damianvertigo

Saving christmas [wip]

Added 2023-12-22 13:40:25 +0000 UTC

NTD entry 230: Sandyclaws.

An illusive crustacean adorn with holiday ornamentations and a fuzzy pileus.

We only have the accounts of the locals from Christmas Island of what these creatures look like.

The Sandyclaws, are invisible to the naked eye in adulthood. However, as juveniles, they're pinkish-red crab-like monsters, curious creatures that tend to die shortly after being seen.

The holiday horrors breed quickly and their clutch can amount to 50 to 200 eggs per couple. due to this many of the islanders made it their mission to hunt down these saintly seafarers and stomp them out before they grow old enough to invade their homes.

Once a Sandyclaws reaches maturity they can be impossible to see.

They'll gather random knickknacks by stealing from nearby stores and build a reef totem near a heat source to start luring a mate.

Outsiders may confuse this mating ritual as a "Christmas miracle", which leads to them being protected by the homes they invade off the island. That said, time for these beasts doesn't perceive time the same way so if a house doesn't produce a mate within 40 seconds. The caroling carapaceons will scuddle to the next home and repeat the process till successful.

Mobius has been contracted to end these Merry monsters to prevent their spread and the ransacking of many department stores in the area. However, our more humbled forces seem to leave their life scanners back at the armory for exactly 23 hours before starting their assigned hunts.

Paid a handsome sum of money to keep these festive fiends from breeding is one thing.

But the smile on a child's face on Christmas morning...priceless.

"Which is why it's very important to let them finish the ritual before dispatching them, LADY!"