Editing Parting of the Ways (Fortune: Evolution Game) (section)

== Open Ocean ==
Much like Earth, the planet of Fortune's surface is, for the most part, covered in liquid water. Also similar to Earth this alien world's seas are full of plants and animals. So thick is the biodensity contained within, that these bodies of water resemble a veritable "soup" of life.

Analogues of Earth's fish, sharks, Cnidarians, whales, dolphins, squid, and algae all call these blue deeps home.

===Common Spearfish===
[[File:Spearfish (Part 6-2).png|200px|thumb|Spearfish]]
Spearfish are carnivorous fish native to warm-to-tropical waters of the Open Ocean.

These wolf-sized pack predators are almost exclusively adapted for hunting Rainbow Blimpies, to the point that *any* change in their prey's population has a corresponding and profound effect on Spearfish numbers.

The main hunting tactic of the Spearfish is to "wind-up" the muscles in their tail, putting all their energy into a tremendous burst of speed, and leaping out of the water. From there, the creatures can achieve limited flight, or gliding for extended periods of time. They will split up into two squads while hunting, one remaining in the water, while the more flight-capable take to the air and dive bomb a single animal, attempting to spear one with the mandibles, fatally wounding it in a single strike (often dive-bombing their soon-to-be dinner, using gravity to add punch to their strike), meanwhile, the second squad will remain in the water, defending the dazed flyers and keeping scavengers away from their prize.

Eventually, though, the Spearfish must return to the water as it possesses only primitive lungs, allowing it around an hour, maybe two, above  the surface. Were they to become stranded on land, they are capable only of limited movement using their flippers and "wings", though with some effort they can take flight again.

Spearfish lay thousands of soft slimy-coated eggs in underwater caves disguised with sea-flora. The young hatch into small thumb-sized fry that must fend for themselves from the moment of birth. On average, only around 7% reach adulthood.

===Oceanic (Openwater) Ravedragon===
[[File:CommonRavedragon 00.png|200px|thumb|left|Fuck not with the Ravedragon, it fucks with ''thee''.]]
The Oceanic Ravedragon is a descendant of the Ravesharks, but this twelve-foot long solitary or mated-pair predator that will even go after the massive Bloat Whales. The lining of their digestive system is incredibly toxic, making sure that any creature they swallow whole will soon die to the poison. This paralytic prevent struggling while inside the Ravedragon's gullet, as such thrashing could severely damage the predator from the inside.

Unlike their cousins, these ectothermic bony jawless fishes possess their bio-luminescence on the massive "frill" behind their skull (though, again, only on the males). This dazzling sexual display in unique to each individual and can include almost any colour in the visible spectrum.

===Aquabeast===
[[File:Aquabeast_00.png|200px|thumb|Aquabeast]]
The '''Aquabeast''' is a carnivorous aquatic repto-mammal that lives in cold saltwater habitats, usually inhabiting the mid-range to deep ocean depths. It makes its home in the Abyss and the Open Ocean.

The Aquabeast is about the size of a whale shark, roaming the mid to near-surface depths of the ocean. While most of its body is covered in dense bony armor, its underbelly is adorned with slick blue hairs, stuck close together, similar to a penguin's feathers.
Being such a large beast, this creature's digestive system is wonderfully efficient, even the bones of prey are digested. The calcium present in these goes to the upkeep/growth of the Aquabeast's impressive armor (actually a  modified second skeleton).
While the Aquabeast is only moderately fast, it does have the advantage of a long tongue, one that can extend it body length away. In this regard, the Aquabeast has changed little from its Spineback predecessor, remaining an ambush predator, relying on a single decisive strike to grab prey before it has a chance to react.

===Bloat Whale===
[[File:BloatWhale_00.png|50px|thumb|left|Bloat Whale]]
Bloat Whales are large orca-sized filter feeders common to most areas of the ocean, with the exception of the Abyss and the Tropical Gulf. They are found in Near-Surface to Deep depths.

Bloat Whales, as they age, often play host to certain algaes that live on their skin, like barnacles latching onto a ship. This causes the creature no pain.

===Common Searay (''Northern Ice Ray'')===
[[File:IceRay_6-4.png|200px|thumb|Profile and above views of the Common Sea Ray as well as skeletal structure.]]
The Common Searay carnivorous fish that make their homes in the northern arctic to temperate waters of the Open Ocean. Common Searays have extremely flat manta-ray like bodies and hunt either solitarily or in a mated pair. They mate for life, and in fact, if one of the pair dies, the other will waste away, refusing to eat, seemingly mourning its lost partner.

Common Searays are semi-nocturnal, occasionally hunting at night, where they come closer to the surface. Here, in the moonlight, at seemingly random intervals, they gracefully somersault and backflip in the water. These hauntingly beautiful "dances" are a complete mystery, and no one has any idea as to why they are performed. These dances are rarer in the northern species, as they exist under the threat of surface-dwelling Aquabeasts. To avoid this threat, Common Searays spend most of their time floating with their white belly sticking either up or down depending on where a potential predator is located, attempting to camouflage themselves among the small floating ice formations of the arctic waters.

Searays are near the size of a dolphin, but almost 2-3 times as wide, owing to their "wingspan", the modified fins that 'flap' through the water, providing locomotion.

===Tentacle Leech===
[[File:TentacleLeech_00.png|150px|thumb|Tentacle Leech]]
A horrifying blood-sucking parasite, the '''Tentacle Leech''' can be found wherever there are '''Ravesharks'''.
 
Tentacle Leeches evolved from a species of slug-like leech that attached to many aquatic species, especially the Ravesharks. After feeding on, and being eventually eaten by, their Raveshark hosts, a chance mutation making the leech's ancestors "taller" with longer tentacles proved to be a vital change for the species. While many of their cousins continued their normal way of life (and these eventually became the ''Slugiformes'', see the entry for: [[Triumph_of_Spring_(Fortune:_Evolution_Game)#Rock Slug|Rock Slugs]]), the new, longer, taller leeches began infiltrating the Raveshark's tentacles, latching on to them at their base, gorging on blood until the tentacle withers away, and then the leech takes its place, eventually fusing its body into the shark's as it uses its twin tentacles to feed the rave shark and its durable rocky shell to protect from its host's ravenous maw. The hosts appear either to not notice or not care about the replacement of a few tentacles in this manner.

The anonymous poster who created the Tentacle Leech has stated that this creature was inspired by a real-world parasite called the  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua tongue louse] (''Link not recommended for the squeamish'').

There are a number of species of Tentacle Leeches adapted for particular breeds of Ravesharks, with bioluminescent spots simulating the 'light show' of the sharks.

===Windsail Dolphin===
The Windsail Dolphin is an ectothermic, bony, jawed, carnivorous fish native to the Open Ocean's surface to mid-range depths.

The Windsail Dolphin uses its large fins to be blown around by the wind, conserving energy by letting the breeze and tides carry them. Windsails are about as big as their dolphin namesakes, and have a similar diet, mostly small fish, like Shadow Ravesharks, but they are also known to dine on Stingers, though that's a gamble as the poisonous Stingers look no different than the non-poisonous.

Why the sails developed is unknown, but the features get plenty of use during the semi-annual migration of the species, travelling from one end of the planet to the other. For a few years, the species lives in the northern hemisphere, slowly moving southwards, until, 3-5 years later, they near the edge of the region and begin migrating towards the southern hemisphere, gradually moving north, from whence they will return to the northern areas. This long process is in place to avoid "overfishing" an area, gradually moving once food hits a certain low, and returning many years later when prey populations have recovered. Each "pod" of about 20-35 individuals has its own migration routes.

There is a point though, every decade or so (in Earth years) that the Windsails gather around the equator and exchange members of their pods, to mate and spread the gene-pool. It's a momentous event, thousands of Windsails from all across the planet, swimming in and out as part of their courtship dance and exchanging members, breeding and eventually giving live birth (the gestation period being only around a week or two). In about 6 years the babies born will be adults, with four years with their families before the next mating season when they'll go and live with another pod.

===Raveshark===
An ancient lineage of carnivorous, bio-luminescent bony fish. It is the mating dance of these creatures that gives the family its name (though these are no longer borne by all species of Raveshark, having multiplied into ''many'' different forms since Part 5). The different light patches on the creature's fins all light up separately, and prospective partners will put on a dazzling light show of colours, strobes, and flashes, hoping to attract a partner.
====Common Raveshark====
'''Common Ravesharks''' are carnivorous, ectothermic (''cold-blooded''), bony, jawed fish common to many areas of the Open Ocean of Fortune's PotW period. They are about 5-7 feet long from nose to tail and possess bio-luminescence on their two dorsal fins and on the tips of the tentacles obscuring their mouth. They swim either by opening and closing the frill behind their head (the motion likely resembling an octopi or a jellyfish), or by left-to-right paddling with their dual tails, alternating between these two modes as one gets tired.

The bio-luminescence that gives the C. Raveshark its name is only present on the males, and they use it a sexual display in order to gather mates. A male may end up breeding with multiple females should his laser show impress lots of ladies. Females are also promiscuous, mating with up to three different males, should three exceptional specimens present themselves (doesn't happen that often, but it's not unheard of). The female will then lay her many eggs (around 2,000 of them) in a foamy mass, either in some underwater cave, a coral reef (or whatever Fortune's equivalent would be) or a seaweed grove. She then leaves, returning to the solitary hunting that is C. Raveshark life. If multiple partners were selected, then one fraction of the eggs will belong to one father and another fraction to the other father (and so on and so forth) even though they were all laid at the same time.

The fry hatch in about 3 days and must immediately fend for themselves. They grow to full size in about a month, but only around 6 or 8 of the original two-thousand reach adulthood on average, the rest providing food for the ocean's many aquatic predators.

====Shadow Raveshark====
'''Shadow Ravesharks''' are carnivorous, ectothermic, bony, jawed fishes around 3-4 feet in length and swim in schools of a few dozen. Despite being part of the Raveshark family, the Shadow R. does not possess the bio-luminescence of its ancestors, abandoning them once it stopped living in deep-sea trenches.

Shadow R. mating is little more than a breeding frenzy, with the whole pack weaving in and out mating with multiple partners over the course of about an hour. It's a mad rush to be last, as only the most recent donor's genetic material will be accepted by the female's body. Eventually, the pack dies when they exhaust themselves (much like salmon).
The females lay their eggs in the open water, where they sink to the bottom, spread all across the ocean floor. Ocean currents direct almost all of these eggs (from anywhere in the world) to only a few hotspots from where almost all baby Shadows are born.

These mass of unrelated Shadows hatch and break off in groups of unrelated individuals around 12-30 individuals and hunt in packs much like piranhas. At the end of about 3 years, the mating frenzy begins and the cycle continues anew.

===Stingers===
[[File:Stinger_00.png|200px|thumb|left|Adult-form Stinger]]
The '''Stinger''' is a strange, jellyfish-like creature common to all ocean regions, and is common from deep to sea-floor depths.

Stingers are entirely dependent on the '''Ravesharks''' for the propagation of their species. At the beginning of their life-cycle, they float in the sea covered in a tough shell as fertilized eggs, only hatching once ingested by a Ravedragon. Once hatched into voracious little ''medusae'', they feed greedily on the Ravedragon's intestinal tract as well as any partially-digested food they can find within, all the while constantly spewing gametes behind them. This results in a spray of fertilized eggs and Stingers the next time the Raveshark defecates. Being ejected in this manner marks the end of the Stinger's medusae phase.
Now free-floating in the ocean, the Stingers balloon up into large filter-feeding free-floating jellyfish. 
Unlike other species, Stingers actually ''lose'' the ability to reproduce as they age (rather than gaining the ability with maturation) They do not mate again, living a pointless existence until eaten by some other animal.

Stingers, as evinced by some similarities in their life-cycle (the presence of a parasitic medusae phase as well as the need to be eaten by a Raveshark) are actually close relatives of the '''Rock Slugs''', having split off from their "parent's" genus near the end of the Ice Age.
Another trait shared with its cousin is the segment of poisonous individuals within the larger species. If ingested by the specific species of Raveshark called '''Ravedragons''', the medusae will steal some of the creature's toxin cells "on the way out" granting the adult-form stinging tentacles of its own.