Noodlefly

Noodleflies (frequently nicknamed "Noots" or "Nootflies") are neutral creatures, often seen flying around in groups of a single adult leading several infants.

Appearance
Adults have long, wiggly bodies, four wings, two oval eyes, vestigial legs and a stretchy tube-like mouth. They also possess a retractable needle which they use to fend off predators and other Noodleflies. Their bodies are mostly monotone, featuring a lighter strip of color in the middle, and slight gradients on the legs. Their teardrop-shaped wings are usually shades of white or grey, though they sometimes may transition into more vibrant colors closer to the body. The needle is initially white at the tip and a pale red near the mouth, and turns black shortly after being exposed to the air.

Combat
Adult Noodleflies are frail but fierce, making up for their low health with high mobility, which makes it very difficult to hit them from a distance while airborne. They utilize two attacks in combat: the poke - a quick, close-range, temporarily stunning jab, and the stab - a lethal, long range lunge with a well telegraphed wind-up. If dodged, the stab usually lodges the Noodlefly into a wall or floor, trapping it for around 3-4 seconds. They're unable to do anything while stuck, making those few seconds the perfect opportunity to kill it with a Spear.

Evasion
Running away through tunnels or pipes makes for a good evasion strategy, since adults are unable to attack while slinking through one (however they may still attempt to attack from outside of a tunnel). Alternatively, the player may attempt to get very close (practically touching the needle), as doing so makes the Noodlefly unable to perform the stab, and may even cause it to fully retract the needle for a short amount of time.

Abilities & behavior
Left unprovoked, Adult Noodleflies fly across the region with their offspring. They spend most of their time in the air, but are also capable of slinking through pipes and tunnels. Adults mainly keep to themselves, watching other creatures like the Slugcat at a distance (with the exception of other Adult Noodleflies, who are always hostile to one another).

Dodge
Adult Noodleflies can swiftly dodge thrown Objects such as Spears and Rubbish. This move is on a very short cooldown, rendering them practically unhittable mid air.

Aggression
If an Adult Noodlefly perceives another creature as a threat to either it or its offspring (including when a is being held by the player), it will become aggressive and begin hunting down the offending creature. Within the game's code, a value called tempLike determines a creature's relationship with an Adult Noodlefly. This number slowly increases over time, but certain actions lower it. If it falls below -0.25, the adult becomes hostile for as long as it stays there. Notably, being the closest to an injured Infant Noodlefly instantly sets this amount to -1, the lowest possible, which is why an adult can often stay aggravated for an entire cycle if it was angered this way. Attempting to chuck Spears or Rubbish at the Noodlefly, and hitting it with Rubbish also decreases the value. In practice this means that missing 50 throws with Rubbish, 12 throws with a Spear, or hitting one 16 times with Rubbish turns it hostile for a short period of time.

Infant Noodleflies
Infants Noodleflies share many physical traits with adults but are much smaller. They have slim, mostly monochrome bodies with a lighter strip of color in the middle, four wings, oval eyes and a mouth, but only two vestigial legs. They also produce much higher pitched sounds when compared to adults.

Infants are passive and never actively flee from predators. They stay close to their parent, sometimes holding into its tail as they fly around. Infant Noodleflies can be eaten, but will also cry out when grabbed or otherwise injured, alerting the nearest adult in the region.

Variants
Adult Noodleflies have a large colour range, sporting various shades of red, pink, purple, white or black, even blue and cyan. The ends of their wings and legs are oftentimes differently colored, but seem to use the same palette as the body. Infant Noodleflies have less variation in their palette, which mainly features many shades of red with a little pink, and, some grey as well.

* Notes:
 * Every color is represented proportionately to its likeliness.
 * Only the main body color is shown here; various highlights, gradients, and differently-colored body parts may be added to it.
 * These colors are subject to change slightly depending on the palette of the room they are seen in. The ones shown here correspond to the default Outskirts palette.

Trivia

 * If an Adult Noodlefly is killed while stuck in a surface, it'll stay that way for a few seconds before falling off.
 * It's possible for two Adult Noodleflies to stab each other and die simultaneously.
 * The stab deals a little more damage than a Spear thrown by the Survivor (1.22), and the poke deals the equivalent of around 5 pieces of Rubbish (0.05).
 * When an Infant Noodlefly cries out, the nearest adult attacks the closest creature to the offspring, as opposed to the one that injured it. This makes spearing an infant from afar a niche way of dealing with predators, and eating the infant without alerting the parent.
 * An Adult Noodlefly can also aggro onto an [[File:Overseer icon.png]] Overseer if it happens to be the closest. However, their stab is incapable of killing it, effectively locking them into chasing it around for the whole cycle.
 * If a Noodlefly parent is killed in a hibernation chamber and the children are still alive when hibernating, on the following cycle, the children spawn in the chamber whether they were there before or not.
 * If the previous glitch is performed and the babies are killed/eaten, a new Noodlefly spawns and starts hunting the player.