#Would that grub have grown up to have a forked tongue and slitted pupils and a slightly unnervingly wide smile if their dad wasn't a snake

[birchbow]

quite a few trolls have physical characteristics reminiscent of their lusii, like gamzee's pupils. how does that happen? do lusii pick grubs that look like them, or are grubs influenced physically by their lusus? is my mental image of tiny baby slitherbeast verato accurate?

This is one of those things that I'll often go back and forth on depending on what seems most fun for the things I'm writing lol.

I think I tend to settle on a combination! it makes sense to me that if part of your life cycle is having a huge semi-feral animal thing adopt you and raise you as its own, it would be good for your species, kind of cuckoo-like, to have a certain amount of mimicry for creatures of their color, to make them more appealing and familiar to potential lusii. 🤔

It's also very fun to me, as a slightly out there xeno aspect, if having a specific type of lusus around when you go through first pupation from grub to something more independent could influence some of the traits of your new body!

....the concept that despite all the societal and species differences between humans and trolls, you could still look at a troll and go "...you look like your dad, lol" is incredibly charming to me in a way I don't know that I can articulate. :D