>>5426665>>5426666>>5426668>>5426669>>5426670>>5426677>>5426686>>5426689>Drifting in the tide, a Flounder Feeder flexes its under pincer tentacles. Between their wide range of motion and sensitivity, they guarantee it can detect incoming ice before it strikes. If not, its pincers and jaw can shatter it with a brain too small to feel contempt.The Flounder Feeders have developed their exposed nerves into a series of cartilaginous tentacles, each half as long as its pincers and retaining almost all of its former sensitivity, gaining more from their ability to receive incoming vibrations at a wide variety of angles. Equally keen to touch, they have little muscle but are able to stabilize Flounder Feeders as they skim near the stone and even “row” as they move. These represent a massive evolutionary shift for the Flounder Feeders and one that evolved very quickly but almost more important than its sensory applications are its impact on pack dynamics.
Previously, Flounder Feeders relied on pheromones and rare grooming to keep track of their pack members, but now, they’re able to hold each other’s tentacles as they swim. Larger Flounder Feeders begin to guide newborns and the elderly through rough waters and frequent mates grow closer, as they interlink their tentacles and float together. The effect this has on such primitive minds is questionable but it sets a precedent for natural selection to iterate on and expand. The tentacles’ only true weakness is a continued vulnerability to pain but their sensory prowess renders damage uncommon.
At the same time, the Flounder Feeders have grown a tubelike band of cartilage-sheathed muscle stretching behind their pincers and deeper, behind their teeth. At will, the Flounder Feeder can flex and relax its jaw to snap its pincers closed and grind its teeth together, improving both hunting lethality and digestive efficiency. Both aren’t yet separate and there’s little modulation of force but their passivity around familiar Flounder Feeders result in very few accidents. The Flounder Feeder population has increased and is no longer endangered.
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