#burnt millipede

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three rectangular flags with six evenly-sized stripes each. the first flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark brown, medium brown, peach, pink-orange, dull orange, and red-orange. there is an ant in red-orange in the top left. the second flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark warm brown, light brown, light grey, yellow-grey, dark yellow-brown, and nearly-black brown. there is a millipede in dark brown in the top left. the third flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: burnt orange, bright orange, neon yellow, bright cool green, dull green, and dark green. there is a beetle in dark green in the top left. END ID.]

ant: feminine presenting

millipede: masculine presenting

beetle: feminine and masculine presenting

see also: @daybreakthing's flags for the same terms!

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @presentationflag-archive

[crevicedwelling]

here are some Little Guys for u !! they have been feasting on the freezer burnt veggies all evening, it has been so eventful tonight

very charming millipedes!

[theneighborhoodlisten]

Ep 101: On the very first episode of The Neighborhood Listen, local CVS pharmacist Burnt Millipede (Paul F. Tompkins) and local realtor Joan Pedestrian (Nicole Parker) discuss a lost green parrot, a mystery whistler, and all things Doug (Brett Morris). Plus, we meet Vanity (Maria Blasucci), a suspicious “carrot-haired” woman.

[schizoidnightmares]

The Gorge, V: Many Eyes

A.I. placeholder artwork generated using NightCafe Stable Diffusion XL v1.0 — CC0 1.0

144th of First, 1100 A.W. — Yesterday, our hope of seeing home again went up in flames. The HSS Heaven Sails is no more, a burnt carcass. Some pieces of it are probably on their way to the ocean by now. Maybe someday, a piece will drift back to the shores of Heaven’s Peninsula. Maybe. That’s about all the evidence that will return of us.

You can see it all in the eyes of the surviving crew. Shock, pain, fear, and anger… It’s all flowing through us like a sizzling stream of molten metal. Our future is cast. These canyons, or whatever lies beyond, will become our new home and grave. There’s no fixing it.

I barely have the motivation to write anymore, but it helps to keep my mind occupied. Only 47 of us are left now. 13 perished in the fire and chaos that followed. We know little about why or how it happened. At early dawn, a fire broke out on board. There was a great panic. Some crew aboard threw themselves over. Some died from the fall, and others perished when the airsail crashed and exploded on the island. We, the survivors, escaped the flames by jumping into the river. Most of the dead died there, drowning. We could still feel the heat and see the steam even a decent way downriver.

We haven’t lost everything. During the fire, some crew tossed as many supplies as they could overboard. I had all my records already with me on the island. However, I did lose one of my journals in the swim downriver — mainly containing technical minutiae. I’m surprised how well my leather scroll cases held up in the water. Most of the paper inside is in good condition.

Downriver, we found a hole in a rock wall. There’s a cave inside, with a whole network of tunnels. We’ve travelled deeper within and taken shelter. The caves are full of biting insects. The spiders, ants, and scorpions are the worst. They’re a bit bigger than the ones at home and a lot more vicious. At night, they won’t leave you alone. You can see them crawling all along the walls and ceiling, coming in and out of crevices in the rock. They drive the crew mad.

There’s also something else in these caves, something much larger than any insect, or mammal, for that matter. Captain Leaping Tiger thinks the crew are seeing things, but he’s wrong. I’ve seen it — only its eyes, its many eyes. Whatever it is, it’s bigger than Man. Maybe twice the size. Last night, I saw it watching us from another tunnel above our camp in the caves. The light from the fire reflected in its many dark, round beady eyes. It remained still all night but was gone by the time I awoke. I didn’t dare move. Some of the other men saw it, too.

Despite all that has happened, the captain has kept the surviving crew together. There are some with minor injuries. Our cook, Leap Frog, suffers from burns on his arms. He’s still keeping his spirits up, but Doctor Fog Eyes has ordered him to refrain from performing his duties. Fog Eyes is despondent. He sees the destruction of the airsail as if it were a divorce — from a wife he never married. I feel more shock than loss, but I’m grateful to be alive. However, getting shelter outside these caves will be a relief — away from all the insects.

These caves are not entirely enclosed. Light from the moon or the sun leaks through crevices in the rock above. Tonight is our second night. I write by faint candlelight. We’ve moved further in the caves since the first night, setting up camp in the broadest part of the caverns we could find. It’s still cramped but not as bad as the cabin was back on the airsail.

The mysterious creature I and some of the crew saw, we call it Many Eyes. I haven’t seen it tonight. We’re not in the same place we were before. One of the crew claims it looks like a giant millipede but with countless hairy, thin pairs of both bottom and top legs completely surrounding its body. He says it moves slowly and methodically. It would pull insects out of crevices with its legs, retracting them rapidly into its body. He did not get a sight of the creature’s length. Instead of turning around, it crept away backwards. He described its locomotion as silky smooth, with no bobbing of its eyes.

I don’t know if these descriptions of the creature help ease my mind at all. Perhaps, while curious of us, it doesn’t regard us as a potential meal. We’re much bigger than the insects, so I find it hard to believe it could swallow a man. We probably would taste a lot different, too.

Thank you for reading

This story is the fifth scene of “The Gorge,” the third short story in Schizoid Nightmares Anthology I. The previous scene is available here. The next scene is available here.

[bending-sickle]

just realized i could have been using Pleny the Elder’s “medicinal cures” for spell ingredients and instructions in my fics instead of hitting up magical herb encyclopedias and new age woo-woo magic books

because seriously look at these (as provided by Dr Sydnee McElroy for the Sawbones podcast)

First if all, you could try ear wax... Okay? Or— “The filth that adheres to the udders of a sheep.” Now if it makes it more palatable, you’re gonna mix that with some myrrh and some wine. […] The ashes of a dog’s head...mixed with honeyed wine. Or, a millipede— You also want to mix that with wine. These are all in wine. […] There’s some earthworms...in honey-wine, again. Wine, in which a hen’s feet have been washed, after being first cleansed with water. Also, the hen must have yellow feet. […] The brains of a partridge…or an eagle, whatever is easier for you to obtain! […] The ashes of a ringed dove’s feather, or the intestines… Again, either way… And then you wanna mix that with three spoons full of wine. […] Ashes of sparrows, burnt upon twigs, in honeyed wine.

but it doesn’t even have to be Pleny! could just be medeival cures:

Or you could—You could swallow nine lice—Nine... Count out the lice...Nine, mixed with ale each morning, for a week.

and those are just for jaundice

[brainsart]

When i saw that millipede in the forest, it looked so colorful. In that burnt black grass spreading around with the tiny particals of the ash which is shining for the New hope!

[siglovesbugs]

okay here are some honorable mentions im gonna try to speed this up

dragon headed caterpillars, which arent a species on their own theyre actually shared between 400 different species of butterflies as a larval stage

giant african millipedes (archispirostreptus gigas) are really cool heres some hands for size comparison of how big some of these guys can get

japanese emperor caterpillars, larvae of the great purple emperor (sasakia charonda) i really like them o think a lot of caterpillars resemble pokemon (more like the other way around, but i think theyre really cute)

ok ONE MORE REBLOG once i figure out how to add videos

edit: nevermind it wont let me add videos to reblogs sigh

but overall i wish people treated bugs better theyre almost always treated like pests even though they classify as animals too and they do what they can to survive

i think ive burnt myself out from explaining all this but i hope this answers your question i dont really have a favorite in particular but there are some that i find really interesting

what's your favorite bug? (bug you absolutely LOVE the most) and also types of bugs u like

i really like weevils. and beetles specifically i think they are my favorite kinds

i specifically really like acorn weevils but there are a LOT of unique weevils out therw and thats one thing that i really like about bugs in general cause theres so many to learn about

i dont know if i have a favorite in particular but i really like ladybugs i like identifying which one they are i could identify a 7 spotted ladybug from anywhere

its really difficult to find good information out there especially since theres a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about certain bugs out there so be careful where you get your information from, like there's a whole debate about ladybugs and ladybeetles biting and people calling them the same thing and its generally pretty confusing because a lot of different sites say a lot of different things so im still looking for a good source to like research this stuff

sorry that was unrelated i was gonna talk about the ladybug debate but i got sidetracked and realized i might not fully understand that yet and dont wanna give out ladybug misinformation because of it but as far as ive seen theyve been pretty nice to me

here are some of my favorite beetles (with labels) so you can see which is which

this is a diabolical ironclad beetle also known as phloeodes diabolicus

i really like them because not only are they literally the strongest beetle out there but their name sounds funny and i have to reference it whenever someone says anything along the lines of devious/diabolical/etc

im gonna reblog this and continue my rant cause i ran out of room for pictures and im not near done yet

[sirrobin126]

“Who are you?”

“You know who I am.”

“Are you me?”

“Yes.”

And we laughed

[aggressive-positivity-network]

I just need anything with the mercs and bugs. Like just arthropods in general. Please just the boys and some bugs, please 🥺

Mercs & Creepy Crawlies

Headcanons

Medic:

“Bug? Vhere?”

He is interested in all living creatures, so of course he would have no qualms with insects. Of course, he would prefer mammals, but whatever.

His favorite to study? Cockroaches!

He likes to use them as mini-science projects. When he gets bored or burnt out, he usually takes to the “Roach-Mobile,” using electronic signals to move the cockroach every which way.

He’s also a big fan of scorpions, millipedes, and the occasional revived fossil.

It’s one of the few things he likes about living in the desert.

Lately, though, since he’s become more and more exhausted, he usually hangs out in his butterfly room. That always seems to relax him.

Heavy:

Heavy usually doesn’t notice insects unless there’s a scorpion in his boot or a fly on his sandwich.

However, he unfortunately has a very rare allergy to ladybugs.

It usually doesn’t flare up unless they go to a campground or a park where there are a lot of ladybugs.

He sneezes something awful.

And when Heavy sneezes, you definitely notice.

It hasn’t gotten very bad over the years, especially because of the arid air around the base.

But one time they had a ladybug infestation after a shipment for Medic went wrong. Until Engineer exterminated them, Heavy was sick as a dog. He even swelled up a bit and ran a low-grade fever.

“Lady is little, but make big man feel sick...”

Any occasional ladybug in the base is practically killed on sight.

Demo:

Since he lived in Scotland, the only bug he is familiar with are worms, so he doesn’t really have much to say about the others.

Except, of course, leeches.

He is deathly afraid of them.

When he was young, he was attacked by a leech swarm in a lake, and he lost a lot of blood. He even had to go to the hospital.

Ever since then, he gets sick even looking at a leech.

Medic is thrilled. He has a nice, healthy, slightly obsessive interest in phobias.

The doctor likes to tease him whenever possible, and will always offer leeches as an option when Demo gets injured.

One time, he even held up one for Demo to see.

Demo proceeded to scream, throw a grenade in Medic’s direction, and run like the devil in the opposite direction. He didn’t even take out the pin, just threw the whole, inactivated explosive.

Medic laughed and put it back in the tank, but hasn’t done it since...he already spends enough on the lab as it is.

Soldier:

He has and takes care of a pet scorpion in his Sniper Square.

Their name is Roman.

They literally have a bow on their tail made out of an old t-shirt.

Soldier feeds Roman insects, small frogs, and other meaty things - he even gave them beef jerky once.

He is pretty much immune to scorpion poison because Roman has stung him so many times.

Other than that, Soldier is pretty chill with every other bug.

Sometimes he’ll just be at the table.

Playing with a brown recluse.

Or even a black widow.

Like man, do you have any self-preservation instincts?

Sniper:

Bugs make his job a lot harder, especially centipedes and Soldier’s pet scorpion.

Sniper’ll be aiming for a shot, then he’ll feel a bunch of legs crawling on him.

Sometimes it’s sweat.

Sometimes bug.

He thinks dragonflies are pretty cool, though.

If one lands on the muzzle of his gun, he won’t take the shot. He considers it bad luck to startle a dragonfly.

Sniper isn’t afraid of any insects - I mean, come on, he lived in Australia - but he doesn’t like most of them because of how small, quick, and usually poisonous they are.

Just dragonflies.

In fact, he secretly likes collecting dragonfly stuff along with apricot stuff.

Pyro once got him a scented sticker with a dragonfly on a peach for Smissmas, and he almost went insane over it. He has stuck it on the wall of the Sniper Square, right next to the slit he shoots out of.

Pyro:

There aren’t many day bugs that Pyro likes.

Miss Pauling doesn’t them keep any, so what’s even the point?

However, fireflies are a different story.

Pyro catches massive amounts of them every night and uses them as a night light until morning.

Engie is in the process of making small “fire-bots” so that the firefly population doesn’t go extinct.

The only other bug Pyro is interested in is butterflies. He spends a lot of time in Medic’s butterfly room as a result.

His favorite is watching them come out of their chrysalis. He’ll just sit in the butterfly nursery and stare at them at they come out.

Pyro is very gentle with them, so Medic trusts her to go fetch all the new butterflies and set them free.

It’s their favorite job ever.

Engineer:

GRASSHOPPERS!

No, I’m serious, he is obsessed with grasshoppers.

When he is feeling burnt out, he can and will build as many tiny, robotic grasshoppers as necessary to feel better.

Sometimes he sets them loose and watches them hop around.

Any merc can walk in and see Engineer cross-legged on the floor, staring at an endless sea of robo-hoppers.

“Should I come back later?”

“Yeah.”

He thought about making robo-birds to catch them, but then thought about how he’d have to make robo-cats to catch the birds, and robo-dogs to catch the cats...he got so overwhelmed that he just put the grasshoppers away and took a well-deserved nap.

Scout:

Messes around with pretty much anything that isn’t poisonous

He was actually once dared to eat worms, succeeded, and then proceeded to eat a few worms whenever he could find them.

??????

Medic thinks it’s because of a vitamin deficiency, but no one really knows for sure.

Scout was also always covered in mosquito bites.

He refused to put on bug spray because of the smell and the fact he can’t stand still long enough for it to be applied.

Finally, out of sheer frustration of Scout’s whining about itching all the time, Engineer “came across” a dog tag necklace that suddenly took care of the bug problem.

Scout wore it proudly, and he hasn’t had a bug bite since.

Medic owes Engineer several favors for that one.

Spy:

He will not tolerate bugs.

He doesn’t like cockroaches, flies, scorpions, ladybugs, butterflies, or mosquitos.

But Spy has a special burning passion for spiders.

He will not visibly freak out, of course - he has too much pride for that.

However, he will take the magazine from under his arm and slam it down on the spider, instantly killing it.

He cracked a wooden table after seeing a black widow.

Medic has tried exposure therapy, but Spy has managed to kill every single one of his specimens.

But hey, it’s free pest control, so no one else is complaining.

I wonder if I should add Ms. Pauling in the future...what do you guys think?

@leepogo

[paulftompkins]

LOS ANGELES: DO NOT MISS!

Nicole Parker & I are doing our first variety show together! Music and comedy, with a full band at a fantastic venue!

Sunday, 9/10, 7pm at Lodge Room in Highland Park.

TICKETS

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three rectangular flags with six evenly-sized stripes each. the first flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark maroon, bright green, cream, peach, pink-orange, and red-orange. there is an ant in red-orange in the top left, overlaid on top of a pink-orange peach. the second flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark red-brown, light brown, dull yellow, warm green, dull green, and nearly-black brown. there is a millipede in dark brown in the top left, overlaid on top of a dull green apple. the third flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: burnt orange, pink-orange, neon yellow, bright green, cool green, and bright red-orange. there is an apricot in red-orange in the top left, overlaid on top of a dark green beetle. END ID.]

silky ant: a feminine presenting person who identifies as both an ant and a peach.

dragon millipede: a masculine presenting person who identifies as both a millipede and an apple.

jewel beetle: a feminine and masculine presenting person who identifies as both a beetle and an apricot.

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @presentationflag-archive

[twofacedbelief]

I'd also love to see a snippet like Thomas from witch au's daily routine, maybe he visits each tenant or sees them in the building??? What does he think of them all?

Thomas had inherited the empty, four-story building on the corner of Black Brook from an uncle he didn’t know he had. According to the papers, the building was from the early 1900s and had been renovated to modern standards just last year. He could find nothing about former tenants, or any history of anyone having had lived in the building at all.

It was quite normal, considering he had lived in Antemori Shores his whole life. The town was just like that. So Thomas didn’t really think twice about moving into one of the apartments on the first floor of the building.

The week after Thomas had moved in, he became aware that someone was living in one of the apartments on the fourth floor. It was nothing special that made him aware of it, not really. Had he had come home after meeting a friend for lunch, and a millipede had been waiting for him on his door. For some reason, that had been all he needed to know that he had his first tenant.

Thomas met Remus for real the next day. Remus had opened the door before he could knock and greeted him, wearing three long skirts in muddled greens and browns that had been ripped to flow around kelp like tentacles, at least a dozen scarab necklaces in various lengths and colours, and nothing else. Squids hair cascaded over kelp shoulder, with insects moving through it.

It was... an interesting first meeting. Remus smiled the whole time, told him how glad kelp was to see the building being cared for again, and that he should knock on squid door if he ever had an insect problem. Thomas left after twenty minutes, having been gifted one of kelp many scarab necklaces, sigils inscribed in the wings of it.

Remy was the next to move into the building. Thomas ran into them outside as they were coming back from a coffee run and they handed him a strawberry milkshake. He has no idea where they would have gotten a strawberry milkshake but didn’t question it. They winked at him as they walked past him into the building.

In contrast to Remus, Remy was calmer although still chaotic in their own way. They always had a drink for him when they ran into each other, but it was never coffee. Thomas could pretend that the weird sounds coming from the pipes were a coincidence, and he decided to not ask when he started seeing liquids seeping out from Remy’ door. All in all, he quite enjoyed talking to Remy whenever their paths crossed.

His tenants didn’t get less interesting after that. Patton and Virgil moved in on the same day; Patton in the morning and Virgil during the late evening.

Patton was an absolute delight. She had knocked on his door to introduce himself and gifted him a flower crown and a jar of honey that he had collected herself. Whenever they met, Patton would smell of flowers. Sometimes he had a squirrel on her shoulder, and she always wore a wide-brimmed hat. After the first week, butterflies were following him. Thomas suspected Remus had something to do with that, but when he asked, Patton admitted to not yet having met her neighbour.

Thomas could probably have gone weeks without knowing that Virgil had moved into the apartment across from him, if not for the 28-hour long blackout that only affected the first floor. Virgil had sent him a text, explaining that it would be best if Thomas avoided technology until he had set his apartment up with sigils and spells. It was quite interesting to get a text when your phone was turned off, and more so to see a new contact entered once it did get turned on.

Even when Thomas saw Virgil, most of their conversations were through texts for the first couple of months. He supposed it was fair, most tenants wouldn’t want to interact with their landlord more than they had to.

Roman was the loudest with moving in, if only because Thomas actually saw him carry boxes up to the third floor. Strangely, he saw no other tenant the whole time that Roman carried belongings up the stairs. Thomas offered to help but was brushed off with a smile and a comment about how he had done enough by renting out the apartments for such a low cost.

He should probably have checked for contracts and things earlier, especially considering he had no idea how any of the tenants got keys to the building, but you learned to not think too much about things in Antemori Shores. It was while actually going through the papers that Thomas got to know about the last two tenants that would be moving into the building.

Logan was the second-to-last to move in. Xie took the third apartment on the third floor, surprisingly. Thomas had come to expect that he would have two tenants per floor, with the exception of the first floor. Not that it really mattered.

As with Patton, Logan chose to knock on his door and introduce hirself. Xie didn’t gift him anything, but hir talked with him for half an hour about the history of the building. Considering Thomas hadn’t found anything when he tried researching the subject himself, he actually appreciated Logan’s impromptu lecture. Whenever he met hir, xie would teach him something new.

Dee moved in at the end of the month, and much like Virgil, they kept to scaleself and didn’t talk much when Thomas saw them. Scae always seemed to have a different snake with them, be it a big one curled around their shoulders or a small one around scale arm. Thomas mostly wanted to know why they had burnt down the doors to the two empty apartments on the second floor. At least none of the other tenants had complained about the second floor being taken over by snakes.

When it came down to it, Thomas felt some affection for all seven of his tenants. He’d just rather they didn’t turn his building into an insect sanctuary or a reptile house... but as long as he didn’t have to deal with complaints, everything was good.

[scottaukerman]

On this week’s Comedy Bang Bang I’m joined by Burnt Millipede (@PFTompkins) & Joan Pedestrian (@nfparkergirl) of The Neighborhood Listen! It’s a podcast crossover for the ages! - Plus, critic Dickie Caroline’s (@rygaul) tells us about his food reviews! - Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts! https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XFPFAHaI-/?igshid=3wn536291d6g

[areloch]

Haggard Star, Part 1

"My name is Mikael Adderman and, uh, apparently I've been taken prisoner. I'm a P.O.W?"

  I was still pretty disoriented by the flurry of events that just transpired, and between my injuries from the earlier combat engagement and the sudden shift in behavior from my captors, things have taken a little while to process.

  "I don't think they really understand what I'm saying, so I'll be quick about it: I think they're scared of me- of us,"

  Staring into what I presume is a camera of some fashion, I was sat down into some weird alien facsimile of a chair and screeched at in that weird way all of them talked. It took me a while to figure out what they were going for, but I think it's either a 'look we have your prisoners' video like terrorists from centuries past used to do - or it's documentation before experiments began.

  Taking a breath to steady myself, I walked back through what happened over the last day- or what I presume was roughly a day. Time tracking in space was hard enough without being stuck in a holding cell on an alien ship. There was the spread of first contact reports through the network. Humanity accosted on multiple fronts from some sort of collective alien force of different species. Quick, brutal, decisive battles. And before the crew of my little shipping corvette could even figure out what was happening, a.., rip in space appeared, close enough we could actually see it out of the viewports, and they were upon us.

  They boarded the ship - or well, that may be overstating slightly, as it was more they ripped the ship in half - and several of us were immediately thrown into the void. The rest of us suited up, got our weapons and prepared for a skirmish. The majority of the ones we fought were long, covered in armor and had a bunch of limbs. Something like a snake-millipede hybrid. They moved fast, and were incredibly aggressive. Their weapons - lasers of some sort, because why WOULDN'T an alien species have laser weapons - tore into my crew.

  But then a shift in the pace of combat happened. Likely partially because humans have always fought hard against aggressors, and a hearty dose of alien invasion media throughout our history may have inadvertently prepared us, but we fought back. Oh did my guys fight back. When one got shot, we'd pull them back, lay suppressing fire and get them patched up and back to shooting. If they were going to kill us all, they were going to work for it, that was damn sure.

  Or so I thought. We'd killed about 25 of them for only 3 of ours lost when they began to slow their attacks down. For being as big, armored and ugly as they were, they went down a lot faster than expected. Their weapons, while brutal, burnt the flesh closed so it was actually pretty hard to kill any of us without a lucky shot to the head or heart. We were all hurt and bleeding, but still fighting. Even I took a good blast to my face, but I've been gritting my way through the pain - and what I think is a total loss on my ear.

  Shortly after they slowed, they stopped their attacks completely. It gave us time to breathe, sure, but it was also unnerving. They just camped outside the bridge, every now and again blasting that annoying click-screech sound I can only presume is their language at us over comms. We held there, hurt, but determined for another 5 hours or so before one of them entered the hallway, weird buggy forelimbs extended spread-eagle showing it was unarmed. I'll admit that it took a good while before we figured out it was attempting to pantomime that we should surrender and come with them.

  We were able to walk ourselves onto their ship, held at a good distance - and laserpoint, but as we watched them, it was pretty easy to tell that we were more than they bargained for. Something about that fight had them spooked, even if we technically lost it. It wasn't their weapons or technology. Their exoskeletons were pretty strong. I'm pretty sure we'd lose in a battle of raw strength. And it sure wasn't my ravishing good looks after taking that grazing shot to the face.

  I'd been mulling it over for the past few hours until now, but I think I get why they're scared. And if I'm right, and they're dumb enough to try and attack earth, then they're going to have a REAL bad time ahead of them.

  "They can't handle pain. Or shock. They're about as resilient as a preschooler with a glass jaw"

  It was sorta funny, really. City-sized ships. Laser weapons. Creepy alien bug-snake things from across the stars. And they're scared of us because we don't just roll over and die for them.

[90percentprocrastination]

Nothings pt. 9

After the tall disappointed man comes the real monster. Ellie sits in the bathroom, unable to do anything else but be grateful she held in her sigh. She holds her breath, finding it too easy under the pressure of the small slithering thing pushing itself across the bathroom floor.

It’s back is covered in slime and a thousand tiny legs suggest it’s merely a large millipede, but the face...the face is too human.

...

I wish I could dream, or sleep. Hell, I’d even take the human discomfort of having to pee over the limbo that is being....whatever I am.

Jacob “woke up” before me. He made us a breakfast of oatmeal with a side of granola. We eat in relative silence. I’m still wondering what the red-tie man was doing in the fireplace and, if I know my girl, Jacob is falling in love with me.

He’s the best love interest I’ve had so far. There was once an Irishman that comes close, but that story didn’t last long.

In the morning light Jacob’s brown hair takes on a reddish hue and his eyes shine sapphire. I could see this being a wonderful love story once the dead woman, the missing friend, and the mysterious fire are cleared up.

Then again, why was a future me warning me to turn back?

“Are you finished?”

I nod, Jacob takes our dishes and washes them. He does dishes, one point to him. I wonder how many he can rack up throughout the day. It doesn’t matter, in the end if my girl says I love him then I’ll love him, but it feels like this time I might actually feel it without being told to.

When the dishes are clean he pulls his backpack onto the counter and begins inspecting its contents. Granola, tissues (hopefully not used), pens, notebooks, and a phone charger are all he finds other than a few changes of clothes.

I have similar things in my bag, including a few tampons he tosses at me “just in case”.

“D’you think Sybil had map of the nearby woods laying around?”

My pointed stare is all the answer he needs.

“Alright, well, let’s pack as much food as possible. What about water?”

“She didn’t have any bottles or flasks or anything?”

He shrugs, “I wasn’t looking for it earlier but I’m sure she does, right?”

We find several china plates with gilded floral designs, a couple of novelty tea mugs, two full drawers of silverware, and a metal beer stein - but nothing we could transport large amounts of water in.

“I’ll take the stein and you can have the ‘don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee’ mug.” Jacob jokes.

It’s early enough in the day and we’re close enough to the water that it shouldn’t be too hot, but I don’t think a mug- and stein-full of water will sustain us throughout our explorations.

...

The not-millipede explores the bathroom, a small red tongue darts out of its mouth from time to time as it tastes the air. Ellie urges it to leave when it crawls towards the bathroom door but even though it slithers up to taste the air around the doorknob it doesn’t make any move to leave.

She’s still unable to move from the bathtub. She wishes there was something other than a few burnt out candles to throw at the thing. She wishes her hands could come above the surface of the water to grab them. She wishes she doesn’t hear the thing speak in smooth, slow whisper.

...

Jacob and I search the house for anything we can use as water bottles, or better yet actual water bottles. He finds a closet full of used flasks in the upstairs bathroom, I refuse to go in, pretending to shudder with the false memory of a voice telling me I’ll die at his (or Ellie’s, if she still exists) hands.

We take them down and clean them thoroughly before filling them with tap water.

“Alright, we’re all set. Are you ready?”

When I nod Jacob hoists his backpack over his shoulder, he insisted I shouldn’t carry anything put some scrap paper and a few pens to map out our route.

Amongst a million grains of sand and a few less rocks there are a few scraps of metal from the crash that mar an otherwise beautiful beach. To our left is a thick gathering of tree reaching towards the sky with barren branches.

The air calls goosebumps to our arms and Jacob doesn’t hide a shiver as well as he hopes. I smile at the back of his neck, his newfound sarcasm and stubbornness aside I’m excited to see how this romance plays out.

We march towards the tree line...something about the way the sun barely breaches the forest sets my heart at an uneven pace.

...

“Where did he go?” The thing faces the door. Ellie shivers against the immobile water.

She wonders if she should answer or if by doing so will set off a series of events she’ll never recover from.

After two slow, even breaths the things backs away from the door and turns. It’s eyes are human, except for the violent violet coloring. It’s nose is sharp and pointed, it’s chin strong, and it’s ears would be considered strong on a normal face, but here they seek much too large for its face.

The thing approaches the bath, but does not come in. It rears back onto its last few hundred legs to look Ellie in the eye. The small tongue flicks across its small, feminine lips before it asks again, “Where did he go?”

“Who?” Ellie shivers.

The thing cocks it’s head, studying Ellie. “The tall man. Where did he go?”

She manages to nod towards the door, not daring to take her eyes off the creature. It smiles, revealing the straight and perfect teeth of someone who spends too much time and money on orthodontia. “Thank you.”

“You-you’re welcome.”

The creature should turn back towards the door and go search for the strange man, but it slithers closer to the bathtub. It’s head peers over the edge of the bath so that it can see Ellie and Ellie can see it.

She swallows a scream, so far the creature has been both terrifying and polite. She would like it to stay that way.

It cocks his head again. It’s tongue flicks out. “You’re scared?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, what do I look like to you?”

...

Jacob stays a foot ahead of me, making sure the path is clear ahead. I do my best to mark memorable trees on the map as well as draw the curved path we walk.

The darkness grows the farther we tread. If we had our phones we might’ve been able to use them as flashlights. Or use them to call home, for that matter, but we don’t.

We trudge on with out eyes as wide as they’ll go and an unspoken promise that we’ll turn back as soon as we can no longer see. Unfortunately for Jacob, as the forest darkens the house we left behind screams louder and louder in my head.

“He must belong to us!”

[ergo-the-magnificent]

i love you bonfire night i love you smoke smell that clings to my clothes i love you sugar shell on a burnt marshmallow i love you tiny millipede we found i love you rain that hisses as it hits the fire i love you firetwirling with a stick we found on the ground