all the fan favs just for a campy horror death. That was so silly.

-America Chavez. I snorted when she was shit talking Strange in Spanish. Este guëy jaja. I thought she was delightful and so fun. I can’t wait to see her interact with folx like Kate Bishop. Latina lesbians playing in the flowers? I’m here for it. Find your moms!! They’ve probably started a commune somewhere.

-Some of the visuals were very fun. The paint universe! The staircase to nowhere in the beach. The music note battle. A fun score and some fun trips through the multiverse.

-There were some spooky effects and cool moments delivered by Raimi. The souls of the damned were particularly delightful and Wanda’s powers could come off quite terrifying at their best moments. It was such a contrast from America’s shiny star power.

-Wanda breaking the 4th wall. Love it. Had to happen somewhere.

-The final end credit scene was a great laugh.

The Bad:

-Woof, what was that plot? Nothing came together in this movie. It had no point of view. Not only did the characters seem to lack internal drive and consistency, the plot didn’t know where to go and the tone shifted wildly. At times it was horrifically cheesy (horror camp) and then it took itself too seriously.

-Weird inconsistency in the FX. Some visuals were stunning and others looked outdated. The squid eyeball monster, America fleeing the monsters.

-Where was the fun? We’re supposed to be hopping through the multiverse and there was no joy or silliness and despite some cool visuals, no imagination! I was so bored as we dimension hopped. I actually checked my watch.

-It had Strange still pining over Christine and that seemed to be the biggest emotional beat. The most intriguing question - Did Strange do the right thing giving Thanos the time stone? - was raised and never meaningfully addressed. But there was also this weird forced bonding between Strange and America that didn’t land. Why on earth did they make a stand and sacrifice so many? Why not just keep moving? Wanda clearly couldn’t track her immediately. Why did it not occur to anyone to ask America to trust her powers until the last ten minutes? What?

-So Wanda learned nothing from her TV show? Look I’ve never found Wanda’s fake kid storyline to be even a little compelling, but what on earth? She gave up Vision but not the kids? Everyone has to die for this kid dream bc idk evil book made me do it? Well you know how them there women get when they’re emotional and mentally ill. Yeeeeeesh. What a flat presentation of Wanda. They could’ve had a more powerful story of good variant Wanda breaking free and confronting herself but instead she sort of did nothing.

-The entire movie was a rehashing of WandaVision and What If…? Nothing new was learned or gained. No character growth occurred. They posited Wanda as a huge villain but made it seem so low stakes. Wanda wasn’t a threat to our world, but other worlds. She came off as a generic villain in a horror flick. I don’t even believe she’s dead. I already wasn’t that invested in Wanda; less so now.

-They managed to do Christine dirty again.

-I didn’t like the visual of a Black woman burned alive to ash to stab the book. Just didn’t enjoy that.

-No Ned at Kamar-Taj. :(

Overall:

Some good moments and the cast & crew really tried to do the most w a bad script.

#I was falling asleep as I wrote this and dropped my phone #so hopefully it makes sort of sense #multiverse of madness spoilers #dr strange #multiverse of madness #if you loved it pls keep loving it #I don’t blame Raimi he did what he could

127 notes · View notes

bane-huntress · 2 years

Text

IwtV the series... and we thought QotD was bad...

So, I was avoiding anything to do with "Interview with the Vampire" the series... till someone sent me a link to the trailer.... ... And 1 minute in and I wanted to vomit rage! I didnt want to watch it cos I heard "they" went "eek, we cant have gentle, passionate Louis being a slave owner!... No, we will turn him into a sex slave owner instead, yeah! that's a great idea!"... and I was beyond uninterested when hearing this, they took a horrible thing, and just turned it into another horrible thing, why? (I have a guess why) ... Then I watched the trailer... (Done in bits cos I was raging) ... DANIEL IS AN OLD MAN!?!?! THE FUCK! That in the 1st bloody second! So they cant do 'TVL' not with the same actor! ... 1910... 1910... Louis was made in 1910... and HE'S A FUICKING PIMP?!?!? This trailer makes him look like a right twat!... Louis ONLY power is his humanity, his capability to be the most human among monsters... and he's ALREAY a bloody MONSTER in this!!! [Edit: they could have made him a mill owner or own a smell shipping company! ANYTHING a little more respectable! and more their shitty time line compatible!] ... Lestat looks about as charismatic and dazzling as a damp squid... even in the trailer he looks like the softer of the two... not the total horrible twat Louis made him out to be!... and he looks to old! (at least he sounds French, even if he looks like an Jock with bad hair) ... Claudia just reminds me of an English high school kid. and so TALL she would just get away with looking like a short woman, and would never go through the same heartache as the character suffers. ... This show was made by people who NEVER read the books! Anne Rice will be spinning in her barely cold grave! this is an insult to her crazy legacy! It looks like it was also made because atm "Gay sexy boys sells"... spoiler... if they have sex... IT'S NOT ANNE's VAMPIRES!!

So... This is just my rant from just seeing the trailer... it does NOT make me want to watch a second of any episode. I think I could be convinced by anyone else who loves the books. If you thought "Queen of the Dammed" was a great film?... your opinion is invalid!!

Well... rant over I'm now tired and sad >_<;

#interview with the vampire #iwtv tv #louis du pointe du lac #vampire chronicles #lestat de lioncourt #iwtv daniel #VC

29 notes · View notes

benevolenterrancy · 2 years

Text

had a kid who wanted me to draw him a monster to colour, so enjoy a Horrible Slug-Squid (Squg?) Monster, both my on the spot creation and the slightly cleaned up version

#had to honour the halloween spirit and make a monster #my art #original #monsters #slug monster #tentacle monster #squid monster #honestly this kinda makes me want to try drawing the glus from deltora quest #the og hellish slug monster that haunted my childhood #let me tell you this thing looks best when it's been coloured bright green with crayola markers

19 notes · View notes

keygen · 1 year

Photo

I’ve been haunted by the thought of Vampire Squid From Hell splatoon OC so I made one. Their name is Flashbang and they live in the sewer and are the subject of many urban legends about a horrible cannibalistic monster. despite their reputation, they are actually quite timid and cowardly, prone to dispersing clouds of bioluminescent particles to distract any inklings or octolings that are drawn to their home by the thrill of encountering “the Beast”. If approached slowly and spoken to in quiet tones, they are quite eager to please, personable and friendly, albeit slightly clumsy.

#splatoon #splatoon oc #noa.jpg #I'm sorry I've been turning this concept over for days!#I know the actual Vampire Squid has these dumbo ears but I tried to portray that with the actual inkling ears #their teeth are inspired by the protrusions on the Vampire Squid's webbing because I thought that would look cute and a bit goofy.#they love eating detritus and reel it in with their little filament #they collect junk from the sewer to create clothing/ structures/ little works of art #I like to think that they would let you customise your gear with 'special effects' using their bioluminescent particles

16 notes · View notes

redsilkstudies · 1 year

Text

Collaborative Storytelling and Stop Motion Workshop 17/01/2023

In this workshop the first activity was centred around generating short stories using objects and motion, but in groups of two as we could practice working collaboratively, since Animation as a field typically requires a large degree of teamwork.

The first image image shows the elements of a story centring a green circle representing plant matter that sprouts many small bundles of foliage before erupting in leaves (the green tissue paper) that fall back to reveal a small fruit (the green balloon) which gradually ripens (the yellow, orange and red ballons) until the fully mature pink fruit detaches itself from the leaves to float away. I worked on this with Abby @k00282421

The second image shows the carnage left after a horrible space squid monster (red ballon in a glove) emerges from its cave (red beanie hat) to attach a commuter spacecraft (two yellow cups with a slinky for the propulsion device), rending the metal appart to feed on the passengers (yellow netting) as they float out into the airless vacuum of space. I worked on this with [I didn't actually ask their name! does anyone from the workshop know who it was and I can tag them?]

I really enjoyed this part of the workshop, I think it really helped encourage innovation, lateral thinking, and teamwork!

Then myself and Abby (@k00282421) worked on a stop motion short of my coat on the ground (which turned out to be extremely dusty) autonomously reaching into its pocket and pulling out a series of miscellaneous items in rainbow sequence. I'm excited to share this animation when I can, I think we made something quite cool—honestly, all the work I saw today looked excellent. There's something delightful about bringing things to life.

I wish I took a photo or two of this process for Behind The Scenes documentation, but we were both preoccupied with doing the stop motion.

#y1s2

8 notes · View notes

centeris2 · 11 months

Text

(Written for Dark Core Day 2018)

It was a terrible day at sea, the wind and rain tried to rip Captain Sandy from his boat and the waves roared, reaching to pull him under. He couldn’t remember a worse storm to try to fish in, but he only had one more net of fish to pull in, then, maybe then, he would be able to return to the safety of the Jorvik harbors.

If his boat held together long enough to get there.

“Heave, men!” he shouted to his crew, nearly losing his footing when the boat lurched. Impossible! They couldn’t have run aground, they were in deep water! A quick glance confirmed the anchor had not been swept overboard to hook them on something. Had the net caught on something?

This is what he got for fishing in the Krakens Depths, but the fishing was best here. Something about this area made the fish grow larger than normal, and bigger fish made for happier customers.

Not that customers mattered right now, only survival.

“Cut the net!” he shouted to his men, hoping he could be heard over the wailing wind as he struggled with the wheel. They couldn’t hear him, the wheel wrenching from his hands by the force put on the ship, Captain Sandy sent to his face.

The fishing boat was tossed, yanked across the waves but unable to escape from its tether to the depths.

For several moments as long as eternity, Captain Sandy and his crew found themselves underwater, and the water was screaming. Devils in the water thrashed about the boat, eyes shining, teeth pointed and smiling horrible bared sneers.

The eternity was over, the crew scrambling on deck and doing a headcount. Everyone was still onboard. Captain Sandy rushed to the side of the boat, forgetting the net, forgetting the wheel, forgetting the storm.

What was that? Had he imagined it, had he imagined the demons in the water? Was that Death waiting for him if he didn’t escape, or was it something else? He wanted to know.

“The net!” he shouted again, this time running to the net and stopping his crew from cutting them loose.

“Pull, damn it!” he ordered, joining in the hauling of the rigging, the ship tearing free from whatever held her.

Miraculously, the fishing vessel made it back to port with her crew all accounted for, the storm blowing out to sea as they reached the safety of the Jorvik Harbor.

“Cap’n! Somethin’ is in the net!” one of the crew, a younger man by the name of Sunstone, called once they were docked. The net had not been fully retrieved, instead left dragging in the water once it was no longer stuck.

“I’d hope so,” Captain Sandy snapped, his temper short after nearly dying. Nets were for catching fish, there was bound to be some fish in it. But he strode over and looked over the side anyway, freezing in place.

He had seen octopus before, and squid. This was neither of those things.

“A sea monster!” another crewman, Pike, shouted when he got a better look at it.

“It’s a kraken!” Sunstone cried.

It was indeed a monster. On what Captain Sandy guessed was its head, or at least where its brain was, were eyes. They were orbs of color, no pupils, just wet eyes reflecting the light, over a dozen of them covering the probably-head. And there were tentacles, not eight or ten, but well over a dozen. Twenty? Thirty? He couldn’t be sure in the tangle of the net and flesh.

He had caught a sea monster. He was going to be rich, he was going to be famous, he was going to be able to put it on exhibition and everyone would know him. Fishing to get by would end. Following in his damned father’s footsteps would end. He wouldn’t be bound to this wretched island of his childhood, a tiny island no one cared about where no one was important.

“Get a camera! Go to the newspaper!” Captain Sandy shouted to his crew, forgetting the fish he had caught. All that mattered was that monster and what it could get him. He helped get the monster onboard, touching the corpse. It was cold and slimy, black smearing on Captain Sandy’s hand. The eyes twitched and all turned to him. He didn’t know how, that couldn’t be, it was dead. And how would he even know, the eyes were solid, no pupils. And yet… he felt the monster staring at him.

The sun was shining through the clouds when the monster was hoisted up on a winch, Captain Sandy standing with his first mate as the picture was taken for the newspaper. He couldn’t manage a smile, annoyed he was sharing the spotlight of the discovery. He found he didn't want to share it with anyone. This was his find, this should be his story, he should be the only one to get the glory.

And the eyes. The dead eyes. He felt them watching him.

He ordered the monster put back on the boat for safe keeping, promising to guard it until the scientists could arrive. It was his monster. He could do what he wanted with it.

That night he sat staring at the tank they had put the monster in to slow the rot.

Through the wood it was watching him. He could feel the eyes staring through him.

It was his monster. What if the scientists took it and stole the credit? He didn’t want that to happen. He couldn’t let that happen.

Captain Sandy placed a hand on the tank, looking at the lid, a creeping along his neck. It felt like ants were under his skin, crawling up along his spine, wriggling into his skull. It was the monster. It had to be. But it was dead. How was it still looking at him? How was it doing this?

However it was doing it he didn’t care. This monster was his ticket out of Jorvik. With the fame it brought him he could travel the world, he would live in splendor and wealth, he’d be able to escape this horrid place he was raised in.

Captain Sandy jerked up, gripping his head as pain shot through his skull, followed by a hissing in his mind that formed into a single thought:

Escape.

And then there was the screaming from before, the screaming in the water. The screaming clutched his chest, his heart stopping, his lungs straining to move, everything slowly crushing. It wanted to escape. It would help him escape.

When Captain Sandy opened his eyes the sun was shining, a bright new day welcoming him. Everything hurt, and it took great effort to sit up. The tank was gone.

“Captain! What happened!?” his first mate called, boarding the boat and looking around in horror, wondering what had happened to the monster and why his captain was sprawled on the deck.

“I dumped it,” Captain Sandy said, surprised by his own words.

Yes, that’s right, he had sailed out into deep water and dumped the horrid thing overboard.

“But the scientists! They are going to arrive soon!” his first mate protested.

“Damn thing smelled,” he didn’t know what he was saying, his mouth moving before he could process what was happening.

Captain Sandy met the scientists regardless, noting their names. There was power in that water, terrible and horrible power. With that sort of power anything was possible. And he knew the scientists would be helpful in getting to it.

Soon after Captain Sandy handed over his boat to his first mate, determined to get what he wanted. He knew how to escape Jorvik now, thanks to memories he couldn’t recall. But escape wasn’t so important to him anymore, now he wanted what was in that water. That monster had just been a proxy, a sort of relay. Mr. Sands wanted what had created that monster, he wanted the source of that power. With that power, anything was possible.

---

Mr. Sands found himself the lucky winner of a ticket to Europe, and he had no doubt it was fate guiding him.

Fate, or something he could control. He found people exceptionally easy to read, as if their true emotions were displayed on a bright sign above them. Somehow he knew what to say to a clever inventor at the World’s Fair, how to compliment a wealthy widowed noblewoman, how to charm his way into circles of conversation well above his class.

And, even more surprising to Mr. Sands, he found himself learning. He was remembering everything he saw and heard, his memory helping him charm and delight new friends, his ability to quickly learn letting him blend in and speak as a local in every country he visited after only a few weeks.

It was in Egypt, marveling at the great ruins with a group of people too rich and foolish for their own good, that Mr. Sands felt it again.

Eyes that shouldn’t see staring through him, the sense of something crawling under his skin. He became deaf to the conversation around him. All that mattered was finding those eyes. How could it see him? Where was it?

There, someone standing in the market, vibrant red draped around her, hiding all but her eyes. The same staring eyes of the devils in the water, reminding him. He had escaped Jorvik, now he had to help it escape. Had the lap of luxury, living off those he entranced made him forget? How could he have forgotten that power? The power of the nobility and the famous were nothing compared to what was under the water.

The red clothed woman vanished, but Mr. Sands knew she was watching, always out of sight.

He continued to travel the world, now with clear intent: he needed to know what was down there, he needed to get it for himself. He befriended the rich, tricking them into including him in their wills. He befriended the emerging barons of business, draining them of all their secrets on how to run a successful business. He befriended the inventors, stealing their ideas on drilling, mining, and deep sea exploration.

And when he had sucked the world dry of its knowledge and wealth, Owen D. Sands returned to Jorvik and founded Deep Core, knowing those eyes were still watching.

#SSO #Star Stable Online #Star Stable #StarStable #StarStableOnline #starstableonline #fanfiction #my writing #my work

4 notes · View notes

bookshelfdreams · 2 years

Note

HELLO YES I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT SPERM WHALES

DO YOU NOW

ok this is of course about the pirate show

first of all, let me redirect you to this tag where you will find the rest of my unhinged ramblings about this insignificant almost-certainly unintentional random little detail; of course I'm gonna ramble some more.

The paperweight Stede uses to knock out Nigel Badminton resembles a sperm whale.

An animal that mainly eats squid, including giant squid; the real-life Kraken.

I am absolutely in love with it, it's got incredibly dense symbology, so many different angles one could take on interpreting this.

One could focus on the monster-killer aspect: Stede kills Nigel with it, who is the one who's truly monstrous. And yes, whether or not stede actually murdered him is debatable on a technical level, but he IS the one directly responsible for his death. Which doesn't mean he should feel bad about it. He shouldn't, the story absolves him. Not because he wasn't actually responsible, but because Nigel had it coming, good riddance. The sperm whale kills the only monster on the ship, and later, Stede finds the perfect paperweight to replace it: the petrified orange, the symbol for family, and home, and love. The thing he finds right as he invites Ed to take a place at his side and Ed accepts. The whale is no longer necessary; there are no more monsters on this ship.

Or. How about this: both Ed's and Stede's most violent moments are tied to creatures from the deep.

Ed diassociates the part of him that was capable to strangle his father to death. He tells the story about the Kraken, about a mythological beast emerging from the ocean to wreak senseless havoc, to kill an innocent man while he watches, frozen in fear (but doesn't fail to mention that his father deserved it). An animal that can only survive in crushing depths, in darkness, that never comes to the surface, or if it does, kills without mercy or meaning. A terrifying alien, unlike anything us surface-dwellers know or understand.

An animal that, in reality, is intelligent and fascinating. Not evil, because evil does not exist in nature. A survivor, each adult the only one of thousands to grow that big.

And Stede. Stede gets the sperm whale. No less terrifying, but understandable. Air-breathing and warm-blooded, like us, but, so very unlike us, made for depths. Diving deeper than any other mammal, the biggest predator on earth. Deadly, but not to us or other mammals, and gentle. Kind and living in a network of strong social bonds. Hunted nearly to extinction, because colonizers have never seen a miracle of nature and not exploited it to near-destruction.

Not monstrous like the Kraken. Not inspiring fear and awe. Not even the protection of unreality; just a big, dumb animal that can be killed for the fluids in its body, the giant carcass left for the scavengers.

A hunted giant, striking back.

A great, horrible power emerging from the waters, and retreating back in the safety of its own legend.

Both Ed's and Stede's most violent moments are tied to creatures from the deep, but neither is a monster, and neither is evil. Both are just living things, trying to survive in an increasingly hostile world.

But there's this too: you cannot make a life in the depths, if you are human. Violence is necessary sometimes, and cycles of violence do not start with the oppressed and marginalized defending themselves; but dwelling on it cannot make a life grow. To find contentment and healing, you will have to release the creatures to the abyss where they belong.

You have to plant oranges.

#THANK YOU GOOD NIGHT #and like yes. yes I know this is unintentional. the kraken isn't but the sperm whale is. but it just. fits too perfectly #too good to be accidental too random to be intentional #the script that made the rounds a few weeks back just mentions a brass paperweight (of course I checked) that's proof it's not that deep!#except it's clearly an early draft that has 2 or 3 additional characters so maybe it was a sperm whale on purpose! I don't know!#anyway point is: nobody tell me i sound like an unhinged conspiracy theorist I'm well aware #the fucking sperm whale #our flag means death #thoughts #moth-ra #message

23 notes · View notes

jungwookjins · 10 months

Note

okay every picture of a bigfin squid is like the most grainy ominous terrifying image in the world but here is a quality video of one up close (still kind of a freak but in much less of a horrible maneating sea monster way) https://twitter.com/SchmidtOcean/status/1643362391495720966

omg!! oughhhhh it looks so so cool ur right still kinda a freak but also so cool i love her tysm for sending me this ben bc ur right, all of the top results when i looked up bigfin squid were so grainy and ominous i was like,,,,wadda hell is this, but this video is so clear mwah mwah i am holding ur hand and we are watching videos of deep sea creatures together <33

#sooo so cool <33 #i love the ocean <33 #trans-xianxian #answered

3 notes · View notes

wired-for-weird · 2 years

Note

mermay!! what do you like about merms, what would you wanna write about :D<

AIGHT SO THIS IS SUPER FUCKING LONG SO MOST OF IT IS UNDER THE CUT but short answer: everything. I like everything about mer. I love their shapes, I love the variety of designs they lend themselves to, I love how they're fundementally different from humans in a way that standard humanoids like orcs or vampires often aren't, I love the predator vibe they can have, and generally just. They're so good.

me and my datemate @bleppyboy have done some extensive worldbuilding with mer, so if you wanna read about that, here it is. there's a graph. (scroll to the bottom if you just want to read the sexy bits. or don't. my datemate did maths for this)

From The Outside

To humans, mer are sea monsters- spooky, supernatural predators without much interiority. One-off interactions are usually violent, and managing to kill one is something to brag about and get a trophy from.

This isn't entirely unfair. Mer are perfectly capable of avoiding sailors when they want to, so most encounters are deliberate attacks by mer who are hungry or bored.

There are very small costal villages who have an amicable relationship with the local mer community, but they're few and far between.

Even these places don't really know a lot about mer society at large. There's speculation about everything from vast cities made of coral to magical abilities to commune with whales and sharks and other sea creatures. This is not helped by the fact that of the mer who can actually speak a human language, a good deal of them just. make stuff up. Because it's funny.

The Song

Actual mer society varies as much as human society does, but the entire species shares in one thing- the Song.

The Song is a wave of vocal magic sweeping around the globe, oral history and ballads and warnings and everything about mer as a people all woven together into an incredibly complex, layered, living thing. Mer that live in waters where light barely reaches will mark their days by it, and you could go weeks and months without seeing another mer, and still be connected to those around you.

The Song roughly exists in two main parts- Shallows and Deep Song

The Shallows change the most rapidly, and tend to only travel a few hundred miles. These are notes that carry things that are locally relevant; the movements of prey or predators nearby, fights that have happened, speculations about the weather, and just generally gossip will be passed between mer for as far as it's relevant, and then die off.

The Deep Song is where the history and the lore and the law lives. It moves far slower, and is carried by mer much bigger and much, much older than the ones living closer to the surface.

One of the biggest taboos mer have is to knowingly introduce a lie to the Song, even on the superficial level.

It's perfectly acceptable to lie to humans, and morally nebulous in personal conversation, but deliberately creating a falsehood to pass to others is a defilement of something everyone around you depends on to survive. Liars that are found out have their throat or tongue mutilated.

Community and Values

Like most large predators, mer are not hypersocial creatures. Communities often take the form of a small-ish number of mer roaming a preportionally large territory, which itself tends to be migratory.

Mer that live completely static lives are generally coastal, and much less common.

A handful of individuals will sometimes come together to take down prey large than themselves, or another mer that's been causing trouble. Much larger gatherings will happen during breeding season, resource skirmishes, or rarer times of ceremonial significance.

Life as a mer is extremely rough. Survival is a perpetual concern that can never be taken for granted.

Primary threats are: lack of food, predators like sharks or giant squid, and other mer.

Cannibalism does not carry the same taboo it does amongst humans. It's still a horrible thing, but in times or places of scarcity, it's generally considered a necessary evil.

Mer who eat other mer because they enjoy it, however, are treated with revulsion (though not necessarily fear) Once news about them gets out through the Song, they are generally killed as quickly as possible.

Precise values vary between cultures and individuals, but as a rule, they come down to:

"Be clever, be strong, learn fast, learn well, survive."

"Also fuck a lot."

thank you to my datemate for summing those up so neatly

Biology

Mer will continue to grow as they age. My datemate worked out a graph for it, because ey are a genius and also a witch. BEHOLD

The red line is the average, and the lines either side show general upper and lower limits.

It's basically unheard of for mer to die of old age. Infant mortality is very high, and most adult mer will eventually run into something that will kill them through sheer statistical probability. However, a number of mer just. Don't die. They tend to move out into deeper waters, and drift away from society entirely. Eventually, they sink deep enough to become a part of the Deep Song.

Mer teeth are extremely similar to shark teeth- numerous, infinitely replacable and incredibly sharp.

Mer are obligate carnivores, but will otherwise eat pretty much anything. Humans are very easy to lure in with song, and while their nutritional value isn't great, they're very fun to play with.

Like a number of things that live underwater, mer literally sleep with one eye open. Being able to rest half of your brain at a time is a huge advantage against anything trying to sneak up on you.

Thermoregulation is not a strong suit. While not completely cold-blooded, mer don't really do well in arctic waters. Sunning is a favourite way of relaxing- floating a few feet below the surface of the water on warm days and soaking in the heat.

Sex and Gender

Yes, this one gets its own section. A lot of thought went into it.

Reproductively speaking, mer are simultaneous hermaphrodites i.e. one mer has both sets of junk. Like most sensibly evolved species, everything stays tucked away internally until it's wanted.

Whichever junk becomes operational is decided by pheromones/electrochemical signals/hormones during foreplay, without any conscious decision being made.

Some mer will swear by certain plants/animal parts/rituals, but frankly the best way to get your body to do what you want is to find a partner who prefers the complementary role. Pairing with the same individual will usually lead to the same roles each time, but not always.

Mer are oviparous, producing eggs similar to irl skate or shark. Gestation is relatively short, with the time being used to re-establish a hatching ground (a kelp forest, a reef, the sides of a trench, etc.)

The community will work together for the few months it takes the eggs to hatch, keeping predators away, ensuring disease or algae doesn't spread, and that early-born mer don't eat the other eggs (other newborns are fair game, and adult responses can range from 'oh that one's a survivor' to 'anything that can't swim fast enough is a Snack For Me'.).

Out of season, sex doesn't tend to produce offspring. The body will often just reabsorb the embryo, and even if it doesn't, the eggs produced often aren't viable or cared for.

As a result of their biological fluidity, mer don't really have much of a concept of What A Gender is. The closest equivalent is how dominant or submissive the individual behaves while fucking, which is as much a personal preference as much as it is anything else and is completely disconnected from the actual biology currently at play.

The role of 'giver' (i.e. has the dick) and 'bearer' (i.e. carries the eggs in the meantime) are recognised as temporary, but there are individuals who express a strong preference or discomfort for one or the other.

This means that while most mer end up carrying young by the end of mating season, there are a handful who only ever act as 'giver' and therefore don't. Whether they ditch the hatching grounds as soon as possible or are expected to put in extra work as a result depends on the individual and the community.

Romantic relationships also aren't really a thing, though 'look at me' gestures such as bringing your intended difficult-to-get prey like seal are common in the lead-up to breeding season. Exclusivity is basically non-existant, though there will be fights over turn-taking.

Kissing is technically a thing, but given the teeth situation and the potential for infection/attracting sharks, it's a relatively risky move. Some mer find the resulting scars extremely attractive and a sign of good health, while others see it as a sign that the person is a risk-taker and bad to spend time around.

Magic and Lore

When the planet was very young, the oceans were completely saturated in magic, impacting the evolution of the creatures that lived in or near it. The general background level of magic has dropped since, but means of utilising or storing magic remain a part of many species' biology.

Every mer has a Big Magic they can use once in their lifetime. It's involuntary, and happens during a time of particular danger or stress. Most will use it to survive a deadly injury or illness (though there are very rare cases of it being used on another mer, or even a human). However...

The longer a mer lives without using this Big Magic, the stronger it becomes. A newborn mer doesn't have enough magic to do anything at all, but some mer may reach a point where they can create storms or change the path of a current. The older a mer gets, though, the harder they are to kill, and often those that live long enough will sink into the depths without using their Big Magic at all.

What happens to the magic of much older mer is unknown, but a common feature of mer folklore is a character diving deep enough to find one of these ancients, and asking them to use their Big Magic to help them.

Mer creation myth has it that they used to live on land until they were driven into the sea, where the Big Magic was used to transform themselves into the shape they are today. In some versions, humans are the ones who stayed on land and are variously portrayed as pre-mer who joined the aggressors, as the aggressors themselves, or just as unlucky ones who got left behind. Every version has them losing any kind of magic at all.

There is, supposedly, a monster that lives deep, deep in the guts of the ocean, beneath even the furthest current of Deep Song. It sounds like mer when it sings, and looks like mer whenever it rises enough to be seen. Its name is the same word/note used to call any mer a liar (lit. 'bind/snarl/entangle'), but the sentiment is probably closer to "that fucking bastard".

Some stories have it capable of changing fundemental notes of the Song, though it's generally agreed that if that was actually true, someone would have noticed by now.

More common are stories of lone mer being lured deep by a note that sounds incredibly familiar, but they can't quite decipher, and being suddenly torn apart for their Big Magic. Something that actively murderous should be avoided at all costs- but on the other hand, if you managed to outwit it, who knows what the stolen magic of a thousand dead mer could be made to do for you?

#worldbuilding #speculative biology #specbio #mer #mermaids #merfolk #wires writes #wires answers

27 notes · View notes

impishtubist · 2 years

Note

Monsterfucker Sirius and his brother and cousins are all at school with him, and to the horror of everyone, Bellatrix and him both share the same horrific taste, so they regularly debate the fuckability of various monsters, RIP everyone else around. All the older kids are gathered into an inter-house unity exercise, and now they’re hearing Sirius and Bellatrix debate about if an Acromantula is sexier than the Great Squid (Bella thinks all the fur might be off-putting, Sirius is concerned about how he’ll have sex with the squid under the water because bubble-head charms might not last long and he doesn’t want focus on holding one up while he’s having sex). What’s even more concerning is that Narcissa, Andromeda, and Regulus don’t look surprised or worried, truly a fascinating and unwanted look into the Black family’s psyche; Evan, a sort of cousin through Druella Black née Rosier, is praying that this is solely because of the Blacks and Druella didn’t impact this, let him dodge the bullet on this

Bahahahaha. Okay, look, it's well-known that I hate every Slytherin except for Regulus, so the idea of Sirius actually getting along with his cousins is 🤮🤮🤮 to me. But this. This is hilarious. I will make one exception and allow this particular headcanon. In this weird alternate universe, Sirius and his horrible cousins actually get along and yes, they debate the fuckability of different monsters. James is also hoping and praying that Regulus also dodges the bullet on this one. He doesn't know if he can handle a monsterfucker boyfriend like Remus can.

#imp speaks #sirius black: monsterfucker

10 notes · View notes

kingcrxwn · 1 year

Text

i'm having Emotions about horror media as pure expression

specifically, this started because of minecraft's pre-1.13 oceans.

because:

the vast, dead depths. empty, truly empty wastes. the light drops off so fast (it feels like after four blocks the darkness closes in completely, but that can't be right, can it?), and you know nothing is down there (do you?) -- there are no mobs (squid don't count, but that's not what you're thinking of anyway, is it?), no enemies.

there's nothing there.

and that. is exactly, precisely why the ocean was so horrifying. you knew -- you knew -- there was absolutely nothing out there but everything was screaming what if what if what if What. If.

the old oceans are a perfect case study of that old horror adage -- never show your monster. the moment you know there's something out there for sure... and it's a zombie with a stick...

well, that's not anywhere near as terrifying as whatever half-baked monstrous shadowy presence your subconscious cooked up.

.... but i kind of left something out, didn't i? the Thing that made pre-1.13 oceans actually, properly terrifying.

because there was a threat. there was a structure out there. just one. one structure, that housed the only jumpscare in the entire game.

and keep in mind: we're talking about that visceral, irrational fear that only the threatening unknown can conjure. the kind that kicks in when the lines between reality and game are blurred and your brain is utterly convinced, on some animal level, that this is real.

imagine. you're sinking straight down, into the fathoms of inky blackness that may or may not have an actual bottom (you've kind of convinced yourself this isn't going to end -- and even if you did hit the bottom you'd have no way of knowing. it's all the same anyway). nothing's changing.

and then you hear that horrible noise and a ghastly, pale thing obscures your entire screen

like. yeah. ultimately, guardians aren't really that scary and this scenario is so unlikely. but god damn, i've literally thrown my laptop because i got cursed while on land, on a rail, in a call with friends.

if that shit happened to me in the dark of their home turf?

dude, i'd die.

and the faintest presence of a threat is usually enough for your brain to fill in the blanks.

that's why, i think, the ocean was so utterly terrifying for me.

so yes. minecraft is a horror game. i will die on this hill.

#horror media #minecraft #guess ill huck this in the tag WHY NOT #thalassophobia #yeah uh heads up for THAT ONE #minecraft is a horror game #hands down no question it IS.#that may not be its focus but accidental horror is still horror #i could have written this better but this is tumblr and i had THOUGHTS

5 notes · View notes