I am totally with him on the squids and such. I'll probably end up including some somehow, even if they're not the main pet, especially since it's such a conceptually interesting idea. I think a nautilus with a steampunk-style mechanical shell would be pretty cool (and an excellent Verne reference, to boot), but so would entirely mechanical steampunk-organic cephalopods. And how would they have come about - or would steampunk technology be inspired by them? Decisions, decisions...