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evolutionsvoid · 3 months

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I already know that this entry is going to drive Eucella crazy, what with my...limited knowledge on this species. To be fair though, the information we have on this species as a whole is rather meager, but I feel like it would be a missed opportunity if I didn't write at least something about it! It is important that my readers know of every species, even those we have yet to fully understand! Indeed, I know Eucella is going to be furious at the idea of adding in an entry that is mainly scraps and shoddy guesswork, but when has her temper ever stopped me before? Onwards, I say!

This entry is on the Hundun, a species I feel that a lot of folk aren't even aware of. It would certainly make sense, as not a lot has ever been said or spread about this creature. One of the big factors for this is because the Hundun has (currently) only ever been found in one cave network in one specific region of the world. And even then, one needs to go in real deep to find them, so much so that discovering this species was pretty much an accident, done when an explorer got lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. Thankfully, a rescue team was able to find them and get them out so that their story could be told, resulting in a group of better equipped researchers going in to confirm their existence. At the time, most people thought the poor sap had gone crazy, losing their mind in the absolute darkness and silence only a cave can create. When researchers found the chamber deep within the network, the fantasy was found to be real.

So what is a Hundun? A good question, because we are currently still trying to find a way to properly answer that. They got no bones, so we can strike a whole branch of life out the equation there. No real exoskeleton means another chunk of the tree taken out, but once we rule those pieces out, we have very little else to narrow it down with. There are a staggering amount of creatures out there that have no bones and aren't bugs, and we still struggle to even sort those properly! Now, we find a species in the depths of some remote cave network, whose anatomy makes even less sense. Back to the question of: what is a Hundun? The answer is that it is a blob of juice, jelly and odd organs that is wrapped in a thick membrane and given six "legs" and four "wings." I stress those words because we don't really have the confidence to truly say that those are what they are. The "wings" have had some folk liken them to gills, yet the Hundun has been seen flapping these appendages and gliding with them from time to time. But no real flight has been observed, and their use of them as a glider is quite sparse. As for their legs, they do aid in travel and climbing, as these are what they use to cling to cavern walls. However, despite their claws, there are no other rigid structures to them, and openings on the bottoms of these "feet" makes these limbs feel more like protruded orifices. And those aren't even the weirdest parts! If one ever got a good look at a real live Hundun, they would have the same question as every researcher: Where's its face?!

Indeed, the striking thing about the Hundun is that it doesn't appear to have a face, or head, or anything we could equate to a noggin. The front of them ends in a smooth membrane, as blank and curved as an egg shell. There are no eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing. Now some may point out that just because it doesn't have the typical organs and holes that common animals have on their face doesn't necessarily mean they are faceless. Surely there is something there, we just aren't seeing it! And aren't their plenty of cave animals with no eyes? Correct you are! However, when I say they don't have these things, I literally mean they don't have them. On the surface of their front end, we cannot find anything that we could equate to the usual sensors or openings that other creatures have. Perhaps, these special organs are found within the body, but that is another mystery we have yet to figure out. We can't exactly cut a Hundun open and lay it out for all to see. This is because their bodies are practically bags of gelatin just waiting to pop and slosh to the floor in a sloppy mess. Their organs and insides are so sensitive and fluid-like, that they pretty much melt into a puddle of useless juice once their hide is ruptured. Attempts at dissecting dead specimens has resulted in incomprehensible slop and zero answers. Some have used magic to freeze samples solid before cutting, but this process inevitably causes damage to the organs and insides, so we cannot observe them as they normally would be. It's just....baffling.

If it has no face, how does it breath? How does it eat? Plenty of these questions arise when faced with such an enigma. Breathing is one we feel we figured out, pointing to the wing gills and the soft damp nature of their membrane. We think they can pull in air through these gills and even straight through their skin. As for eating, we have wondered if the skin breathing can also result in skin eating, where it can absorb particles from the air or stuff that settle on their skin. The discovery of their foot orifices now makes us think they eat through those, sucking up food as they walk or cling to the walls. What do they eat? Not really sure. Don't have much of a stomach to open up and poke around through. Probably lichens and tiny creatures that live on these cavern walls, as we have never seen a Hundun chase after food or hunt anything of notable size. What we do know is that their diet is so niche, that keeping them alive outside of these cave systems is near impossible. Specimens removed for long periods of time will starve to death, or die from complications due to eating something that doesn't settle well in their system. All attempts to keep them alive outside of their cave system has been met with failure, so all research is done just outside of these caverns, temporarily capturing specimens for quick tests and observation, before immediately putting them back.

Thankfully, we do know that they lay eggs, but how they get the stuff to make and fertilize eggs, we don't know. No mating rituals have been observed, and no mated pairs have been spotted in the cavern. They simply lay eggs, that then hatch into more Hundun. So even there, are answer is laughably simple.

So if we are utterly clueless about the workings of the Hundun, then what does the world think of them? To be fair, most of the world doesn't really know they exist. Live specimens don't survive long, and preserving dead ones isn't easy either. Any preservatives eventually melt them into colorless goop, and taxidermy doesn't really work on a bag of juice. And with our sad amount of information, most folk would think it is all a lame researcher joke. Locals wound up having stories about this species, but this was all veiled in legends and myth. Tales of ghostly spirits in the depths of the caves, of lost souls in the pits of a dark hell. Obviously, most folk thought these were ghost stories, but now with a glowing orb of living flesh, it feels that these were encounters with the Hundun long ago. Even now, the people of the region speak of this species as a primordial creature, one that has been around since the forming of the world. Some even claim that these creatures are tiny unborn worlds themselves, walking eggs waiting for their day to hatch. It is times like these where I do not turn to my usual scoffing of superstition and dramatics, because I feel that they are onto something here. A primordial being, not a bad theory! Perhaps the Hundun are truly a prehistoric species, one that existed countless centuries before! Isolated in the depths of the earth, far from other creatures and the ravages of nature and time, there is no telling of when they split from the rest of life, or perhaps when the tree of life diverted from them! This could be an incredible case where we found a pocket in the world where time froze, where the ancients still survive to this day! It is an incredible thought, now if only we could figure them out in the slightest!

One last frustrating note: one of the times I was doing research down in the Underworld, my travels took me to a remote cavern town in my pursuit of strange new specimens. While I was visiting, I spotted Hundun on some of the cavern walls, and just as I was going in for a closer look, I saw a demon and their imp playing with one! I was quick to ask about what they were doing, and they straight up tell me that these Hundun are like pets to them! Adorable little squishy beans! I nearly burst out of my own bark hearing this, because here was a community of people who have interacted with these things for decades, perhaps centuries! Such close contact with this species that has never been documented before! I almost threw all my current notes into the nearest fire, because here was my new research! My new thesis! My masterpiece! I would be able to find out answers about the species that puzzled researchers for decades! So I didn't waste any time, barraging everyone with questions about the Hundun and what they know of them. You know what I got? "No idea, but they sure are cute!" THAT'S IT!? YOU PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LIVING WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST ENIGMAS IN NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY FOR DECADES AND YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM?! I ask "what do you feed your pets?" and they say "oh we don't feed them, they somehow do it themselves." I say "isn't it weird you don't feed these things? Haven't you noticed what they do when they're hungry?" and to that they say "Yeah, it sure is weird, isn't it? Got no clue, but they seem to be doing fine!" I sadly admit that my research of this town and the Hundun had to be cut short for that trip, as my guides had to drag me out of there before I had a total mental breakdown. I will probably have to wait awhile before going back, because I think my crazed screaming rant in the middle of town left a rather poor impression.

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

Oh good! An entire entry of you just saying "I don't know!" Wonderful! Excellent! Just what your book needs, Chlora! You are doing this on purpose, I swear! - Eucella -

#hundun #monster #creature #art #drawing #a squishy little thing #not sure what else to call it!

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enobariasteeth · 8 months

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okay but reminder they hated this little guy enough to put his life up to a poll

#look at him #I’m going to be SICK #he’s actually the cutest thing I’ve ever seen #the way they treated him you’d think he was a war criminal wtf #he’s just a little guy!!#joker. Sheila. and DC….#count ur fucking days #his curls!!#his little squishy face!!#I can’t believe they did that to him #truly makes no sense #batman #jason todd #batfam #dc #dcu #red hood

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creativortexx · 11 months

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girls when they

#project sekai #hatsune miku colorful stage #an shiraishi #kohane asuzawa #crimson draws things #i haven’t drawn them in forever lol #my little squishies

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bylerluminescence · 6 months

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pretty sure all of us have the energy of joyce byers when it comes to will byers

#if she had tumblr she’s agree. will byers is blorbo hashtagreal #mine #byler #stranger things #will byers #like so squishy. so tiny. a little baby if you will. my son- scratch that OUR son

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puppetmaster13u · 7 months

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Slowly rotating vigilante outfits for the batkids in the meat marionette au. Currently only sketches, but I like to think that they either have baggy short sleeves or no sleeves, what with how their limbs are designed. Especially with how their arms and legs can contort as though they have extra joints. I don't know how the backs of their outfits would be, but I'm thinking that it'd probably be open, seeing as they have wings, which could explain why they have capes. Most of their bags are more towards their sides because of their wings, and the fact that the larger bags towards the back need to be above their tails.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This Au is a combo of mine and @phoenixcatch7's Possessed Doll Au, go give them love. Reply, reblog, even just like something of theirs because they deserve it <3

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that-foul-legacy-lover · 27 days

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ajax with dimples and foul legacy with two dips carved into either side of his intricate lil mask face

*holds mic up* YOU. KEEP TALKING

you met Foul Legacy before you meet Ajax, somewhere out in the mountains of Liyue when he's finishing up a training session, the sight of a giant Abyssal monster making you freeze in your tracks, blood turning to ice when his faceted gaze lands on you. your heart drops, squeezing your eyes shut as heavy footsteps approach you- only to blink when something solid and slightly cold bumps gently against your forehead. the creature whines quietly, sitting on his heels to make himself seem smaller, less threatening, and slowly you reach out and set your hand on top of his head, your finger sinking into his fluffy hair. the beast brightens, odd, gem-shaped eye gleaming as he promptly leans in and begins sniffing your jacket and bag, letting out curious chitters and leaning against your palms with happy purrs. all you can do is laugh in surprise, fingers tracing the edges of his mask-like face, eventually falling on two small divots where his cheeks might be, serving seemingly no purpose. you poke them, and tilt your head, and your new friend simply tilts his head in mimicry and trills

it's not until you meet Ajax, or Childe as he goes by when doing his Harbinger work, that you understand. he's loud and boisterous and a bit playfully rough, almost the exact opposite of his Abyssal counterpart you come to know as Foul Legacy, always greeting you with a tight squeeze or a pat on the head and swinging your hand cheerfully as you walk. there's a certain charm to him when he spontaneously twirls you around or lifts you off the ground to carry you, like today, and you stare down at him with a good-natured smile as he grins up at you, oceanic eyes creased shut. you blink, then gasp, and Ajax's eyes fly open as he looks at you worriedly, but you merely laugh and poke his cheeks in delight, your fingers nudging familiar divots, except in soft skin rather than a tough mask

"Ajax! You and Foul Legacy have dimples!"

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koifsssh · 3 months

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for that one wally fan i keep seeing on my dash and making me laugh with their posts, i think theyre very silly

this shall be a secret drawing (nobody tell them) (if you do i will be sad) (not really if anything amused) (hehe!)

#what a dandy little puppet #i loveeee dandy #very squishy looking #10/10 #man... dandy and rainy should be friends imo #BUT THATS JUST MY OPINION #hehe!#i am admittedly a bit loopy #ive been working a lot with schoolwork and such #hopefully this weekend i get the things i wish to do done!#Dandy was a nice break from the Constantly Drawing The Same Two Puppets #not that im complaining! i love my gay puppets very much #im rambling hehe oops!#welcome home oc #dandy leon

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mooncheese3 · 1 year

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cold-neon-ocean · 1 year

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I wanna put a sticker on his back just to fuck with Brig

He's truly never beating the oversize load allegations that's for sure

#whale #demon oc #sperm whale #orca #cetacean oc #OC #Bryg #Takamatsu's Art #[ incoming oversized whale #his silly little dorsal fin lol #poor Bryg he's truly getting nothing but disrespect from the mortals LMAO #that's just what happens when you're a big squishy boy with a funny face #but when I first saw this ask “oversize load” was the first thing that came to mind so I had to do it lol ]

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thisstableground · 1 month

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#sage makes things #i want to at least co-design my next tattoo which will be seals so i need to learn how to draw seals #what a horrible chore it is #squishy little guys

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evercelle · 1 month

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'I have been working on lots of merch!'

*shows Kokichi strangling Shuichi*

Im sorry that almost made me cackle

as they say... variety is the spice of life (✿◡‿◡)⌒★

#ASK EVER #its been so long since i drew cute squishy little things for merch #i had to take breaks by going back to knife. or in this case loving asphyxiation

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paradimeart · 1 year

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Just wanted to say I absolutely love your tiny orb babies art. The idea that all the bots and cons were at some point small bouncy balls amuses me greatly. I especially love the Ratchet & Optimus thing. The grumpy old medic absolutely loving a tiny protoform but never admitting it to anyone lives in my head rent free. Thank you for gracing us with such cuteness!

thank YOU!!! im so glad so many people like my self indulgent nonsense lol