He's a foot tall! Compared to the other shrimps, he's massive!

*holding ice* oh hylia my hands are freezing

In a way, yes...all of them!

Though I should note that birthdays (hatchdays) aren't as significant an occasion for Rito as they seem to be for your folk. Procreation in Rito is seasonal, so whole clutches of chicks hatch very close to each other. It would be quite a lot to celebrate so many individual birthdays all at once like that! So the festivities are more general and communal, with the stars of the show being the yearlings. I don't remember my exact hatch day, for example, though I do recall it was later in the season, and I started out as a bit of a runt!

How do the Zorca's keep their teeth clean? Do they go to anyone?

Hello!! 👋

Adults use kelp to keep their teeth clean!

When baby zorca get their teeth in, the shrimp that live among the pods help clean them until they learn how to properly use kelp (also as a way to help mama zorca!)

The older children can be a little ornery though, so the shrimp cleaning crews can be rather insistent they practice good hygiene 😤

You lost The Game

What's the darnest thing yours kids have ever said that you love sharing with them when they got older?

Also a word they tried to say but it came out something different.

Ex) when kiddo was learning to talk, he couldn't say clock with the L.

When Sardon was little he would mishear words. And the one that baffled Lurona for a while was after he learned that Zorca could eat monster parts. After he saw a group of adults eat some, he tugged at his mother and asked “Can I have some monster pits?” She wasn’t sure what he meant, but since it had monster in it she had to say no much to his dismay. Sardon would start crying every time he saw an adult help themselves to a monster snack “I WANT PITS!!” It was only when Lurona saw one of her sisters snack on a monster horn that she realized it was PARTS not PITS. She still had to break it to him that children were not allowed to eat monster parts. But now that he’s an adult he gets teased once in a while whenever he goes off to clear out an area of monsters “Hey Sardon, don’t forget to clean out those monster pits!”

When Lufina was small, she watched how her mother would breastfeed baby Cironus. Then one day she was following her grandmother, and while observing her, Lufina pointed at her chest and said very loudly “Yours ran out a long time ago, didn’t they grandma??”

🌙✨🎶

He wasn't, surprisingly! Pregnancies among the zorca are very deliberate since they're trying to replenish their numbers. Lurona avoided attending the courting events for a while so she could focus on raising Kaska. And before Kaska, she had another child who died not long after they were born, and that really wrecked her. She needed time to recover mentally and physically 😞

Kaso is definitely her last child though. In this post I mention something called ENSE (Empty Nest Social Extravagance) Lurona is past child bearing age, but she hasn't quite taken the chance to indulge in this freedom quite yet because Kaso and Kaska are still young.

Zorca are considered full adults when they accomplish certain goals, things like participating in their first successful hunt with the pod and attending in their first Turning the Wheel event. Kaska can hunt on her own, and she will be old enough in the coming year to attend her first Turning, but Kaso is definitely too young for both!

As for Kaso's relationship with his siblings; he absolutely ADORES them! He practically worships Sardon and sees him as this invincible hero. Cironus is like his partner in crime because he tends to let Kaso get into more trouble than the others would allow. He's close to Kaska since they're considered the babies of the group and enjoys when she dotes on him. He never got to meet his older sister, Lufina, though :<

I mentioned in an old ask that he'd set teeth on anyone who would insult his family. He got in trouble during the Matriarchs' decision to exile Cironus because he bit one of them on the leg! No regrets!! 😤