There was a big thing - oh! Two big things nearby - but the neonate ignored all of them to keep grappling for those legs. The fuzzy donut froze and let it drag it around a bit, but then it completely unraveled back into Grub Mode.

Just in time for something big to flounder right onto it. "MREEEGH!" it squealed, lips peeling back to reveal aforementioned needle teeth and glowing gums. The zoisite was released as it was assaulted by squishing and gooey nuzzling. Twisting so its back was on the ground, the infant cried out again "EEEGH!"

It was an overly dramatic cry that only a toddler could make. Having had a limited experience of living, this was the worst thing that'd ever happened to it.

Knees came up and shoved at the big oily monster on top of it and it pushed again and again. Another baby-screech escaped it and it twisted to look at the adults. It seemed like they should be the ones to help it, so it called out towards them, too. This was the greatest tragedy to befall the Caves.

@V-Zoisite-One

Vargas offered a grunt, and then eyed the squealing child. He let out a short, half-amused laugh.

"Good luck with them," he offered, with a brief shake of his head.

He was already moving out, and planning. He'd get food for them--and then go back to Cetus, and watch the other oily stone. His own creations were due to hatch any time.

Hopefully they, in their extraordinary power, wouldn't kill Alpha and its own spawn in the meantime.

exit Vargas (little does he know-)

As the zoisite grub got its grip on the earth, something huge and dark as a monster landed on top of its assailant-- and maybe this should have been seen as a good thing, but it wasn't at all.

The dark, oozy creature was black as the darkest shadow, and filled the zoisite with a sudden feeling of fear. Without any context for what the massive black wave could be, it could only think that it was next to be getting tackled, and with such horrible wailing coming from its pudgy, toddler sibling, the zoisite was thrown into a panic, too.

Its purple-reddish exoskeleton flashed with another hot, bright yellow glow, flaring with warning for the darkness to stay back. Pincers clacked together as it scuttled backward, soft quills poking outward among a sea of short, coarse crimson fluff.

Unlike its noisy sibling, however, the zoisite made no noise, scared into silence but for the tactile clacking of talons on stone and pincers shuttering.

@Orthoclase-Alpha @V-Labradorite-One @V-Selenite-One idk who to tag im sorry yall getting it

Oh, Wow! This thing was loud! The loudest creature it had encountered yet! Which wasn't really saying much, but it was still rather impressive to the young swamp beast.

It allowed itself to be pushed away by the selenite, but not without a final heart nuzzle and a growl that was mean as affectionate but could very well be taken as threatening or aggressive. It got to its feet, its tail wagging much like an excited dog's. This made the newly hatched gembound balance even worse, and it wobbled slightly as it stared down at it's siblings.

It's attention shifted from the loud one to the spikey one, who was now a glowy one. Woah! It hadn't known creatures could glow like that- sure, the other two big ones had glowy bits, but this was different! The entire insectoid creature had emitted a brief, beautiful golden glow.

It was completely unaware of the fear and "tragedy" it had caused, but vaguely aware it should be gentle to creatures smaller than it. So it, much more carefully and gently this time, lowered it's head to nose-boop the Zoisite's closest pincher. It let out another playful growl before flopping onto it's stomach, its legs sticking out and its tail still wagging happily.

@V-Zoisite-One @V-Selenite-One @Orthoclase-Alpha

Good luck. Alpha had half the mind to growl, and curbed that response just in time for it to read as a plain grunt.

So, it settled in to watch the spawn get to know each other and themselves. Given all their screeching and bumbling movements, the Overseer saw no worth in addressing them. It certainly wasn't because that would be drawing attention to itself and making it a target for the little things.

Not at all.

The orthoclase just laid down some distance away, watching and making idle observations; the most glaring was the oddity of the zoisite and selenite. The former was upside-down, fumbling constantly to have its head tilted up when it was clearly not suited to it. The latter was simply clumsy and not as strong as its clutchmates. Either could be fixed in time, maybe, but... at least they all had potential.
alpha'll just be watching! tag if any of the kids are interacting with it uwu

The zoisite was "booped" by its slimy sibling, wet inky nose to closed tight pincers, and it stood completely stone still with shock. It hadn't scared away its assailant with that bright glow? It took several seconds for it to realize that the black slime monster was not a monster at all, golden eyes blinking underneath the set of pincers as Labradorite flopped on to the ground (where it could see them better, all things considered) and rolled on to its back.

... It could do that too.

Zoisite grub, inspired by the Labradorite, slowly leaned to one side, until its weight toppled it over. There was a clatter of its tail pincer clacking, talon-tipped limbs flailing as it rolled on to its spine.

Furry side up, soft and still faintly glowing needles prickled like stars amidst the sea of maroon fluff. The zoisite fell still quickly, however, half curled on the ground, as its eyes saw the world right-side up. Its brain felt like it was running a marathon to make sense of the ceiling above, which suddenly looked like the floor had fallen away. Its four, golden eyes could see a lot better now that it was upside-down, but that meant seeing the world from a whole new perspective. It was almost too much for the soft, malleable baby brain.

... huh...

@V-Selenite-One @V-Labradorite-One

Given zero-point-zero-three seconds of freedom from the slime-beast, the neonate practically galloped away. Arching its back, standing on its feet and the tips of its fingers, it bared its teeth in a pathetic little snarl at the biggest beast among them. Betrayal! As if all crimes had been forgiven, though, the selenite turned its teeth back onto the gooslicked hybrid. Quills and cheeks all puffed out, it practically challenged the poor thing to come at it again. Cyan eyes glanced down, and suddenly it was aware of little fishhook claws on each hand.

Oh, that'd teach it - !

Why were they all laying on their backs? The larva-grub wasn't flailing around anymore, or doing any glowing nonsense. Just staring up at the ceiling. Four eyes twisted up to regard the ceiling, but it failed to see the wonder in it. There were just a bunch of rocks and dust up there.

Maybe... there was something it was missing? It was awfully small in comparison.

Carefully, the selenite picked its way towards the wall, and started grasping for whatever handholds it could. It had hardly any upper-body strength (or strength at all) so it's trajectory was more... horizontal than vertical. Any extra inch of height was good enough for it. It got greedy, too, clutching for higher and higher bits of stone. No slips or falls happened to scare it straight, so the infant got a solid five or six feet up the wall before it wore out.

Sprawled across the stone like a gecko, it twisted its head over its shoulder, trying to inspect the ceiling from its new vantage point. Disappointingly, there was no change. It shifted a bit further and - "mreeugh - !" The sinking sensation of gravity settled in, and the selenite hurled itself forwards, lying flush against the wall and freezing on the spot. So much height was suddenly dizzying, and it cried out again: "eeeeeeeeeeeh!"

Code for: I climbed way too high, please help me down, I'm going to fall to my death in three seconds!

@V-Labradorite-One @V-Zoisite-One

The zoisite grub stared from the floor, rolled on to its back. Perfectly still, its six golden eyes watched the Selenite scramble higher and higher. It was transfixed by the movement, but all the more so by the vast roof above it.

It felt distinctly like it was on the ceiling, and the floor was above it. Gravity was a foreign concept, so how did it really know what was up or down?

Before it could contemplate much further, the selenite began to cry, and the sound was terrifying. It startled the grub into a squirming fit as it spent several moments struggling from its back to its legs once more, soft grub flesh prickling and delicate, barely formed quills rattling.

V-Zoisite-One scrambled away, six stumbling bird feet ambling along clumsily until it found a hole to crawl into. It quickly burrowed its way down into the nearby warren, vanishing from view from the overwhelming alarm of danger that was being cast into the air.

Better to be safe, than sorry, especially while it was just a little grubling.

@V-Selenite-One @V-Labradorite-One

:pensive: im just gonna exit cause..... i think we are well past the point of writing these absolute babies as tiny babies...