Mangrove!Trolls and Mothergrubs

(11:36:28 PM) Lizardlicks: aaaah I want more mangrove trolls now
(11:37:00 PM) Pi: I want more mangrove trolls FOREVER
(11:37:13 PM) Pi: what if mangrove trolls are pre-mother-grub
(11:37:19 PM) Pi: still external fertilization though
(11:37:33 PM) Lizardlicks: yes
(11:37:38 PM) Pi: so you have parent trolls protecting their little chunk of pond with its float of jelly eggs
(11:38:16 PM) Pi: all safe and tucked up under a big branching mangrove with a huge umbrella of roots
(11:38:27 PM) Lizardlicks: little creshes of baby tadpoles
(11:38:28 PM) Pi: wrangling tadpoles so they don't swim off until they're bigger
(11:38:44 PM) Pi: (so they just eat each other)
(11:39:24 PM) Lizardlicks: parent trolls guarding their nest site from other trolls because they'll poach a good spot (and eat any eggs or babies that aren't theirs)
(11:40:28 PM) Pi: yessssss
(11:40:48 PM) Pi: fighting off water monitors that can sneak in and will totally nosh on troll eggs
(11:41:05 PM) Pi: taking turns going and finding food so someone can always watch the brood
(11:41:19 PM) Lizardlicks: snakes, caimens, herons, you name it, troll is on the menu
(11:42:04 PM) Lizardlicks: puffed up threat displays flaring their ear fins at intruders
(11:42:49 PM) Pi: a whole big quadrant group of three or four or more trolls that all have their eggs mixed up
(11:42:55 PM) Pi: protecting them together
(11:42:59 PM) Lizardlicks: yes
(11:43:16 PM) Lizardlicks: ( there are so many babies when they all hatch it's ridic)
(11:43:19 PM) Pi: this is where the quadrant system comes from
(11:43:39 PM) Pi: defending the brood because obvs. you need external fertilization
(11:44:06 PM) Pi: ahahaha trolls trying to sneak in and fertilize eggs and fuck off so some other sorry bastard has to guard their eggs
(11:44:13 PM) Lizardlicks: forming pack-like structures so they can make more eggs and keep more of them safe and protected
(11:44:15 PM) Pi: parasitic jizzing
(11:44:26 PM) Lizardlicks: troll orgies though
(11:44:47 PM) Pi: as many contributors as possible = don't eat these babies, they might be yours!
(11:45:52 PM) Lizardlicks: a couple of weeks during breeding season all you hear all night every night is the sound of mating trills as quadrant all mod together
(11:45:55 PM) Lizardlicks: *mob
(11:46:58 PM) Pi: ahahaha oh man it's like spring frogs on the GRANDEST SCALE
(11:47:16 PM) Pi: advertising trolls making these ear-shattering mating booms that carry for miles
(11:47:26 PM) Pi: haha yeah I'm LOUD that makes me SEXY
(11:47:27 PM) Lizardlicks: like if those frogs were people sized
(11:47:31 PM) Pi: mangrove!Karkat is a catch
(11:47:46 PM) Lizardlicks: hell yes he is
(11:48:18 PM) Pi: volume = desirability and Karkat is the fiercest trollmama
(11:48:48 PM) itsAlana left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(11:49:36 PM) Lizardlicks: Eridan is ridicoulusly smug about this
(11:50:19 PM) Lizardlicks: hmmm
(11:50:34 PM) Lizardlicks: mangrove!troll signless crew
(11:50:42 PM) Pi: yesssss
(11:50:59 PM) Lizardlicks: could make for interesting version of this story
(11:51:33 PM) Pi: I am always all about Team Signless
(11:52:04 PM) Pi: Mama D tames the first mothergrub
(11:52:32 PM) Pi: begins the process of symbiosis/parasitism with domesticated mothcritter
(11:52:38 PM) Pi: fuck if I know how that works but
(11:52:42 PM) Lizardlicks: How would mother grubs function that far back though, it's wouldn't be the same
(11:54:14 PM) Pi: evolutionarily, it could be a gastric-brooding thing
(11:55:00 PM) Pi: like over time the mangrove swamps start to dry up but through a genetic quirk if the mother grub eats troll eggs some of them secrete a hormone that turns off her digestion
(11:55:15 PM) Pi: (gastric brooding frogggggs all the way here)
(11:55:23 PM) Lizardlicks: sucks for the mother grub
(11:55:39 PM) Pi: so you don't have safe mangrove swamps to put your eggs in, but mother grub is big and you don't mess with it, safe place to keep your babies
(11:55:41 PM) Pi: so let's just
(11:55:45 PM) Pi: take care of these critters
(11:56:09 PM) Lizardlicks: or else the eggs themselves have a protective coating
(11:56:15 PM) Pi: I'd imagine, since you want to keep the thing harboring your babies alive at least until the babies happen, the genetic material mix ends up really really nutrient rich
(11:56:38 PM) Pi: which convinces mothergrub to eat them AND carries her through gestation of babies
(11:57:57 PM) Pi: either that or, yeah, they have a protective coating and chill out in her gut until they're just about ready, then the eggs get pooped out and hatch soon after
(11:58:18 PM) Lizardlicks: regurgitates eggs when they get too big and crowd out room or actual food
(11:58:35 PM) Pi: and trolls took to tending to mother grubs because it keeps the mothergrub from getting eaten, and you can make sure she deposits the eggs somewhere they'll survive
(11:58:36 PM) Lizardlicks: by that that time hey look, a new batch is ready!
(11:58:41 PM) Pi: yes I like that better
(11:58:58 PM) Pi: poor mother grub, it is a terrible life being parasitized by a species that is smart enough to domesticate you
(11:59:48 PM) Lizardlicks: yeah but let's face it, they were basically a sack lunch for anything big enough to try messing with one
(7/29/2014 12:00:09 AM) Lizardlicks: now, mob of angry troll parents!
(12:00:35 AM) Lizardlicks: it's like ants defending their favorite tree
(12:00:47 AM) Pi: yes do not fuck with Angry Troll Parents
(12:01:36 AM) Pi: so eventually you move the Mothergrub into the brooding caverns to keep her safe and fortified and easily protected but then hmm
(12:01:44 AM) Pi: how do we get the eggs TO her in the first place
(12:01:57 AM) Pi: I imagine for a long time there were massive orgies in brooding caverns
(12:02:12 AM) Pi: just piles of trolls providing an all-you-can-eat genetic material buffet
(12:02:17 AM) Lizardlicks: yeah at first they just gather and spawn right in the caverns
(12:02:17 AM) Pi: super classy
(12:03:06 AM) Lizardlicks: later as trolls spread out and good sites for brooding caves are fewer and farther between they'd have to develope a system for transportation
(12:03:14 AM) Lizardlicks: (buckets)
(12:03:31 AM) Lizardlicks: much much later it became automated (drones)
(12:03:41 AM) Pi: I think this could all tie with Alternia getting dryer
(12:03:58 AM) Pi: like you start losing the coastal mangrove swamps which means you NEED the mothergrub for eggs
(12:04:22 AM) Pi: and to get to her, you need to not dry out. Tougher, terrestrial skin and the seadweller-landdweller split
(12:04:55 AM) Pi: eventually it's dry enough that you need a controlled environment for the mothergrub and trolls are sophisticated enough by this point to artificially engineer that underground
(12:05:34 AM) Pi: but there's not that many appropriate spots with natural water sources, so there's fewer mother grubs farther apart and there are only so many trolls you can get in one cave at one time
(12:06:06 AM) Sunspot: You guys are still at it
(12:06:08 AM) Sunspot: and that makes me
(12:06:10 AM) Sunspot: so gleeful
(12:06:12 AM) Sunspot: you have no idea.
(12:06:13 AM) Pi: so buckets! As things get even further apart with fewer caverns and mothergrubs and more trolls (always more trolls), then they breed drones, which can fly, to collect for them
(12:06:21 AM) Pi: TROLL SEX IS SO IMPORTANT
(12:06:27 AM) Sunspot: I KNOW :D
(12:06:34 AM) Pi: also I think I finally have a mothergrub headcanon that works and I'm happy with
(12:06:40 AM) Pi: THIS HAS BEEN YEARS IN THE MAKING
(12:06:44 AM) Sunspot: Basically frogs?
(12:06:48 AM) Lizardlicks: i always registered drones as robotic rather than organic I don't know why
(12:07:11 AM) Pi: I always assumed they were weird cyborg Alternian biotech so I mean
(12:07:25 AM) Pi: not a natural step in the process, though
(12:08:00 AM) Sunspot: I always assumed they were special spawn of the empress.
(12:08:05 AM) Lizardlicks: like maybe that was another sacred duty for the Jade trolls, taking care of the mother grubs but also collecting and transporting fertalized eggs
(12:08:31 AM) Pi: yes like it just happened, Jades were the ones who started doing this and then they kept doing it
(12:08:46 AM) Pi: but eventually there are just TOO MANY TROLLS and you can only process SO MUCH SPOOGE
(12:08:48 AM) Pi: so
(12:08:50 AM) Pi: drones!
(12:09:13 AM) Sunspot: I'm now wondering about common troll fetishes
(12:09:16 AM) Sunspot: because that's how I function.
(12:09:28 AM) Sunspot: Like, sex in intelligent creatures gets weird
(12:09:35 AM) Sunspot: because alternate solutions to biological imperatives
(12:10:07 AM) Lizardlicks: can you imagine the rituals and ceremonies that developed in early troll civilization though, like spawning season is just so important to everyone and it takes up this huge chunk of time and energy every sweep
(12:10:22 AM) Pi: pilgrimages to the brooding caverns
(12:10:35 AM) Pi: it's a planet-wide ceasefire/migration in the name of bonign
(12:10:39 AM) Pi: *boning
(12:10:42 AM) Pi: so majestic
(12:11:06 AM) Sunspot: Miracles.
(12:11:26 AM) Pi: huh no wait so thought
(12:11:27 AM) Lizardlicks: motherfucking miracles