For years human scientists wondered why octopus, squid and many other invertebrates seemed highly intelligent during decades of close study. One things for sure, no human ever saw the eventual symbiotic take over of the human race by those species. Occulum (formally known to the human race as "octopus") control the human mind with two communicators which are inserted through the nostrils used in the past for breathing. Evolving faster than normal due to precise gene editing perfected by the early Occulum, their "hosts" developed a new set of nostrils higher than the originals since the communicators were having to share the space in the lower set. Humans then no longer needed their sight since the Occulum were taking over the job and keeping their eyes bound shut by one set of tentacles. It's assumed for defense purposes the humans then developed a marking on their foreheads with the appearance of a giant eye. The other two sets of tentacles did a fine job of just hanging on for the most part. Such a good job in fact the Occulum lost one set of tentacles during the evolution of the species to what it is today, now having only six tentacles. Now Occulum control humans for their own development. Keeping the Occulum/Human(host) supply and demand ratio of one human at the very least for every one Occulum has been a task in recent years though. A plague formally known to humans as "chicken-pox" has broken out to epidemic proportions across the planet quickly wiping out host supplies. So far, no cure in sight. - - - - - - Havent done any kind of pencil illustration outside of quick sketches in such a long time I cant even remember what the last piece was. So I did a quikie over my break from the grind. Slight level adjustments in photoshop along with the "burnt" border after the scan. ------ I also just made up the above background story as I went along typing it out. Hope its not to cheesy/crude. ---- --- -- C/C more than welcome. - thanks for lookin - j