Don't let the carrion crawler eat the halfling until he's done opening the chests (Emmanuel Bautista, from Wizard's Aide, 1977, a self-published collection of rules, flavor descriptions, and random tables by Matt Whalley "designed to supplement many of the fantasy role playing games that are being played around the world," typical of many third-party efforts to expand OD&D prior to the publication of AD&D)
Siphonophores are close cousins of jellies. They’re fragile creatures composed of individual, specialized parts connected to each other in a chain. Some parts pulse and steer the colony, others stun and ingest prey. Siphonophores thrive in the midwater where there aren’t any sharp surfaces to damage their delicate bodies. MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, have revealed a surprising diversity of siphonophores in Monterey Bay and we’ve learned they’re important predators in the ocean’s depths.
We’ve discovered several remarkable new siphonophore species, including this especially cunning predator—the angler siphonophore, Erenna sirena. In a dazzling display of predatory prowess, it dangles luminescent lures that mimic crimson crustaceans and attract unsuspecting fishes. Zap! When a curious lanternfish gets too close, the siphonophore’s tentacles deliver a powerful sting and snare a meal.
Fun Saturation Fact #72: While nothing at all alike at this point, the member of the Sundry Others known as 'Zap' was originally based (very, very roughly) on a male character from the webcomic Zap!, which I encountered for the first time back when I was still in university.
The comic was still ongoing at the time, and I dropped it for awhile (along with a slew of others) before remembering it again years later, picking it back up, and finally learning how the story ended. It's one of those cool comics where you see the art and story improve and change over time, and it's got an odd, special little place in my heart. So when I was faced with six mostly blank-slate OCs that Edgeworth was going to encounter at SteelKon UK and which I had only the roughest ideas of what to do with, I decided to borrow Zap!'s title character's name and hair colour for one of them, just as a starting point (bonus fun fact: the reason my Zap is a girl is entirely because the comic's Zap is a boy, and I didn't want to risk doing a complete cut and paste).
In any case, my Zap quickly grew to be a completely different character than her inspiration (she's not the amnesiac captain of a spaceship, just for starters). But she also, in many ways, remains a thread tied around my finger, a slender connection to memories of sitting in front of my computer at university, reading a comic about space, psychics, aliens, and love... :)
hmm!! i love so many different colors tbh. all shades of green, turquoise or light blue, and purple have got to be my favorites!! but yellow does make me v happy so there’s that too
when you’re pet pet petting your sweet little baby cat on her sweet little pumpkin head but then she starts to get overstimulated and her little tail is swooshing back and forth and you can Tell all her ancient beast instincts are kicking in telling her to maul the shit out of your hand, and she looks SO forlorn because she actually wanted more cuddles but also there’s only so much a little animal can do to contain her impulses and she looks at you w the biggest wettest saddest eyes like
I kinda wish the red names deaths had actual death messages cuz it would’ve been kinda hilarious that both mumbo and Jimmy died to “Etho’s dishwasher” (the name of the warden) and I feel like everyone would’ve had so much fun looking at that death messages