looking prickly

"Beautiful, aren't they?"

Addam watched Minoth flex the beetle's paper-thin leg with dubious interest. At least, he assumed that was what his friend was doing. Who could tell, at such magnification?

"I...suppose so."

"Tiny creatures like this, so complex and so industrious. On a scale completely separate to us."

Addam frowned. "Most people feel that way about babies."

Minoth paused his ministrations and looked up. "Well, sure, I like babies too."

"For the same reasons, or...?"

It was easy to imagine Minoth agnostic to children, but very particular about his arthropodic charges. And, sure enough:

"Nah. Bugs have armor."