Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.
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Check
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Day three since the arrival. The Humans have been identified as harmless and somewhat pathetic. Life is resuming as normal. Well, except that my babas have taken me to a physician.
"He has been acting a little... odd. Ever since those creatures showed up." Tanto is sitting on a bench, fidgeting. Mudo has already left, being security for a noble who really wants Humans off his property.
The doctor lifts me up on a table. "Odd how?"
"Increased appetite, scratching at himself, leaning against the walls, holding his antennae in his mouth..."
The doctor gently pats my sides with all his hands. It's uncomfortable, I can't help but squirm a little. "Your exoskeleton should have more give than that, little one," he says in... well, I guess it's supposed to be a soothing voice. Sounds a little patronizing to me.
Gotta remember that I'm not supposed to know certain words yet. "Exo-what?" I tilt my head and flick one of my antennae into my mouth to suck on it. Maybe I'm overplaying the part, but anything that gets pegged as unusual doesn't really have any context yet.
"Your shell." The doctor glances at Tanto. "On his eighth solan, I am guessing?"
"His ninth in three days." Tanto wrings his hands together and looks at me. "You excited, little bibi?"
It takes all my strength not to groan. It was bad enough early on. Usually, I was sixteen solans old at the start of each reset, but recently I've been starting younger and younger. So instead of a thousand or so solans in a child, it's that in a toddler. But I can't let any of that show.
I clap my hands. "I want a Human friend then, yeah?"
Tanto blinks. "I... I will speak to Mudo about that, okay?"
I make a childish giggle. "Thank you, Baba!"
Tanto sighs and shakes his head, and then my view of him is blocked when the doctor steps in front of me. He steadies my head with one pair of hands while carefully placing the other pair on my antennae. It hurts a little, and I flinch away at his touch.
"Increased sensory sensitivity," the doctor muses. "How exactly are you feeling uncomfortable, Piabo? Are you having trouble sleeping?"
I can be honest now, at least. "It feels like the blanket is wrapped too tight, even when I take it off."
"Where? Stomach? Arms?"
"All the places." I squirm a little. "Now too. Tight everywhere."
The doctor turns to Tanto. "I cannot be entirely certain at this stage, but it is possible that Piabo is undergoing some kind of accelerated growth. Let me get a light, I can explain easier."
The doctor moves to the back of the room and starts moving a large crystal with trailing wires. I watch him like any curious child would. "Big lamp," I mutter.
"Yes," the doctor smiles as he sets the lamp next to me, "very big lamp." He then grabs a large black bowl, almost like a helmet. "I need you to put this on your head and not take it off, alright?"
I tilt my head. "Why?" I already know why, though. I'm supposed to be this curious, right?
"This lamp is very bright, too bright for you to look at." The doctor sets the helmet on my head and shifts it around. "Are you doing well in there, Piabo?"
"It's heavy." Shit, wrong word.
He doesn't seem to have noticed, though. I feel the lamp starting to get warm next to me, and then the doctor's fingers pointing at my chest.
"Yes, see here? His lungs and stomach are a little large for a mandiblor his age." The touching moves to my abdomen. "Everything is a little larger than usual, in fact, and looking a little cramped. I suspect that the itching Piabo has been experiencing stems from his overshell trying to loosen more quickly than it would under normal circumstances."
"I did not think we were overfeeding him," Tanto mutters.
The heat vanishes, and the doctor lifts the helmet off my head. "This is not excess weight gain, and it is not your fault. While to see it in a mandiblor as young as Piabo is unusual, it is likely a stress reaction to the alarm state of the hive these past couple days. If anyone, you should blame those Humans and their sudden appearance."
"Trying to become fighting-ready," Tanto muses.
"Can I get down?" I whine.
The doctor takes me off the table and sets me down, and I trot over to Tanto and sit by his front feet. The doctor continues, "The best option for right now is to just wait and see. Perhaps give him a little something to chew on throughout the day, give him something else to focus on. If he starts molting and his undershell does not look completely developed, bring his to me or another medical expect immediately."
"Someone will need to keep an eye on him every moment of the day," Tanto sighs.
"He should be old enough to follow you throughout the day, yes?"
I pipe up, "I want to see you work, Baba!"
"There you have it," the doctor chuckles.
Tanto rubs my head. "I hope everything goes well, Bibi."
I wish I could honestly tell him that it will, but it won't. It really, really won't.
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Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.