023 Crystal Crawler (Placeholder name)

023 Crystal Crawler (Placeholder name)
This Creature has many strong differences based on it's stages of development, unlike many other void creatures who are usually generated via unknown means at adulthood with little to no form of physical development.

Newborn (0 years)

they are birthed as offspring coming off from large adults however the adults do not seem to need to use any sort of reproductive organs or have any partners and just one by itself is able to generate children. these children grow like tumors at extraordinary speeds of forming and then are forcefully discharged quickly afterwards. the appearance of newborns are of a slimy and gelatinous blob that is a super dark purple color that is covered in white specks and spots all over it. these creatures also have a small mouth with sharp rows of teeth similar to that of a leech that it uses to attempt to eat through rock. these creatures have no limbs at this stage and instead just attempt to slide around and end up with extremely slow and inefficient travel. all of the specks on their body are forming eyespots and even though technically it can see from all directions it is almost blind and can hardly distinguish light, letalone colors. these creatures are so defenseless in this state that they often are preyed upon as a delicacy by nearly all other residents of the void.

Youngling (1 month old example)

the newborns dig into any sort of small crevice or hidey hole to attempt to escape from the dangerous world they find themselves in and only then will they start to change, as they take nutrients from the stones and crystals around them(which they need very little of to survive anyway) and then their slimy bodies congeal and solidify on the outside while remaining partially fluidesque on the inside so that they freely move about many insides and sometimes even outsides of their body. these creatures do this to remain flexibility in all sorts you will see later on aswell as allowing themselves to be protected enough to not just be instantly cut through like nothing and having atleast MINIMAL protection. most of their protection however, comes from all of the rocks that stick to their body as they are hiding, and the rock will stick superbly to them almost as if they are covered in a superglue for minerals. this shell of rock they hold attached to them allows them to survive forever as long as they are not preyed upon which is also made harder at the same time. as this point they also have grown spikey sharp legs that they use the gelatin in their body to move flexibly.

Youngling (~1 year old example)

this is the point where that younglings are fully grown in their most basic of developmental stages. they will learn to blend themselves into their environment, and even use excess energy to generate false replicas of the crystals in their environment so that they can remain unnoticed and they act the same way, however while being completely different mineral composition on further inspection. their legs are fully grown to their maximum of 10 legs, and their eyespots from before have actually been getting closer together and more formed as it grew underground, to the point where that they are now combining into 2 large bright white eyes that have near perfect sight.

Pre-teen (~400 year old example)

these creatures are known to live a very long time as you will see, and with their age they grow smarter and begin to understand what they can do with their own bodies more freely, and their flexibility rises aswell. by this point they exhibit many intellectual behaviors that earlier stages had no grasp of. however it is still not a human level and is poorly versed with any form of social behaviors, and is purely just seeking to master every survival tactic possible. many wonder why it is that their eyes were spread apart and not just 2 large eyespots at birth... the reason why though is quite unique. by controlling their body so well and having to fuse their eyespots together it causes the creature to be able to be stabbed,shot,etc in its eyes and the injury not blind the creature, it instead will seperate its eyespots around the wound and still keep most of its sight only to soon after combine them together again in a slightly different spot, or the same if the wound was healed or moved elsewhere.

Adult (~1000 year old example)

one thing i forgot to note was that as they age they continually grow, and for all we know it could be an indefinate growth even! however as the years go by their growth is often slow and the vast majority of these creatures are hunted and preyed upon during their first years, especially in their first days. due to this they often do not manage to live long enough to grow to a huge size, however if you did let them do so, they would become unkillable to most void creatures, as they learn to intimidate and escape any situation, and even resort to using their massive size to attack the creature if it knows it is a fight it could easily win. they appear to be well versed enough with the environment to dodge nearly all traps the void has to put at them, and only would die if faced with a few of the most insurmountable dangers to exist.

Mean Age of Natural Death via age and bodily shutdowns (~3200 years old)

Mean Age of Death via predators (~570 years old)

Danger Analysis: Threatened easily, most often attacks out of fear of you attacking it. if it notices creatures vastly smaller than it (aka humans once it reaches adulthood) it will not attack you and instead will just try to pretend to be aggressive towards you to scare you away and tell you to leave with little actual care for your presence. it is best not to directly touch them for fear of them retaliating due to their worried, timid nature when they are smaller.

Void Contagion Level: 3

easy to capture and contain younglings, however adults would require the structure built around them, as they are near impossible to capture otherwise, and may end up breaking down the walls around them anyway.

It is advised that they are handled by people who can show strong care for the creature and make it not as nervous, and that everyone who enters the rooms wear gloves that are later burned, requests have been made to make the room be sweeped regularly due to the contagion level however the rooms are usually covered in rocks or dirt to ensure that the creatures habitat is sufficient for it and this may prove to be a problem in the future if any infection does arise.