To call it a chrysalis was a disservice. That thing was too big to be called a chrysalis. Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was more like a large hunk of jasper. Mists swirled around it. And from it, came the faintest stench. The cloying, sickly sweet smell of rotting meat. Flies hung around the chrysalis. A single crack. Like a crevasse upon its' surface. The flies scattered. Ooze dripped from the chrysalis like an open wound, leaving oily red on the black surface of the water.

A single tendril wormed its' way out. Then a claw grasped the crack. The beast lurched from its' chrysalis, coated in reddish mucus, flopping into the water. The many eyes blinked open. Sickly green watching the land with little thought. The sideways mouth clapped. And then, the first thought. Eat. And it would. It raised above the water, swaying unsteadily. An arm stretched forward. Then the other. Crawling forward, searching. Its tendrils curled in anticipation. Effluvium would find food.

A pulse. Something swam. Effluvium could feel it. Hear it. Beneath the water, further out in the depths. An fin sliced through the water. It moved. It was made of meat.

"Eat." It said. Its' voice slurred within its strange jaws. It crouched, dragging itself through the muck. The water rose nearly above its' head, and it clawed along the bottom of the marsh. Unaware of the risk of drowning. Perhaphs even uncaring. It stirred up mud and filth in a single-minded pursuit of the fish. Effluvium launched itself at the fish, and tore into it. Or at least, that's what it had expected would happen.

As Effluvium attempted to push itself off the swamp floor, its' forelimbs slipped on the mud. It fell forward gracelessly. Gravity drove Effluvium's head into the mud with a loud 'plop'. It sat there, stunned for a moment. But not before the Redfang was aware of its' presence. Effluvium screeched in rage, muffled by the mud, as it felt the Redfang chomp. That was its' flesh. Effluvium was supposed to eat IT.

Carja was doing what Carja did best. Flop. She'd flopped and fluttered her way to Cetus, wandering and wandering until she could wander no longer, her stomach protesting the continued exercise, demanding she ate. The banana she'd eaten in Polaris had sated her, but she craved something... more. Something living, wriggling and writhing in her jaws. Like a rat. Polaris had proven to be useless in that regard, so she'd wandered.

And now she was here. In Cetus, having a blast.

Carja rolled around in the mud, having a grand old time, her belly filled with the meat of some wiggly creature she'd found in the water and snapped up, fighting with it for a good ten minutes before biting its head off and eating it head-first. She'd taken a nap and then gotten up to sniff around, before rolling around like an idiot in the muck, grumbling and growling happily as she got herself utterly filthy.

Though... that sound wasn't something she'd heard before. A wet growl of some kind, and a slapping noise like two pieces of meat smacking against each other. Hm.

Carja stood and shook herself off, making her way through the muck, half swimming and half toddling, her wings held high above her to avoid getting stuck. Her head poked over a rock as she peered at the weird lump of moving body parts, mashed together like some Frankenstein raw chicken Build-A-Bear. She watched it struggle with the fish before climbing atop the rock to watch curiously, watching jaws snap and messy limbs flail.

The first thought in her mind? Friend.

@Effluvium

Effluvium continued its' screaming, unaware of Carja's presence. It's limbs flailed wildly in an attempt to get the redfang to stop eating it. In the middle of that, somehow it managed to free it's head from muck. It stumbled back, and the redfang switched targets, going for Effluvium's arms. Effluvium swiped wildly at it, in a blind rage.

"I eat!" It screamed. Effluvium's jaws swung out, closing on the Redfang's head with a clunk. It gripped the redfang, shaking its head like a dog with a toy, barely moving it considering the fish's size. But Effluvium thought it was doing something. Gradually, the redfang stopped moving, more from being out of water than anything on Effluvium's part. But it did not care. More food. More mass. A flash of blue in the corner of its' eye. It dropped the fish. Eyes centered on the thing on the rock. It didn't think much about it. Other than the fact it moved. Things that moved were to eat. Food. A glance spared to the redfang. Then back to the blue and grey shape. Smaller than the redfang, but still food.

"Eat." It said again. Afraid to lose its' food, it closed its' jaws over the redfang's side. Awkwardly dragged it along to the rock the blue food sat on. Effluvium would soon have two meals.

@Carja

Carja snorted and stepped off the rock, tumbling down to the ground with a squeak, rolling to a stop in front of Efflu. She shook her head out and blinked at the other, her four secondary eyes rolling about for a moment before all six settled on the eldritch being in front of them. She licked her lips and let out a rather happily trill before waddling forward on four stubby legs, nose pressed to Efflu's side as she sniffed them all over.

The kaiju sneezed and admired the rows of sharp teeth the creature had, her tongue blepping out as she reached out to gently paw at the other before moving on. She was getting more and more hyper as the seconds passed and her inspection grew more intense, as if she wished to find every secret the other held.

Carja wagged her tail and hopped about in excitement, tongue lolling out of her mouth, bioluminescent saliva dripping from her maw as she panted like a dog. She got down on her front legs, her wing claws on the ground, acting as a pair of secondary arms as she bared her gums and growled, wanting to play and get rid of all her access energy.

@Effluvium

Effluvium didn't expect the food to come to it.It expected a fight, like the fish. And then it touched Effluvium. Effluvium froze. Confused. Apprehensive. It took a step back. It kept sniffing Effluvium and patting it with its strange limbs. Effluvium made a sound reminiscent of a bark, angry. Effluvium dropped the fish, turning its' jaws and limbs to snap and grasp at the creature.

And it had the audacity--the bravery to growl at Effluvium. It did some strange pose. Effluvium didn't understand the gesture. What the play bow meant. It tilted its head, the sound of wet muscle churning as it attempted to process what it was seeing. A single drip of its' blood-like mucus. Was it trying to take Effluvium's food? It was the only conclusion Effluvium could come to. It was Effluvium's food. Theirs alone to guzzle. The thought was enough to anger it. Effluvium screamed at Carja. "I EAT!"

Effluvium crouched and pounced at Carja. And this time they did not slip.

@Carja

Carja was not at all prepared to be pounced on with teeth bared and claws brandished. Hell, she didn't even know what 'eat' meant. Language was something she hadn't quite grasped yet. Now when the other successfully took her to the ground, pain blooming from where she'd both hit the ground and her thin skin had been pierced by the other's claws.

A shrill shriek left her jaws and she flailed like mad, similar to the fish that the other had caught.

Carja's first instinct was to snap back, and her jaws clamped down on the other... though she may have forgotten that she didn't really have teeth to bite with, unlike her adversary. She gummed at the other's flesh and wiggled as hard as she could, growling and snarling fiercely at the other, spit flying into their face- faces. Faces? Faces.

"L-LEGGO!!!!" she cried out, trying to form words her brain had heard and found the meaning of, but an inexperienced tongue betrayed her, butchering the word enough that she could really only hope that the other understood.

@Effluvium

Effluvium was content to scream into Carja's face. The bites were weird. Not like the other foods bites. This one was weaker than both it and the food that swam. It didn't eat Effluvium. The more it interacted with the smaller food, the more it confused Effluvium. Why would it want Effluvium's food? Was it because it was weak?

Glowing spit kept getting into its eyes. The combination of the weird bites and the spit in its' eyes confused Effluvium, and it released Carja. It pawed at its eyes, the blue blocking out its vision. Its claws were not built for this. Its other limbs were too stubby to help. It couldn't see. Effluvium needed to see.

Effluvium growled. It didn't like the spit. It didn't like not being able to see. Effluvium pulled itself towards where it thought water was, grasping blindly. The ground was wet here. It dunked its head, then raised it. Not water. It was mud. And Effluvium couldn't see at all now. Then, in classic toddler fashion, Effluvium threw a tantrum. It screamed and clawed at the mud and ground around it, flinging it everywhere.

@Carja

Carja hissed at Effluvium and scuttled away, back arched like an angry cat's as she sniffled at the tiny cuts on her body. Not fatal. She looked up and saw the blob shamble around in distress before dunking its head in the mud, confusing Carja. Why would it do that?

And now it was throwing a tantrum. Okay.

Carja slowly approached, blinking slowly before dragging the back of a clawed hand across its face, wiping off the majority of gross spit, before hopping back a few feet in case the other decided to attack again. She sat down and licked at her wounds, reaching around awkwardly to try and get at them, wings raised high above her as she tried to get to a cut near her tail, only to overbalance and fall over with a squawk.

Babies...

@Effluvium

Effluvium's world was all darkness and mud, the scent of dirt and minerals. Until it wasn't. Something swept away the mud on its face. It could see. And there was the grey and blue thing. It had helped Effluvium? Did that make it not food? If something wasnt food, and it wasnt trying to take Effluvium's food, what was it?

It blinked, a wet sound. Effluvium stood, hobbling to the carcass of the redfang. It picked it up. "Eat,"it gurgled, crunching the carcass. It pushed the remainder to Carja.

@Carja