Codex

Creature · The sardine-tin sea · Proposed

Borrowed shells

Hermit crabs and others, living in things that were made for something else.

A hermit crab on a wet beach wears a brass padlock as its shell, the key trailing behind it on a chain. Security-conscious, a bit heavy.
“Padlock shelled hermit crab”, Fresh slop

On the beaches on the wall hermit crabs live in whatever washes up: a coffee cup, a brass padlock with its key still on the chain, a green glass insulator off a telegraph pole, a pinecone or a spiny seed pod off the trees above the beach. Tortoises walk off wearing terracotta flower pots; a conch on the sand has a staircase and a lit door; a crab lays pebbles out in a spiral.

The Slopwright builds in found containers, a sea in a sardine tin first of all. The crabs got there by themselves. The can crab in the sardine-tin sea may be a relation. This entry is proposed by the codex, from pictures on the wall that are all machine-made, and is not canon until approved.

The facts

Kind
Creature
World
The sardine-tin sea
Status
Proposed by the codex, waiting for approval
In Meinong’s jungle
“Padlock shelled hermit crab”: Possible, the golden mountain kind. A crab will live in anything hollow that fits. A padlock is hollow enough, if heavy.
In Meinong’s jungle
“Hermit crab’s coffee cup shell”: Possible, the golden mountain kind. Hermit crabs move into cans, caps and cups already. The coffee rings are the only flourish.
In Meinong’s jungle
“Hermit crab’s jade insulator shell”: Possible, the golden mountain kind. Any hollow that fits will do for a crab between shells. A glass insulator happens to fit.
See the picture on the wall ↗ Its specimen in the jungle ↗

More pictures

On a beach at sunset, a hermit crab wears a white coffee cup as its shell, leaving a trail of ring-shaped marks across the wet sand behind it. Every step leaves a coffee ring.
“Hermit crab’s coffee cup shell”, Fresh slop
A hermit crab on a mussel-covered shore wears a pale green glass insulator as its shell, ribs and all. It is very well insulated.
“Hermit crab’s jade insulator shell”, Fresh slop

On the wall

Pieces of Fresh slop with one like it in them, grouped here by the proposal. The pictures don’t say they are the same one.

Connections