#a-beepbop

secret santa art for @a-beepbop​ of a fun plant critter of theirs.

closeup because everything’s gonna be squished on tumblr’s dash:

Happy Halloween!!

Maybe I’ll see if I can install the de-extinction mod for subnautica too.

Practicing O’neillism featuring the creations of @noryubug91 @theload @a-beepbop and @ensyns-art-bin

Endemic Wildlife of the Guardian Society part 1

The guardian society is a massive city that covers an entire planet (which is itself a super-massive hibernating guardian). Despite guardian society taking up the entirety of the planet and leaving little room for natural environments and ecosystems and even going across mountains and the ocean floor, it is actually very environmentally friendly. The guardian society itself is an ecosystem. It has its own biosphere with unique flora and fauna both artificial and naturally evolved. There are creatures occupying various niches and flora growing on buildings not protected by forcefields. Here is just a brief glimpse into the many creatures inhabiting the guardian society.

1) Screaming Gummy- This ameba like organism is a giant single cell. It’s an artificial creature. Like many giant cells it has more than one nucleus, and in this case a few million. It’s thick, gummy cell membrane keeps it from collapsing in on itself as it feeds on any organic detritus it comes across. When attacked, hollow wiry organelles open up sections on its surface to suck air into a large central organelle. This spherical organelle is a complex vibrating resonance chamber that rapidly forces air in and out to produce a booming sound similar to screaming. This both frightens a would be predator and alerts other predators of it’s attackers location. (0.3048 meters in diameter)

2) Shlurper- This fauna is the natural predator of screaming gummies, and drains out their cytoplasm through a specialized hollow tooth. Shlurpers have to quickly drain a gummy before it opens up pores and begins to scream. They’re often unsuccessful and must quickly retreat. Excess cytoplasm is stored in transparent sacks, and is an indicator of how successful an individual is at hunting. The more cytoplasm an individual has stored, the more desirable it is as a mate. They’re a member of one of the two most successful families of naturally evolved fauna. The one they belong to is the Visceraquexidae, which when roughly translated from the national language of the guardian society into English, means Squiggly Squishy. They’re planarian-like creatures with one head and three bodies, each with their own organ sets. The central body is usually the biggest one in most species. On the underside of each body is a complex muscle bed that can undulate much like the foot of a gastropod from earth, except they can undulate in any direction. They support their body with pressure, hydraulics, and a very rudimentary internal skeleton. And some species can attain truly enormous size. (0.6096 meters long)

3) Slinking Slurch- Another, much larger member of the Visceraquexidae. Slurchers are stealth hunters that use chromatophores to blend in with their surroundings and sneak up on suspecting prey. When threatened they flash extremely vibrant colors much like an earth cuttlefish. The one I have drawn is flashing a threat display, but the colors have been significantly toned down for the sake of your ocular organs. (3.9624 meters long)

4) Back Ally Bandit- A member of the other successful naturally evolved fauna, the Folifexidae (which translates to Jointed Scuttlers). This large predator is fast and has well developed eyesight. They typically nest in areas between guardian buildings that are very close to each other and are difficult to squeeze between. Folifexidae are arthropod-like creatures with both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton. However, their exoskeleton is more like a leathery covering of scales that is occasionally shed in pieces. They have body sections for both organs (abdomen) and and leg clusters (thoraxes). The amount of thoraxes and abdomens depends on the species, with some just being a head and a fusion of a thorax and abdomen into one single thing. Others have extremely long bodies with multiple abdomens and thoraxes. To go fast, one side of legs on a thorax will act as one, and they’ll move their leg clusters like the limbs of lizards. But normally they move their legs like myriapods when not running. The Back Ally Bandit is a prime example of Folifexidae anatomy, and has a head, two thoraxes, and an abdomen. (12.192 meters long)

5) Forcefield Strider- The Forcefield Strider (more commonly known as the Cobalt Skimmer) is another member of the Folifexidae that specializes in skimming across forcefields like an earth water skimmer moves across water. Specialized hairy structures on their toes allow them to cling to the forcefields protecting buildings. They eat flying organisms that accidentally slam into forcefields. Forcefield skimming is something that has evolved independently multiple times. (3.048 meters long)

6) Cromboble- These creatures were originally created for an experiment. After experimentation was over and they were no longer needed, it was decided that it would be a little mean to just kill them. After carful consideration, the original colony was released into the wild and they have since integrated into the ecosystem. Crombobles live in groups of five to ten individuals. Most of their organs are in their thick head, and the rest of their body is very tentacle-like. When in danger they can retract their limbs into their head for protection. They’re arboreal and live among the guardian society’s various tree-like flora. They are notorious kleptoparasites and will often drive away predators from their own kill. When not stealing kills, they hide in large saucer-shaped nest they make in the branches of large flora. These nest are made of broken branches and mucus and have an opening in the bottom. Occasionally, groups of crombobles will hang around the entrance to their nest and secrete enough mucus laced with a bioluminescent chemical to create a large glowing bolas that dangles from the entrance of their nest. Creatures attracted to the glowing bolas will get stuck and be reeled back into the nest. The prey will be removed from the bolas, dispatched, and then the bolas will be lowered again. (1.2192 meters tall)

7) Zapworm- Zapworms are strange energy based “organisms” that can quantum tunnel. They live off electricity leeched from the guardian society’s large energy supply. Nobody really knows where they came from, but it’s theorized that some snuck in through one of the portals guardians create when traveling between universes. They’re made of exotic matter that’s formed in structures analogous to atoms, and it’s unknown how they don’t disintegrate into nothingness in a universe with radically different laws of nature, but it’s theorized that they might have some sort of “organ” that stabilizes their existence. The fact that they’re surviving and even thriving in a universe with different fundamental rules has led to some scientists theorizing that they might actually be specifically adapted for exploiting the resources of universes drastically different from their own, and might have “evolved” around the portals that guardians can create as a means of traveling to universes. Zapworms are one of the very few creatures in the guardian society that are actually regarded as pest. They reproduce via division and an enormous population boom actually caused a blackout once. More and more “ghost” creatures like them have been popping up lately. (1.524-27.1272 meters long)