That is a very short description.

That is not how the combustion worked in the ancestor. The hydrogen chamber in this case would also actually be exactly as heavy as water, due to the presence of oxygen, and it is activated by a lens. This lineage lost all lenses except for one used in combustion.

I don't think the thorns can randomly become seeds.

I've been given the okay to remove the part of Drakeshrog's description that describes indirect flow of ideas via Bannertails. Just a heads up.

I recently discovered a website that is really good for hosting images. It's called Miroware, though it's in the process of rebranding to File Garden.

https://miroware.io/

I was able to upload this diorama that's nearly 30 megabytes in length and it didn't even compress it, so it completely retains its quality:


It's specifically designed for image hosting and I actually sorta know the guy who runs it, so it's probably not vanishing like so many good image hosts any time soon. I don't think I'm ever gonna use imgur again.

I drew a sagon as the Witch of Mind. The torch design is made up but meant to look kinda Mindy, perhaps vaguely hypnosis-themed. The Witch of Mind is one who Manipulates Mind for herself, after all, which could mean using mind control.



Sagon would be right at home in Homestuck on account of not having any arms. Imagine the beginning of some kinda crazy crossover story called BURROWMIRED where the "retrieve arms from chest" gag gets turned on its head.

EDIT: Oh wow. The Homestuck fandom had a very positive reaction to this.

I've actually been thinking on and off for quite some time now about the possibility of a Homestuck / Sagan 4 crossover. And I thought of it before I found out about the inexplicable Sagan 4-esque collaborative spec evo arc in Homestuck Squared.

I suppose for someone unfamiliar with Homestuck's lore, a Sagan 4 / Homestuck crossover sounds completely absurd. Even for someone familiar with Homestuck's lore it doesn't seem plausible without Naucean interference. The Nauceans would not like it if the Game was played on their little terraforming project, and if they saw a Frog Temple, they would no doubt try to destroy it.

But Skaia "knows" and "sees" and can choose destinations for the meteors that ensure its own existence. Suppose the meteor bearing the Frog Temple landed somewhere difficult to see from space, such as in the middle of Jujubee Ocean. Landing in Otter Vents would mean an underwater volcano would fill the role of the Forge, which I don't think has ever happened in Homestuck's extended multiverse before, but it probably isn't impossible. Unfortunately, this also limits what species can play the Game to those who are able to explore the deep ocean before their extinction, unless the part of the ocean floor where it landed happens to ever end up close to or above the surface. But that probably won't be a problem, as for a species to play the Game they need to have computers, and by that point they probably already have some ability to explore parts of the ocean and could find the Frog Temple by chance.

Of course, with those last few details and with how playing the Game almost guarantees that there will be a mass extinction event far worse than any Sagan 4 is likely to ever have, a crossover would have to be an entirely alternate universe scenario. But it might be fun to examine how it would go, and what each of the sapients might look like in dream and god tier pajamas.

I must add, if there are any surprise Homestuck fans who check the forum and were not aware of my absolute obsessed liveblogging and speculation about it on the Discord server - This is a postcanon-positive space. I think that Roxy's relationship with gender on both timelines is wholesome, the conflict between Dirk and Calliope is really clever, Yiffany is a great and narratively relevant character, and Jane's corruption into a fascist on the Candy timeline is honestly the best written villain arc that I have ever seen in my life.

Anyone here like Homestuck? Gec (yes, our Gec) actually composed some of the music for it, which is pretty neat. I've personally thought about worming my way into the Homestuck crew myself someday (the normal way - waiting for them to ask for fanart contributions).

The laws of physics don't work like that. The water might be slightly warmer, but it wouldn't boil.

Its ancestor already did the thing, this does it the same way.

You have this stating it "doubled" in size

Obsidoak is only 50 meters tall.

Gut Anemoweeds (Fabacaudamancerxia spp.)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Swarmerweed
Habitat: Global (Marine)
Size: 10-20 cm tall zoon, 100-500 micrometer zooids
Support: Soft-Bodied (Hydrostatic Skeleton)
Diet: Omnivore (Microbial mats, fleshy flora, eggs, and some slow-moving fauna), Scavenger, Detritivore, Photosynthesis
Respiration: Passive (Diffusion), Aided by Photosynthesis
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Spawning, Eggs)

Gut anemoweeds split from their ancestor and continued their trend towards greater colony complexity. Zooids are now completely incapable of free-living, and thus the zoon is considered a true individual organism. Gut anemoweeds are far more active than their ancestor; though they are capable of long periods of inactivity where they cling to a rock, plant, nest, or driftwood island and behave like flora, they also regularly traverse the seafloor like starfish or limpets or "swim" about like some anemones in search of food. They are opportunists which can feed from a variety of food sources as long as it's slow or sessile. They are very common in a variety of sunlit undersea communities such as reefs, forests, and meadows, and being planimals they are usually found alone and don't form ground cover.

Gut anemoweeds are named for the presence of a mouth and blind gut organone derived from the holdfast. As the holdfast already ate whatever was on the surface of what they clung to, it easily shifted into a mouth-like structure and eventually a gut. The gut is lined with completely unrecognizably derived zooids, digestive zooids, which are almost completely inside-out--their endoderm is entirely exposed so that digestive enzymes may be released directly into the gut of the zoon. The liquified meals are then absorbed and the nutrients distributed through the zoon by the shared circulatory system. The mouth itself is formed from bundled lobes of the original holdfast and is roughly radially symmetric. Its shape grants stability on the seafloor and can wrap around food to pull it into the stomach.

On the opposite end from the mouth, gut anemoweeds branch considerably. Their branches no longer break off as buds, making them distinct body parts now. Each branch ends in a lobe, which is roughly spherical. Though these lobes resemble leaves, it would be more accurate to call them gonad organones. The previous method of releasing gametes has been optimized into these individual pods, which fill with gametes and then eventually burst open. The gonad zooids of female gut anemoweeds are larger than those of males so that they may produce large eggs with considerable yolk content, but the gonad organones are still the same size; as a result, females produce fewer gametes than males. After fertilization, the embryo forms an embryonic zoon before it even hatches, allowing it to already have the benefit of organones upon hatching. This also means that gut anemoweeds do not form mosaic individuals anymore, as the life phase where unrelated individuals could stick together now only occurs inside an egg. In addition to yolk, unhatched individuals also gain a considerable amount of energy from photosynthesis compared to adults.

The inside of a gut anemoweed includes a large inner cavity. This is filled with fluid and serves as a hydrostatic skeleton. On dissection, a new zooid type becomes visible from the inner surface: a stem zooid. Stem zooids are embryonic and derived not from gathering zooids, but from founders, and they serve to ensure that there is always a zooid which can become any other kind of zooid available at any point of the zoon's body. Though gatherer zooids can still produce different types of zooid, they are less efficient at doing so due to their more mature state and will only do so if there is, for whatever reason, no stem zooid nearby. Stem zooids are also able to break off into the inner cavity and reattach at different points; this may happen if a large number of stem zooids die, such as from a disease which targets them, requiring them to be redistributed so that the zoon may recover more quickly.

Most of the zooids of gut anemoweeds that are shared with their ancestor behave similarly to their ancestral counterparts. Gatherer zooids no longer filter feed, instead focusing primarily on photosynthesizing and observing their surroundings, saving a lot of energy. Like their ancestor, gut anemoweeds have an awareness of their body shape which is used to coordinate growth and healing.

There are many species of gut anemoweed--and many morphologies found in each species as well. As the arrangement of zooids is controlled by the nervous system instead of directly by genetics, though important body features are maintained well by instincts, their exact size and arrangement is prone to massive differences between individuals--even ones that are genetically identical--due to the influence of their environment and (very limited) capacity for learning. Species can only be identified for certain through genetic testing. Still, some species do trend towards more or less branching, larger or smaller mouths, and longer or shorter bodies. They are very rare in polar biomes, but a few polar species do exist nonetheless.

--

Drew traditionally this time because I've been having technical issues. Said technical issues are unrelated to my recent inactivity; my recent inactivity is because I re-discovered my love for Homestuck while researching for a Sagan 4 / Homestuck crossover fanfiction idea I had, which this species also happens to play into. You know how it is

As a presumed instinctive tool user, wouldn't it be able to pick up and figure out how to use tools it comes across that were made by others of its kind?

Species should not be rejected for fixable errors. I believe that this can be fixed easily by replacing the rooting hormones with something like a skin texture that these flora are able to grow on easily, causing them to naturally grow on it like they would on a rock.

as I recall, yes, it was in fact explained that it lost them due to living in a cave.

It's too small to be much of a competitor to the others

The default sauceback tongue is probably shorter and more muscular than that. It's used to produce their echolocation sounds and aid in swallowing and probably doesn't get stuck out much, except in the species with big tongues.

Now it has an unnatural pixelated outline.

Seriously, the change is not needed, and as I already stated, removing the grain is more distracting anyway.

Frankly, I think removing the grain from the background makes it distracting because it no longer matches the subject. Which is also against the rules.

The original image as posted is fine as-is.

Actually that is the case, but people who need to finish their week 24 submissions are being slow.

Juvenile trees exist.

Seconded. I'm not sure plents can even be that color (teal) without structural color, which their green pigments would interfere with, so unless there's justification, it shouldn't be performing photosynthesis anymore.

Respiration is Active (Lungs).

@TheBigDeepCheatsy you made the first sprinters, right? Are they endotherms?

QUOTE (CosmoRomanticist @ Nov 15 2021, 05:32 PM)

I kinda want to make another Chromanke descendant before it gets replace, to increase diversity and all, but I'm not quite sure where to go with it. Any suggestions or ideas? Could have one that either has spikes, vaguely resembles crystal flora, or even absurd colors. Heck, could even design one that looks like Kermit the Frog

You would have to get it done this gen. Chromanke dies on week boundary.

The "needles" are its flowers.