Tentacles, with the ability to coordinate them to swim up and walk on the bottom otherwise

>>26665160
For the record, octopi swim via jet propulsion. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean to have the species undulate its tentacles like flagella?

>>26665256
Huh, didn't know that.

But I stand by what I though I wanted: I wanted these things to be doing the breaststroke despite a having neither a chest nor mammary glands.

>>26665303
Going with this then unless i get any more votes before i get back. Getting dinner off stove then will begin writing.

bumping for interest

I vote for pelopods. Not enough of those.

>>26665303
The creatures evolved into a sort of cephalopod, achieving locomotion by means of keeping its head back and curling its broad, flat tentacles backward to nimbly "scoop" itself through the methane seas. In the form which they would come to take for many eons, they would have...

Number of tentacles:
A) 8
B) 5
C) Write-in
D) Roll for it (Roll is made after/if majority chooses this option)

Rolled 3, 2 = 5

>>26665529
Rolling

Rolled 2 + 4

roll

Rolled 2, 4, 5 + 3 = 14

rolller. At least 5 though.

Rolled 3, 3 = 6

Oh! I remember you. This is gonna be fun.

>>26665555
Going with this because I figure if 5 was an appealing option to >>26665552, he wouldn't have chosen to roll. Also, 6 has some possibilities.

One moment please...

>>26665529
The creature swam by keeping its head back and curling its six broad, flat tentacles backward to propel itself forward then, with each tentacle folded back, imparting a half rotation of each tentacle tip and thrusting them forward to meet back in a needle-like formation before taking another stroke.

What/how did they eat?

>>26665707
WINDERS

Rolled 1, 5 = 6

>>26665707
A species of ring-shaped creatures like a cross between free-floating coral and a vacuum filter. They eat plankton by hanging out in currents and filtering out the plankton and other small organisms.

>>26665804
Okay so our creature feeds on Halofish. How does it do so?

A) Seize with a squid-like beak
B) Break apart with tentacles and consume pieces
C) Swallow whole

>>26666034
Also feel free to write in. Forgot that option.

Rolled 3, 4 = 7

>>26666034
B

>>26666034
Seconding B

>>26666123

Our creature's diet consists largely of the Halofish, which it catches by seizing its ring-like form with a tentacle, entangling it, then squeezing the creature at its diameter until it cracks in half, before breaking it into smaller, digestable fragments. Fucking brutal

How will it communicate with others of its ilk?

A) Auditory
B) Visual by gesture
C) Visual by display via natural camouflage
D) Write-in

>>26666368
Everyone really gone then?

>>26666368
tactile communication
they talk by molesting each other

>>26666368
b

>>26666368
C. Easiest move to a writing system ever.

Bunpings. Come back lieutenant, we didn't mean to miss it.

>>26675001
yes friend come back

Bump.

>>26676451
bapm

>>26673533
>>26674038
>>26674197
I'm back awake. Looks like we got a 3-way tie. Can you come to a consensus?

>>26677211
i voted b lemme just do c now whatever

>>26677211
C. Blam!
They're gonna start off harvesting own ink and making Rembrandt-level paintings in caves.

>>26677211
Okay so the creatures communicate via simple pattern replication using their natural camouflage.

How do they reproduce

A) Sexually
B) Asexually by budding or similar
C) Asexually as parasite or similar
D) Write-in?

>>26677360
Now when you say "parasite", do you include the possibility of laying eggs in other species' genitals by means of tentacle rape?

>>26677435
Fuck. The tentacles thing has gotten out of hand. Do we really have to go the fetishy oviposition route?

>>26677360
We already have budding. Let's do vanilla sexual.

>>26677863
Okay so our creature reproduces sexually and gives birth:

A) Via eggs
B) Live young
C) Write-in

>I have work for the next 6 hours. when i return I'll be using this thread.

>>26678292
Live young that live on the parents for a while.

>>26678346
seconded

>>26678346
Thirded. They form patterns on their skin in sync with their carrying parent. Originally developed to maintain the parent's camouflage, with the advent of language it became a way of education for the offspring. While on their mothers, they are [mcguffin organ goes gere] connected to the mother's neural system, which means they are not in charge of their skin - it operates by sheer instinct with the patterns that the mother folds. They cannot communicate with others in any way, and have very limited communication with their mother - pulling and pushing to emote hunger or worry. Denied conversation, they can only observe and learn until they are prepared to enter their society.
As they unlatch, the young temporarily lose color, until they burst into a flash of now controlled imagery.
The Coloring is of major cultural significance to the species, with many complex rituals involved, to prove that the youth has gained control of their skin.
Some common themes are competitions of colorful and rapid display, individual stealth contests with an adept mentor, and bonfires of bioluminescent plants. Most Coloring rituals culminate with a recitation of the tribe's Creed - a set of symbols that comprise the core vocabulary and verify that the adolescent is capable of full social life.

Do you guys like it? [Y/N]

>>26679811
7/10. Sounds nice, not sure where our race is culturally at though.

Bamp.

Back from work. Reading >>26679811 then typing.

One moment please.

>>26679811
>Has much potential. We'll use it as material for when we get to the point of fluffing out actual cultural growth.

The creatures give birth to live young which cling instinctively to their mother for the first stage of their lives, being fed small pieces of the mother's prey until they are large enough to detach and become self-sufficient. As a result of this initial dependance, the creatures evolved to a point of giving birth simultaneously to ~2 offspring on average with little deviation.

During the period of dependency, the young instinctively mimic their mother, including her camouflage patterns.

>Sidenote regarding their anatomy: The creatures' mouths are similar to those of the stingrays and manta rays of Earth, save for opening in a cruciform fashion.

Clearly these creatures can see, but what sort of vision do they have?

A) Monocular
B) Binocular with overlapping fields for depth perception
C) Binocular with staggererd fields for wide-range awareness
D) Write-in

>>26684608
Vision appears to be pretty important to them, so it looks like an easy B...
On the other hand, maybe languages tend to evolve around senses with the better all-round perception...
I vote C. Widely spaced eyes to see more homies interacting with you.

>>26684608
I'd say B, but it sounds like our prey is pretty passive, so let's go with C.

>>26684952
>>26685024
Considering this thread's bustling activity, 2 votes in agreement may as well be unanimity.

So our creatures have one eye on either side of their head, aligned with the cleft between two of their tentacles so as to have largely unobstructed forward vision.

Before we get into cultural development, let's flesh out the environment in which they rise to sentience.

Do these creatures have any natural predators? Any competitors for food? Supplemental food sources?

>>26685324
I'll go so far as to say our creatures can also digest small prawn-like creatures which would feed on the same phyto- and bacterioplankton as the Halofish

Rolled 4 + 1

>>26685601
I've only now realized a grave oversight in the earlier phases. This would absolutely effect an aquatic environment.

Rolling for number of moons our planet has. 1d4-1

>>26686215
>/tg/'s salty dice mechanic doesn't know shit about unary negatives.

So Home has 3 moons and therefore would have comparatively gentle, but triply frequent tidal shifts.

>>26686300
Weren't we Jupiter level anyway? I thought we'd have rings, rather.
Spacefaring stage of our civilizations should be so awesome.

File: 1376805127940.jpg-(404 KB, 908x574, 1374826380788.jpg)

404 KB JPG

>>26685324
They should be hunted... By a huge squig! Cousin species, which can comprehend and emote the basic, instinctive expressions of their kind!
And competing with a crystaline lifeform that descended from the ground to the seas. And a gigantic, flat fish with a baleen filter and impenetrable scales on the top. That should have some horrible predators of its own, popping up in the Sixers' (?) waters and wreaking havoc.
I don't know if I can keep the thread up until you check back, but not to worry, it's archived: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/26665025/

>>26688283
>squig
Warhammer ate my brains, officially now. Meant a "squid", of course.

>>26687975
you can have both. saturn does. Is this planet really a gas giant (like Uranus) or just an icy planet (like Titan) with enough magnetosphere to prevent the hydrocarbons from getting blown away/converted to other things?

In any case, what about some floating coral-like animals that consume the same kinds of organisms as halofish? In terms of predators, is there too much oxygen in the environment for a predator to produce some and use it as an oxidizer for rocket-propelled sharks? Maybe that's too wacky.

A possible cause for gaining consciousness: winders develop a religion that calls for the mass harvesting of halofish every generation or so, causing evolutionary pressure to hunt larger prey or generally diversify. The world is big and they're not particularly advanced, so they don't notice us being all pre-sentient on the other side of the world

We're pretty far from our sun, so how useful are eyes? If we evolved eyes and actually use them, bio-luminescence must be part of this species chromatophores and a general adaptation used by lots of the creatures in this environment.
maybe the plankton-like stuff generate the radiation we use to see. The whole ocean glows with life.

Is there crunch here?

>>26688283
>>26690365

>I went to sleep last night thinking this whole series was dead. I am pleasantly surprised. Got work for the next 9 hours. Will be posting more when I return.