"His face went slack and his eyes rolled up in his head. Smoke rose from the hole in Trig's neck."

That's my try, anyway.

It's way better than the original sentence. Yours didn't make me read a dozen times before I understand what the heck was going on.

Like Spanish and German then.

Oh snap! I forgot about Spanish. That's true. Years ago, I took a spanish class.

I referred to the Jelly as a "she" because I wanted another female character, and Lphet just sounded like a female name to me.

I can see it. I saw a list of ancient egyptians and most of female names ends with letters 'et' (ex.: Amenemopet, Iaret, Iset, Menhet, etc).

Also, people usually refer to boats and stuff like that as "she" because for a long time, men were the ones heading those industries, and many of them were straight and had wives back home.

So it's more of a cultural/societal thing, then? Interesting. Does it also work the other way around ? I mean, if a woman want to refer some stuff, do shes say 'she' as well ? Weird question, I know.

If they're gender neutral, then he should've gone with singular they. "It" just sounds dehumanizing. (And yes, I see the irony.) I think of inanimate objects instead of people.

Maybe that what he was doing: to refer the jellies as it/they, since they are not humans like us. Thankfully, Cheddar is there as a last ditch ambassador for them.

Where are you from so that you speak French?

I'm quebecer, and grew up in a small town less than three thousands almost all my life. Quebec is the only territory in North America that is french speaking.