Board Thread:Fan-made Monsters/@comment-43798486-20190911235900

Habitat: Deserts

Diet: Small creatures, cactus, sand

Disposition: Patient, hungry

Fairly small and slightly sparkling, this creature inhabits the desert regions of the world. These creatures are covered in small, orange scales everywhere except their face, belly, and posterior, which have nice, pink bare skin. Out of the shoulders, on the back above the hips, and on the tops of their heads, they have large silicate crystals, and they typically sport long, hairlike feathers atop their head.

Common Gems, and gems in general, are theorized to have been created when a mix of cockroach and lizardman DNA were mixed in a lab. The result was an entire new branch of evolution, and a somewhat pleasant new set of inhabitants for the desert regions. Common gems seem to be sort of a living fossil, with all of the other creatues in the crystalibestia liniage being traceable back to this species.

Their hunting habits are simple. They lay partially buried in the sand and wait for prey to pass by. When a prey creature approaches them, they flash their crystals, which freezes the prey in place. They then go in for the kill, pouncing on it and swallowing it whole. On occasions when prey is sparse, they resort to eating cactus. They also regularly consume sand to build up the silicate crystas on their bodies.

Common Gems do not take husbands. They are quite promiscuous, and when they find a male human, they employ the same strategy they use in hunting, wating for him to get close and then flashing him with their crystals. They then pounce and go to town. When they finish mating, they partially bury their catch in the sand for other Common Gems to use. As gems exhibit only bestial cunning and have bad facial recognition, they do tend to mate with the same male over and over again until he either expires from heatstroke or starvation, or manages to avert his eyes from the flash of the crystals for long enough to fully recover and unbury himself.

When raising children, Common Gems are feirce protectors. The mother will watch her children intently at all hours of the day, and will bury them when night falls to go search for a human male. As opposed to their usual behavior of immediate flash, pounce, and sex, they will flash their crystals, and then drag their catch to where the children are buried. A mother Common Gem never forgets where the children are buried. Once she returns with her catch, she digs the children back up and allows them to explore the human male for themselves. As their crystals are not yet fully formed, the mother watches them while they engage in intercorse. Should the male awaken from his stupor, the mother will flash him again. Once the children are satisfied, they go back to the mother, and the group leaves the male where he is for other Common Gems to use. 