and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe
all mimsy were the borogroves
and the mome raths outgrabe


Be vigilant now, my fellows. Within that swirl of crystalline candy, towering tall and and dominating some portion of this floor, lies the babe of a true monster, experiencing the saccharine marvel of its own birth.

Ah! And look to the skies, eyes, for the creature that made it flies! She hears the rattling, crumbling mass, and in her jaws is a rat so plump it ought to feed the trickish twins of Gemini! Alas, the beast she feeds will be able to devour such constellations whole... in time.

As we are hunters of such wonders, we must heed our code, and only let our prizes grow as much as we wish to be challenged by them. I do not believe the child is ripe for battle yet... but perhaps I am wrong. Fall back now, and let us watch!

~~~

It does not take much more rattling. One thunderous beat more and a paw bursts from the grossular chrysalis, nearly knocking its maker from the sky. She spits out her rat, hisses, lands, puffs up her cotton ball body-- "WHY- HOW-" Somehow she manages to stop herself from yelling at a partially born baby. Can we get a round of applause for such self-discipline?

Out it scrambles, and... oh my is it cute. It is also almost eye level with the gargoyle. It flops down, wet and splooshy, then flips over on its belly. How bold, to expose itself to a stranger like that!! Perhaps it knows already what kind of creature it is, what kind of power is stored in those massive paws and slowly-forming hidden underclaws. Balder begins to inspect it.

"So... that's how it happens?" The kitten-cub offers no aid in the form of a reply or a reaffirming gesture. Instead it just... remains there. Beflopp'd. Balder sits, looking quite like that famous statue of the Thinker. I think it's called for; babies are things we can and should contemplate sometimes. "We come from growing, rattling stones? That's cool I guess..." It is pretty cool. Props to whoever made that decision.

"Well now you're here, which is lucky. The first thing you should be... is grateful! And the second thing you should be... is your name! What is it?" The baby does not answer. A rumbling begins in its tummy, so it flips back over to the side that's supposed to be up and waddles towards the rat on the floor. "Hey- HEY!!" The rat is being SAFEGUARDED! How cruel... how unusual... "You answer me first, THEN you get food." The kitten looks up at her meaningfully, making eye contact, making it last. "...Okay fine, food first. But then you're gonna listen to me!"

The kitten-cub is getting the impression that this person likes to be listened to. The rat is provided, and happily eaten. The kitten eats surprisingly fast; ravenously, wolfishly! Balder nods in approval. "Good!" The baby does not understand why this is good, but if it is good, then it is good. "Now. What's your name." It's a question, but it definitely sounds more like a command. The cub blinks slowly, showing no sign of weakness... or understanding. "Can you hear me?" She seems impatient, but it can't be helped! Sometimes you just don't want to speak!! She does not comprehend this: "UUUUGH, okay, so maybe you can't actually hear me. ...But you understand food?" We're really starting to connect some dots over here! Actually this baby can understand a lot more than food, but... you know. It's-- "Can you understand what I saaaay?" She is talking in that infuriatingly slow and agitated way that people do when they don't think you can understand what they say. She then growls a little, surprisingly quietly, in that way people do when they are frustrated with you for no good reason. And also in the way cats do when they are cats. "Okay, so you don't talk and you don't listen. What are you-"

The baby leads up and stamps its paws and bares its teeth. They are impressively sharp teeth. The gargoyle jumps back, a little surprised, but totally unafraid. "-hey, hey!! Don't make that mistake, buddy, I am vicious, I do NOT hold back." The child seems to understand this. It puts its teeth away, and plops down into a sit much like the gargoyle's. Slowly, she also sits back down as well. "...Huh." And leers.

"If you can understand me, then... do this." She stamps her left paw. The kitten-cub stamps its left paw. "Yes- okay! Good. Now... do this!" Balder gets up and spins in a circle. The kitten-cub gets up and tries to spin in a circle-- it loses its balance and falls. Thump! "Good enough I guess." Yes, it can listen, and it can obey! That's pretty much all she-

"I'm Balder."

-Balder needs to know.

The kitten looks meaningfully at her again, mirroring the studying look Balder had given it earlier. Slowly, it opens its mouth as if to speak, and for once Balder goes wide-eyed, looking intent to hear what someone else has to say.

It sneezes. Balder grimaces.

"Caaa..."

Balder's anticipation is restored. She leans closer.

"Caaaataa..."

"Cahta?"

"...wum-py." It slumps down to the floor, as if speaking so much has exhausted all of its energy.

And the product, the fruit of our labor? Catawumpy. We've done it lads! Rejoice!! "Um. I'll just call you Cat." Okay Balder, everybody can rejoice except you I guess.

So... we've done it. We have a name! Can we... can we go now?

"Okay Cat. You ate all the rat so I'm gonna get more now." She hasn't prepared at all for this, has she? She'll regret that soon enough. Ah, well, she's taking off now, so...

Guess it's just "Cat" here. All alone...

What crimes will it commit?

Well I'll tell you the first thing it does... is leave Balder's "nest" area.

There's all kinds of fun stuff in here, but "Cat" doesn't really care all that much right now. It wasn't given an order to stay, and it's first instinct is to leave, so... it's leaving!

It wanders into the Carnival, looking around at all the very pretty, extravagant decorations, lights, and stands... There are eyes following it as it wanders, but it does not seem to perceive them, or may it just doesn't care. Its nose alerts it to the presence of food somewhere... and so it shambles over to one of the food stands, feeling almost intoxicated by how delicious it smells.

It sits there, staring at the Carny manning the stand, and does not speak. Drool drips down from its mouth however, which might be words enough for the Carny.

The returned stares of the Carnies were half-blank. What was this thing, and why was it drooling at them-?

The foods, of course, were varied.

Hot, buttered popcorn, though it seemed to have little mice feet scattered in it.
Steaming corn dogs. These had mice tails sticking out the ends.
Cotton candy wisped on sticks. But these were sort of ominously more red than cotton candy strictly need be.
Fried dough, twisted into cinnamon and sugar. This was... probably safe? But there was no telling what was in the dough.
There were foods that looked distinctly unsettling, or would perhaps to more civilized sensibilities: fried bits of whole lizard in a bucket, dead whole fish fried and stuck on sticks, and fried Green Wallcrawlers in a cup.

Strangest of all was the caramel popcorn. It smelled delicious. It smelled like popcorn, with caramel on it. It was suspiciously normal.

@Catawampus

...Not words enough then. Well, guess the Cat'll have to go based on scent. It does not have a refined taste of any sort -- I mean, it just snarfed down an uncooked rat and it's still hungry -- so it'll take the thing that smells most like food... meat, probably. And by "take" I mean take. Baby's first crime: theft.

It stares for an uncomfortable moment longer at the Carnies, and then... POUNCE! It attempts to get on top of the stand and snatch away a fried fish!

It comes RIGHT at one of the Carnies, leaving time for one reaction: fight, flight, or freeze. It scoops up the fish in its mouth, somehow managing to never break eye contact with the Carny until it does this odd body twist away and flees with feline agility.

Swerving through the stands, the Cat(awampy) finally reaches an (arguably) "safe" space. Where is it now? The, uh... oh. It's the game stalls. Balder would be familiar with this area; not that "Cat" knows that yet. Guess it's time to continue following in dad's footsteps.

The creature slinks towards a game about sinking Wind Hoppers, seeing the BIG fish and the terrified bunnies within. This reminds "Cat" of its own fish, and so it takes a moment to rip and tear its meal down directly in front of the stall. ...Eugh.