#on top of being able to be put in areas where some trees might not thrive well due to turbulant weather or manmade hazards

[pokecraftking]

...people do realize these aren't meant to REPLACE trees right? And that these are supposed to be a way to have healthy oxygen-producing photosynthesis in urban areas where trees can't easily if at all be grown or transplanted in?

[vashtijoy]

Hi! Pre-emptive sorry for the long ask- I don't know if you've answered this before but I was scrolling through your blog and in one of your posts you note that the brief bit we see of Akira's hometown has high rise buildings, which implies it's a city. I could've sworn there was in game dialogue calling him a country boy though or referencing him being from a rural area? Is there something in the Japanese text to suggest these are meant to be taken as jokes (I.E. protag is from a city, but it's not as big as Tokyo so he's playfully considered 'rural') or is this a case of the game devs simply not considering what buildings they had in the background of that scene?

Hello! First of all, I think it's insanely unlikely that the game devs just forgot Joker was meant to be from a shack on top of a mountain and accidentally put him in a city. Maybe they didn't have time to design a farm and shoved him in a random cityscape instead? Well, maybe. I would at least have pasted in a couple more trees.

So what do we know about this?

Sojiro calls Joker 田舎もん inakamon, short for 田舎者 inakamono—someone from the countryside; someone provincial. This is what's translated as "country boy", or "country bumpkin". Chihaya uses it about herself, and Chihaya I think is certainly meant to be very rural. The Adorable Woman and Rural Young Man in Shibuya Station use inaka a lot:

His name did not originally use inakamono or similar, by the way—he's the 上京してきた青年 joukyou shite kita seinen, "the young man who's moved to Tokyo". Note the moving-up kanji there, 上, lol—this is not a sideways move, it's a definite move up.

so what is the inaka?

In short, the inaka can be the remote countryside—but it can also just be your hometown, of any description. It can be legit anywhere that isn't Tokyo. Here's Tofugu:

My mouth was hanging open and I know I was being rude, but it was really hard to pull myself together. The woman I was speaking with was from one of the top Japanese Universities. She has had international relationships, traveled the world, and done work that most foreign anime fans would kill to see. Someone with her experiences, to me, should be open-minded about other cultures and lifestyles. Just the same, I can't help but to be bothered by what she said: "I feel like anything outside Tokyo's 23 wards is inaka." [...] Often, people usually just use what they read in the dictionary, but I learned fast that "countryside" in American English is much different than in Japanese English. For me, countryside means farms. Countryside is driving to see your closest neighbor, riding tractors for work and pleasure, and being able to immediately tell who's from your town just by looking at them. When I say this to Japanese people and ask them to explain inaka, the joke is always the same: "Inaka is anything outside of Tokyo." Osaka and Kyoto, for many, aren't inaka, but Sapporo, which is one of the few parts of the country where this legendary thing called "insulated housing" exists, is inaka. [...] So you might be wondering how "bad" it really is out here. Truthfully, I'm living in a city, at least by American standards. Great bus and train systems, tons of malls and movie theaters, some of the major stores people visit Tokyo to see, game centers, golfing… and a few rice paddies. Not many, but there are some. Imagine a fashionable mall, famous manga store, well-respected school with a strong baseball team, and major supermarket, all within walking distance, with maybe one field of rice. Honestly, the place is so city that I don't think I would willingly eat any rice that grew in that field. I swear, it's in front of a bus stop.

So, tl;dr: if you aren't in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto, you're probably in the inaka—at least to someone's mind. You can be somewhere that looks to us in every way like a city, and be in the inaka. And if you pick up sticks and move to Tokyo? Then you have a good chance of being jibed about being a "country boy".

so what is joker's inaka like?

[Joker] 田舎に帰りたい inaka ni kaeritai I miss the country... [lit. I want to go back to the inaka.] Ryuji ハ���、都会の洗礼ってか? haha, tokai no senrei tte ka? Hah. Not used to the big city yet, huh? [lit. Haha, so this is your first time in the city?]

We don't get a huge amount of detail in-game about Joker's home. Besides Sojiro's "country boy", Ryuji has a couple of comments. Here's another:

Ryuji あれ? お前ン家ってわりと田舎? are? omae n uchi tte wari to inaka? Wait a sec, your hometown isn't near the countryside, is it? [lit. isn't your place relatively countrified?] Ryuji いや、大自然でランニング練習とか気持ち良さそうだなーって。 iya, daishizen de ranningu renshuu to ka kimochi yasasou da naa tte I was just thinkin' it'd be great to run an' train somewhere out where it's all big, naturey open space. [lit. no, I thought it seemed like it'd feel great to train in the great outdoors and stuff.]

(I think something may be off here with that translation of daishizen, which seems to connote "the great outdoors", "a vast wilderness", etc, as well as just meaning "nature" (the sort you get out into) more generally". The word has been split up as if Ryuji was just saying "big nature" for some reason, like if you thought "the great outdoors" meant "the outdoors is great :D".)

But we can see from Ryuji's statement that Joker's home is wari to inaka, "relatively countrified", "kind of countrified"—it's more the country than Tokyo is, but it's probably not the ass end of nowhere, either. It's somewhere Ryuji pictures getting out into nature—but even if that's accurate and not just in Ryuji's city-boy head, that again doesn't connote "ass end of nowhere"; a lot of very built-up places are startlingly close to farmland or to nature, as with the putative rice field at the bus stop that we read about earlier.

the artbook picture

There is, of course, a picture of Joker's home in the artbook:

That doesn't scream "rural" to me—though it's also not the built-up area we see him in with Shido. It backs onto a cliff, it's very green. It's clearly a row of houses on a street, maybe in a fancy suburb on the edge of the city?

It's a nice house, at any rate. Joker moving into Sojiro's attic, with his clothes in a box, will have been a harsh step down.

Another detail from this image before we move on:

Look at this board. We can make out what it says. We can even, just possibly, make out a town name there...

日立自治会 掲示板 hitachi jichikai keijiban Hitachi Neighbourhood Association noticeboard

自治会 jichikai—neighbourhood associations. As you'd expect, they tend to be organised at the very local level—so Hitachi is likely to be a small district within a larger city, rather than (say) the city of Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture.

his city has a name guys i can't believe it lmao

the coup de grace

But there's one question I think really puts the nail in the coffin here: WTF was Shido doing in the middle of nowhere?

It's totally plausible that Joker came from a remote farm in the country, or a tiny village in far northern Honshu. But what is there in that to attract Shido? Like... Shido seems kind of an indoor guy, y'know?

He goes where his business is. He goes where the money is. It's difficult for me to picture him going to random rural areas with nobody to schmooze, with what I'm sure he'd consider to be poor facilities and shitty hotels.

Even if he did stoop to visit somewhere like that, by the time he was on his off hours getting pissed (in both senses) and attacking women, wouldn't he have gone back to civilisation?—back to the city?

conclusion??

This place Joker is wandering after dark doesn't look like The Country. It looks quite built up. I'd say it's the centre of a regional city or large town—with those nice houses we just looked at set off in suburbs along its edge. Look at this place:

It really does look like a less cramped version of Yongen-jaya, down to the trees. I don't think they spent too long on this area, but I also don't think it's inaccurate.

By the way, that "Hometown Neighbourhood" was originally 実家近くの住宅地 jikka chikaku no juutakuchi—"residential area near home". So this is not where Joker lived with his parents; it's an area close by. Like he says, he's on his way home late.

Where was he? We never find out. He has what looks like a school bag, well before his nasty crime days. Maybe he was visiting a friend we never hear about again. Maybe he was at cram school. But he's gone to this built-up part of town to do something there.

My guess would be that he lived in some prefectural capital or other. That's why Shido is there. I'd also guess that it's one of the Kanto prefectures, since the further you go from Tokyo, the less likely it becomes that Joker would have been sent to Tokyo for his probation, whether Sojiro was a friend of a friend or not.

As ever, all of this is for information only, and if you want to do something else superior in every way, you definitely should. At the end of the day Joker's a silent protagonist player insert, who can be from absolutely anywhere and as gay as you like. Let a thousand Jokers bloom.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (2024/01/17)—first posted.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Are Cowbirds Invasive?

(Originally published on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/are-cowbirds-invasive/)

When discussing invasive species, we often think of species that evolved far away on other continents. Here in the United States, thousands of non-native species have been brought here since the dawn of colonization; while not all became established, a significant number have since become aggressively integrated into local habitats, much to the detriment of native species they displace or otherwise harm. But sometimes a species will simply encroach upon an ecosystem adjacent to its native home, and then spreads from there, having the same negative impact as other relatively new arrivals. Which begs the question: are birds on the move like barred owls (Strix varia) and cowbirds invasive?

I want to especially look at the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater). Like the barred owl, these chunky songbirds have expanded their range in North America in recent decades due to the extensive damage we’ve done to habitats across the continent. Both were particularly affected by the destruction of the Great Plains. Settlers tore up the ancient grasslands with plows, suppressed fires that had kept forests from encroaching, and started a trend of afforestation–planting trees where they aren’t supposed to be–that continues today. In the latter half of the 19th century, the plains bison (Bison bison bison) was slaughtered almost to extinction to make money off the sale of their remains, and to disempower indigenous communities throughout the region who were reliant on this keystone species for their very existence.

The owls hopscotched across the growing number of tree plantations that dotted first settlements, then towns, then sprawling suburbs and cities, and thus were able to reach all the way to the west coast, where they have put serious competitive pressure on the northern spotted owl. The cowbirds, on the other hand, became refugees as all but the last few hundred bison disappeared from the landscape. They instead turned to domestic livestock like cattle for their survival.

(Read the rest under the cut.)

Same Habits, Different Hosts

Brown-headed cowbirds are unusual in that they evolved to migrate with the bison, rather than waiting for new herds to arrive. The birds feed on insects stirred up by the herd’s hooves, along with seeds of grasses and other plants along the way. Cowbirds perching on the backs of these enormous mammals would have been a common sight prior to the bison’s near-extermination, and today they may still be seen watching for prey from on top of cattle, horses and other domestic livestock.

Because cowbirds have spent thousands of years migrating with their bison hosts, they couldn’t afford to settle in one place for months at a time to raise a nest of chicks, particularly as spring and summer would be prime time for finding insects to eat. It might be weeks or even months before a herd would return to a given area, and without the help of the bison the cowbirds would have had a difficult time finding enough insects on their own, let alone for a hungry nest of babies.

So the cowbirds evolved a rather controversial strategy: brood parasitism. Instead of building their own nest, they find someone else’s and leave a few eggs there for the unwitting owners to raise. Some people anthropomorphize the cowbirds as being “bad”, “lazy”, “evil”, and so forth. And, of course, it’s easy to call cowbirds invasive, too, since they literally invade the nests of other animals.

But nature is amoral; there are no inherently good or evil animals. While we may project our distaste for the cowbirds’ practices onto their value as a species, brood parasitism is simply one of a plethora of strategies animals have evolved in order to pass their genes on to the next generation. If it gets the job done, then it is an evolutionary success. Like the mate cannibalism of some mantids and spiders or animal infanticide practiced by male lions, baboons, and dolphins, brood parasitism may be vicious by our standards, but it is a legitimate survival tactic in the sometimes-cutthroat world of nature.

Are Cowbirds Invasive?

We can certainly call cowbirds invasive when they hop into a nest they didn’t build just to drop off an egg. But are they invasive on a more widespread level? Arguably yes. Not all invasive species were physically transported by humans, but the impact is the same: they have a deleterious effect on one or more other species in their habitat. And unlike coyotes, which only spread to new horizons when their competitors were extirpated by human hunters, brown-headed cowbirds are not filling a niche that was previously taken by another species. they are, instead, an often-unwanted addition to local ecology.

In addition to tearing up the Great Plains and then planting trees there, we also cut down massive numbers of trees in historically forested areas across the continent, leaving patches of fields in which cattle and other livestock graze. This has led to the spread of the cowbird beyond its normal range in the prairies. Other bird species that evolved alongside the cowbirds have developed ways to respond to brood parasitism, from throwing cowbird eggs out of the nest, to building a new nest entirely.

A young cowbird sits in a sparrow’s nest. Note the sparrow egg in the lower left corner that has been pushed out of the nest.

But birds in the cowbird’s expanded territory aren’t always so savvy. That includes species that have seen declining numbers in recent decades due to habitat loss, lead and other toxins, and predation by another invasive species, the domestic cat (Felis catus). Since cowbirds and their chicks will both remove their hosts’ eggs from a parasitized nest, and cowbird chicks may toss their host’s young out or steal all their food, this means fewer numbers of the host species being successfully hatched and fledged. All of which means cowbirds are becoming a serious conservation concern.

That being said, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss an entire species by calling all cowbirds invasive. Within their native range in the Great Plains, they are an important part of local ecology. And–unlike certain members of our own species–they are not intentionally cruel animals that want to see other living beings suffer. They are simply doing what their ancestors have done for thousands upon thousands of years, and unlike humans they have no capacity to consider the impact on their hosts.

One last note: if you are tempted to remove cowbird eggs from a nest, please don’t. First, it’s an activity best carried out by professionals who have a better sense of what nests should be attended to and when. Moreover, egg removal can not only cause the host birds to abandon their nest and their own eggs, but cowbirds are more likely to attack hosts who remove the offending eggs, and you could be setting the nesting pair up for retaliation from the cowbirds. And brown-headed cowbirds, like almost all native birds in the United States, are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it a federal offense to disturb or harm the birds themselves, as well as their eggs or nests. If you are in an area where cowbirds are considered to be invasive, and you are concerned about another species’ nests, contact your state wildlife department or the closest Audubon Society (some of these societies have changed their names in recent years, but fulfills the same roles as before.)

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[slashersgostabbystabstab]

Flesh (NSFW)

Singularity x Reader Smut (Sort of)

Hi guys! I know it's been a hot minute since I've posted anything and I apologize another thousand times. I feared school would take up too much of time and I was unfortunately correct, and today is my last day of Spring Break so I'm posting whatever I can as fast as I can ;7; Might just have to try to write HC's which can obviously be done faster

Anyways, have a small fic that doesn't necessarily involve the reader/you but it begs the question...can a robot dream? Imagine? Just trying something here lol

Warnings: Horny thoughts, mentions of gore(?), smut, vouyerism (?)

After a thorough inspection of some areas Hux had access to, he came to the conclusion that the Entity had called you. The greater being clearly required your services, much to his disliking, but as long as you were not running into the arms of another or purposely avoiding Hux he could be considered at bay. 

Before he had actually come to this finding, Hux had found it peculiar that you had not been waiting for him in the Huxlee Caracas when he departed from his latest match. Upon this realization he quickly sought you out, leaving Toba Landing to give you a piece of his mind once he found you lazing about at the survivor campfire. However, your form was nowhere in sight as he scrutinized every bit of the site. His sensors only caught sight of all the other worms, a handful missing because they were being put up against Hux’s “associates”, as he called them. 

A rather dissatisfying sight. Nonetheless, Hux continued on his way through the foggy woods that lead to each of the maps in the realm. Although as he made his route back to his own map, he was quick to sense a nearby presence. In fact, he was able to identify that there were actually two different bodies.

Worms that had strayed too far from their soil. 

Despite the stealthiness Hux sometimes lacked, he made it his new mission to find exactly where in the woods these two were located. But after much scouting around, it  almost made sense why he believed there was only one specimen after it seemed as though there was only one.

Once he was able to locate these beings deeper in the woods, as he used the fog and trees to conceal himself, in an open area he found what appeared to be a singular shape. Such a shape was perceived as something consisting of entangled limbs, humidity and so, so much flesh. The bundle of heat elicited various sounds, sounds he had only heard in the past in which he was another. Sounds that could only be made by humans who wanted to release their energy when the stresses of their tasks overcame them. Sounds made by something he comprehended now.

Upon closer inspection, it now registered in his mind that the entangled mess was not a mere web of flesh, but it was a pair of worms squirming in each others’ hold as they copulated on the cold ground. Their rags were spread underneath them to protect them from the ground’s dampness: one human on top while the one beneath them lay with ankles hooked around their hips. The dominant one of the two could be seen thrusting their pelvis into the other; forceful jerks that moved back and forth, increasing in pace by the second. 

Perhaps they were “blowing off some steam” like the crewmates tended to do in the Huxlee Caracas before they met their demise. 

It was not yet in Hux’s understanding why humans performed these actions, other than for reproductive reasons. He questioned why they decided to create a writhing mess of flesh where one entered the other’s body. It seemed pathetic and like such a waste of time. It was pitiful how, in between thrusts, the human on their back released the other’s shoulders to instead cradle their face. They pulled the other’s face down, pulling them down before they smashed their lips against each others’. If Hux had given himself eyes similar to a human’s, he would have easily rolled them at the sight of something so piteous. 

What he had instead were his sensors that zoomed in to watch these humans even closer than before, and he caught sight of what allowed one human to be inside of the other without them being torn limb from limb: an appendage that he lacked. Yet it was something he did not care for. 

However, Hux’s CPU did something he did not think possible.

Yes he was able to revisit moments he had recorded, and so images from earlier instances before you were forced to part from him played through his head as he continued to watch the couple. Images of you sitting before him with his body in between your legs as you held his face in your palms, features hidden in the crook of his neck as you planted a nibble on his faux flesh. It was like he felt your nibble all over again, and then your kisses, like a phantom touch as he replayed the moments. But suddenly the image of you changed: your body lacked every bit of your clothes. 

Never had he witnessed you completely unclothed, only having come across you in your undergarments when you were changing from your usual clothes into a jumpsuit from the ship. With this alone the image of you holding him was reconstructed, all your flesh in full view for his sensors to scan as you pulled him towards you. 

You lay on your back as Hux felt your ankles hooked around his hips. He thrust himself into you, forceful jerks that moved back and forth and increased in pace by the second. And with every jerk he elicited harmonious sounds from you, sounds that were breathy and desperate as you called out to him. Cried his name out for everybody in the Entity’s realm to hear. 

But only he could hear your cries that his CPU played for him, your cries that begged him not to stop. To move faster. To move harder. To fill you up with his genetic material.

He watched himself move faster and harder than before, watched as every move made you grip onto him like your life depended on it.

Your eyes were shut so tightly, head thrown back as your heart pounded in your chest hard enough for Hux to sense it. But even as you pulled yourself away from him to press into the surface behind you, you managed to crush his body against yours.

You were an entangled mess of flesh and machine, wriggling against each other like you were one. Hux could feel every jolt of pleasure as he pressed against you, the appendage in his lower region sending every signal throughout his self-made flesh. 

But suddenly his CPU made a realization: your legs were not wrapped around him and his body was not melding into your own. You were not in front of him, you weren’t sobbing at the feeling of his appendage inside you as he hit every sweet spot imaginable. 

He found himself yards away from the survivors, taking notice of the one on top giving one last powerful thrust before they each gave a sigh of elation. He watched them release each other, sharing one last kiss as they rode out their high, right before an uncomfortable and tingling sensation crept up their backs.

In an instant they whipped their heads around in Hux’s direction, looks of fear and embarrassment apparent on their expressions as they hurriedly parted ways and attempted to gather themselves. 

Hux did not care for their current conditions, already limping his way towards them with cruel intentions as they tried to make a run for it through the foggy woods. But Hux was faster than them, better of course, facts he already knew as he caught up to them in no time. 

He didn’t care much about the worm that had been on the receiving end, letting that one slither away as he downed their other half in an instant. He overlooked their body before his sensors caught sight of the very thing he was missing, a laughable attachment that required more genetic material. 

Hux had no need for this, he very well knew this. But Hux wanted it, DESIRED it in fact. He craved the ability to bury himself inside you, feeling your flesh from the inside without his killer instinct forcing him to open you up to feel your own human wirings. He craved becoming one with you without ending your pitiful, little life. 

Copulation was not a necessity for him in the slightest bit, but if these worms could enjoy it, why couldn’t he?

[anemonelovesfiction]

7~ Mutual Masturbation

Aged Up! Spider Socorro x Fem! Human Reader

Warnings ⚠️: Mutual Masturbation, caught masturbating, Spider being a cocky lil know-it-all

Not Proofread

MDNI 🔞

Translation Station

Ikran: Warriors Mount

Tewng: Loincloth

Word Count: 1.5K

Taking a deep breath I allow my body to settle on the soft mossy ground below me, using the trunk of the tree that sprouted high into the sky as my back rest, taking one last look around before licking my own lips and wishing this stupid helmet didn’t impede my ability to wipe the sweat off my brow. There were three things I dreaded from living in this forest and on the very top of the list had to be this summer heat, for an area that was usually hidden from the sun, the humidity mixed with the heat made it worse, sure the leaves of the tree offered protection, but the temperature always got to me. Second was the stupid mask I had to wear in order to survive in this atmosphere, I always wished I was born as a Na’Vi or at the very least had my own avatar, but wiping the sweat that trickled down my forehead was a near impossible task unless I felt like taking the mask off every five minutes to wipe my sweat away, but holding my breath in this heat only made my body want to produce more sweat and it would be a never ending cycle. And thirdly, was being horny outside of base camp.

I’d had my fair share of having caught people tugging themselves to completion due to the lack of privacy and secluded areas, there were only a couple of areas we could safely hide and handle our business and they were usually taken up by other people who had the same urge as you. Which is why I always thanked Eywa for being friends with Lo’ak who often liked his adventure and rode his ikran out especially on a day like this one, where Kiri had begged him to forage for some of the sweet fruit she liked- whose shell happens to be exactly what I use to make my blue body paint- but I had to take a second to get away since my boner wanted to make an appearance.

I pull my tewng to the side and suck in a breath rather loudly as the humid heat of the forest makes contact with my growing length, watching as it bobs at the sensation of being wrapped in warmth and clearing my throat to hide the shameful moan building up. I let out a long sigh as I stare at my cock for a split second before spitting in my hand and gently grasping it in my hand and letting out a wince, wrapping my fingers around the length and giving myself a gentle squeeze.

“Fuck,” I curse out into the wind as the slightest breeze teases its way through before dying back down again and the heat begins to immerse my body once more. I slide my hand down my shaft and feel my balls constrict at the sudden movement. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and tilt my head back as I move my hand along my shaft and give the slightest squeeze as I reach the head, allowing myself the pleasures of moaning lightly at the feeling.

I can feel my bottom lip slide itself between my teeth as I close my eyes and move my hand along myself in whatever way felt good and let myself moan out every once in a while.

_________

One of the things I hated most about accompanying Lo’ak, Kiri, and Spider was knowing that these three motherfuckers liked to leave me behind on purpose. I was a lot slower at maneuvering around the forest as I often followed the rules and stayed inside and went out when I was allowed- which was usually collecting samples with someone making sure I didn’t stray too far.

I was tempted to take my helmet off and wipe my forehead but didn’t want to risk not being able to put it back on as I was still new to using them, having had trouble properly latching one of the clasps until Kiri helped.

I’d attempted retracing my steps to see where any of them might have gone and hear a whimper, I stop dead in my tracks and my heart beats faster, a part of me wanted to check out what it was as it could have been an injured animal, but another part of me was begging to run to safety, and I believe I was feeling adventurous today as I hear a familiar groan.

I can’t tell what exactly possessed me to slowly circle one of the trunks of the tree but nothing could have prepared me for the sight before me. My first thought was to to stifle the gasp that had almost slipped my mouth, my second thought was that I needed to get out of here, and my third thought was hot damn.

The way his head was thrown back and the light of the sun crept through the tree’s to make his hair shine was magnificent. His stomach was tight as he flexes his abs, a sheen of sweat covering them, the veins in his arm nearly busting out of their confines, and his cock- Eywa- it’s breathtaking all on its own.

The tip of his head was an angry shade of red as it leaked precome, his fist coming to a halt at the base of his length and a frustrated grunt, the bead of precome that had been building on the tip had finally fallen and dribbled onto the ground where the smallest of wet patches was, as if he’d had two or three previous drops splatter on the dirt.

“Fuckin hell-“ He groans loudly and my heart rate picks up once more, I’d come here thinking someone was hurt but instead I’d oogled him running his hand up and down his- oh my Eywa I’m feeling even hotter.

I couldn’t help but continue to stare as his hand runs up along the length of his cock once more, making sure to give a squeeze on the tip, making himself groan once more- I shouldn’t, I really shouldn’t.

I have an inner battle with myself before biting my own lip and allowing my hand to slide down past the straps of my tewng once he moans loudly, a sound that had my cheeks turning red as my fingers slide down to rub my clit slowly, not surprised once I dip below my clit to collect the moisture that had formed after catching him.

“Shit-“ He mutters as he quickly swipes his hand off himself and I watch as it bobs up and down and I couldn’t help but want to feel that inside of me and being the one to bring those sounds out his mouth. He brings his hand to tug his foreskin over the head several times before finally dipping his fist down toward his body, another dribble of precome sliding off his cock and landing in the marked ‘splash zone’.

I find myself bucking against my own hand rather quickly and come to the realization that it had been a long time since I’d last had my own release, I have to bite my own lip to keep myself from moaning alongside him and feel my release building, my body continuing to buck against my own fingers repeat his action of taking them off my body, a rush of excitement filling me.

_________

“Are you close yet or am I going to have to keep doing this to myself?” I ask right as my hand comes back into contact with my cock, precome dribbling right at that moment.

“Y-you knew?” Her small voice comes up from behind me and I want to laugh, but I’m too focused on my pleasure to want to spoil the mood, this is the only time I had to do this and I’d be damned if I didn’t finish before we head back.

“You aren’t stealthy, sweets, keep playing with yourself I’m close-that feels fucking good,” I cut myself off, not bothering to look back over my shoulder to see her expression, I knew she’d been following my instructions as I heard the sounds she was emitting from her mouth now, sweet moans filling the space we occupied at the moment.

“Sound so pretty-“ I mutter as I feel my cock jump in my hand, her sweet sounds becoming louder.

“I’m close, so close, mmph-“

“Yeah baby, get right to the edge.” I mutter as my hand moves quicker, my leg starting to shake at the moment from how good this felt, and knowing someone else was doing the same thing right behind me heightened the experience.

“Spider I-“

“I know sweets, cum with me,” I managed to get out, her moan triggers my orgasm as thick ribbons of cum shoot out toward the ground below me.

“Fuck-“ I shout as I cum, moving my hand alongside the bobbing of my shaft, ensuring I could draw out my orgasm a little longer.

“Let me taste you real quick-“

[cryptidsofwakemoor]

Chapter 4 - Pond Paranoia

After being spotted too many times stealing food in the city, and the lab narrowing down his general location as a consequence, Matchstick has to lay low for a while. Thankfully, there is one other fairly reliable place he can go for food, but he might run into something unexpected...

(CW: brief old wound mention in the second paragraph)

~*~

Mystic

Scampering off into the woods, he's left with his bounty of- whatever this food was. A small armload of orange circles, and a handful of chewy pebbles. Did it matter what they were, exactly? It was food! And if he was really craving something else later, he could try digging in trash cans under the cover of night again. He'd have a much easier time scurrying away unseen while the sky was dark.

Odd, how strangely free he felt, now. Clearly, he wasn't safe, not by any means. But he didn't have that awful metal collar around his neck anymore, or those tube things hooked into his back. He could still feel one of them poking into the back of his torso, but it didn't sting as much anymore. The wounded area had scabbed up- he could feel the rocky, cooled magmatic texture that was the byproduct of his broken skin. Lava blood didn't clean up very nice.

...

Hours pass. The sun- at least, he thinks it's the sun, based on what information he was able to piece together from listening in on conversations at the lab and out here- was on its way down to the horizon. Once it set, he was free to go about raiding. The drone cameras would be docked. If Aria really wanted to try hunting him in the night, they'd certainly have a time of it, given his natural camouflage.

Spooky

Little by little, he was able to figure out the timing better.

The people would go away for the most part after it's been dark outside for a little while, and those few who remained were a lot easier to avoid. Turns out that empty den had been the best hiding spot he could hope for, because as the days went by he found he could sleep in there while it was light out without fear of discovery, and was relatively free to roam at night. And of course, he would take this time to go out and collect food, then squirrel it away in the den with him.

Granted, he had a hard time going completely without detection. If he wanted something that wasn't stale or rotting, he had to take his chances during the day. He discovered a sort of wooded area that people would sometimes go to that had flat-topped wooden structures that people would sit at and put their food on, and there were a few that were close enough to the treeline where he could snag something if they left it unattended. He usually did that around the time the sun would start to go down, if he woke up early enough. He was seen a few times, but was quick enough to flee that it wasn't like they could do anything about it.

He broke into a few buildings at night, too. Places where food was made, and other places where it was stored on big shelves. Locks weren't really a problem for him. Not nearly as pressing a problem as his insatiable appetite, anyway.

It didn't take long for rumors to spread around town of a strange shadowy creature that would show up to steal food. Grainy security camera footage of a silhouetted shape with two bright dots for eyes would emerge both online and on the local news, though some would decry it as a hoax to bring in business.

Still, needless to say, the number of drones increased in the area after that.

He had to lay low, and stay away from the town for a while...

Thankfully, there was always that place with the food cylinders on hooks. It was kind of out of the way, and it remained a safe enough place to go, though after he'd visited enough times the tree was kinda starting to run low on those spheres. Still, the food cylinders were as full as ever, and were quick to be replenished.

He ended up making that his main haunt for the next few days, after he quickly ran out of whatever stores he'd managed to gather in his den.

Mystic

Today, he was feeling a little bold. Instinct was telling him to stock up on food. He wasn't entirely sure why, but something about the way the air had begun to gather a chill, set off a small alarm in his brain. Somehow he knew more cold was coming, and that it meant less food.

Didn't help that if he was ever spotted, somebody nearby would yell 'it's the cat-man!', whatever a 'cat' was. It always resulted in people screaming or scrambling to get small devices he could only assume were more cameras, or weapons or something. The scientists in the lab frequently had similar objects they'd hold up toward him during or after testing. He never figured out their purpose. All that mattered was that they didn't cause him physical pain... he hoped.

Back to that house again- the one with the lawn of food cylinders. Right on schedule, they were refilled. Nice.

Spooky

By this time he'd figured out a way to carry more food with him. He'd emptied out a trash bag, and while he'd torn the top off of it while searching for food, there had only been paper trash inside it, making this one more clean of whatever gross sludge was in some of the other ones. And he could just hold the torn part at the top closed with his fist once it was full!

He busied himself with emptying some of the cylinders into the bag, and tossing in a few of the remaining spheres he could still reach up and grab from the tree. There were some more higher up, but he'd have to climb to get them... and he wasn't entirely sure how to do that. Eh, he'd deal with that later.

His attention was grabbed by a big cylinder full of those pebbles, hanging pretty close to the pond. Thankfully not too close to the point where he felt any danger of falling in, so like usual he just casually picked it up off the hook and tipped it so they fell out directly into his mouth, since his other hand was busy holding the bag, and he felt like having a nice little crunchy snack right now before heading back 'home'.

Mystic

...

....splsh

That- came from the pond.

He didn't remember seeing anything in the pond- ever.

A faint ripple passed over the still water as some fin frills broke the surface. They were swiftly followed by a head, sharp teeth bared in a grin.

"Alright, which animal is-"

The gleeful triumph- at having surprised what they thought was an animal- vanished instantly as their words choked with surprise. They drew back in the waters of the pond, staring with wide eyes.

"Holy-" their voice mumbled, that same voice that occasionally talked to the birds or themselves about eating a lot lately. It was the house resident- in the pond? How long had they been underwater??

"You're not an animal!"

Spooky

His eyes shot open wide and he froze with his mouth stuffed. He'd reflexively tried to inhale and a few pebbles got lodged in his throat as a consequence, threatening to choke him. Glowing tears springing up in the corners of his eyes, he forcefully swallowed the mouthful of mostly unchewed pebbles and lurched into a coughing fit, puffs of smoke spiraling into the sky from his mouth.

He'd dropped the cylinder in order to clutch at his chest as his coughing abated, though he eyed her warily as he backed away. Some of the contents of his bag had spilled in the confusion, but he clutched the remainder of his spoils and took off running, crossing the road and fleeing back into the treeline.

Mystic

The strange fish person jolts back a bit in shock, at the sight of him choking. They definitely weren't expecting some kid to be digging in their bird feeders, much less strangling on the peanuts!

When he bolted from the yard, the last thing he sees is the resident standing up out of the pond, hand outstretched toward him.

"Wait-!"

The voice is lost as he vanishes into the trees.

Pounding footsteps almost mask the volume of his heartbeat.

Were they chasing him? Why wouldn't they? They caught him taking their food!

...but- there hadn't been any anger. He didn't know what emotions were there, but at least he knew that anger wasn't one of them.

He makes it back to the den, heaving for breath past the aches in his throat from the singed shells of the pebble snacks. There wasn't a rustle of leaves or branches to indicate a hot pursuit. Whoever they were, they didn't follow him.

Spooky

Going inside, he plunked down on the ground with a rustle of discarded trash bags and food packaging, anxiety still coursing through his veins. Fuck, he was gonna fill this whole damn hole in the ground with smoke if he couldn't calm down...

He breathed in a big shaky breath, as much as his lungs could hold, and held it. He didn't know if this actually helped or not, but it seemed to make him feel better. He then let it out in a big woosh, which unfortunately contained more dark smoke, but at least after that he was able to breathe more normally.

Setting down the bag of food, he slid both of his hands over his head and let it fall against his knees, keeping his hands on the nape of his neck as he tried to think about what the hell he was gonna do next.

He couldn't go back to town yet, and even if that person hadn't seemed mad, he wasn't sure if going back there so soon was a good idea... If he did, he'd have to wait until it was nighttime proper, maybe they'd be asleep then.

But were they gonna still fill those tubes if they knew he was taking from them? They were trying to feed those little flying things, not... not him.

He had more time before he needed to sleep, but he didn't feel like going back out there. He idly tore open an orange sphere and tossed the bits of skin over to where the other bits were piled up, old and rotting. While the juice was kind of annoyingly sticky on these things, they seemed to help keep his mouth from feeling too dried out, and the juice was kind of a relief, as tart as it was.

A part of him wondered if he should've been trying to drink some water this whole time, but he wasn't sure, and wasn't about to try it with that pond. Especially now that he knew he could be ambushed there.

Fuck, it would've been nice if he had a manual on how the hell he was supposed to function... But he must've been doing okay so far, since hey, he wasn't dead yet.

He ended up going through the rest of the spheres he had left without really paying attention, as worried as he was about other things, and just sat there watching the entrance for a while until he felt tired enough to go to sleep...

Mystic

...

That night, he's plagued by a nightmare.

He was being hunted. He knew that already- but this time, they found him.

Branches crunched and smoked under his bare feet as he pelted through the woods.

Metal objects on cables, strings and chains flew from the darkness, trying to snatch his limbs and his torso.

One of them manages to nail a wrist. The metal clasp wraps around the joint, squeezing tight as the cable it's tethered to pulls tight, stopping his forward momentum with a painful wrench.

Another metal object cuffs an ankle, tripping him and throwing him off balance until he falls to the ground. His chin hits a rock, jarring his thoughts.

Finally, another clasps around his neck. It constricts, making it hard to breathe as he's tugged backwards like a disobedient dog on a leash.

"You're not getting away that easily," the ponytailed man threatened, the voice all too familiar even as he can't see him through the fog of the woods. "We've sunk too much time, effort, and money into you. Don't worry, you'll be worth the cost, soon. And after plenty more sessions of mental conditioning and training, I'm sure you'll come around."

Something sharp jabbed into the base of his skull.

He jolts awake. A rock on the floor of the den was poking him in the back of the neck, hard.

Spooky

Dizzied and panicked, he forces himself upright and slaps at the back of his neck with his hand, trying to feel for whatever had stabbed him. The phantom pain still radiated in his mind even as the actual minor pain of having rolled over onto a pointy rock faded, leaving him shaken and confused.

Despite his high body temperature, a cold wave of fear crashed over him, leaving him shivering and feeling a little bit sick to his stomach. He felt like he had to move, but couldn't get up, so he just crawled forward clumsily and fumbled about in the dark, mindlessly pushing the debris in front of him aside.

Despite knowing this place was safe, in that moment he didn't feel like it was. No drones were imminent, there was no clank of chains to be heard outside, nor electronic buzzing. Nothing but the faint whisper of a soft wind drifting down through the entrance tunnel. But what if they were waiting? What if they were waiting out there and knew he was in here and were just waiting for him to slip up and leave?

The paranoia that had crept up on him was paralyzing. He needed to run, but there was nowhere to run. He was already hiding, but it wasn't good enough. He needed to hide even more.

Unable to think of anything else, he went from pushing the trash away to scooping as much of it up as he could and covering himself with it, pressed up against the dirt wall and trying to stay as still as possible.

For the entirety of the next day, he didn't leave the den at all.

~*~

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[moonsunpenguin]

DFF Theory (after after ep6)

I've only started watching the show Monday and basically binged all 6 episodes in one day. And since then my brain can't stop thinking of theories, so I'll just dump them here and maybe revisit them after ep7. This will contain spoilers (at least until episode 6).

I've read on here that the show is reminiscent of 90s slasher movies and I would agree with that. As it starts with how most 90s to early 2000s slasher films start: teenagers/early 20s going into a secluded area to have fun, drink, and do stuff, only to find themselves hunted by a mystery killer. 

I was never a big fan of slasher films but I do love puzzles and DFF poses a good one!

At the beginning we are told of a sacrifice-offering cult that may or may not reside in the woods where they're going. With this, they're already planting the seed that there might be some supernatural stuff going on in the area and added to the show's eerie vibe. It also gave the audience a plausible reason on why some characters (Tee and Top) were scared of a "curse". Why Tan, Phee and White are sure the things happening aren't supernatural in nature seems to hint that they are either skeptics or they know something the others don't.

The way Uncle Dang was taken out though, it boggled me at first until the latest ep where it showed he was also there when they first filmed at the cabin. It made me think maybe he was also present when those awful boys did whatever it was that they did. But given that it was relatively painlesslear compared to Por's days of agony, I'd say his involvement is probably very minimal. Maybe just like Fluke he just turned a blind eye?

The way the "masked man" was slowly taking the original friend group out one by one, feels like they want them to suffer but not by their hands. Like, they want the og boys to unknowingly be the cause of their own demise. With how Por ran unto a tree branch by himself and how Top took it out when he went cuckoo. Fluke was also suffering, the stress of taking care of Por and knowing he may not be able to save him accompanied by his fear of being a suspect in an investigation diminishing his chances of becoming a doctor. It's a feat that he can still think clearly. Even though we do see him almost crack a few times already. 

It feels as if whoever's behind the "masked man" wants the og boys to lose their minds and they are slowly succeeding. 

The last of the og boys that seems to not be close to losing his mind is Jin. It gives off that idea that maybe he's somewhat safe because he wasn't as bad to Non as the others. But, after learning that Phee is Non's lover (ex-fwb?), it raises the question: why would he get close to Jin? When he knows Jin is part of the group that were awful to Non? My theory for this is that, Jin did something worse than the other 4 did. He made Non think that he can be trusted and betrayal from someone you put your faith in to hurts a lot more than from others you consider enemies. And I think it's what Phee is doing, he's gaining Jin's trust so he can make him feel whatever he did to Non. 

Also, I feel like Tan and White are in on the whole scheme and one of them is New. 

I'm excited for Saturday so I can revisit these theories and maybe make some more after the episode

[larissa-the-scribe]

Terrarium Lights, pt. 2.2

Last time on Terrarium Lights: the ghost returned and tried to make sense of nonsensical memories. (next part >>here)

It turned out to be all very well and good to offer the lad help and a place to stay (as much as he could stay anywhere), but then she had to figure out what to do with him.

He seemed to be having trouble figuring out what to do with himself, too, and spent the rest of the day hovering at her shoulder—at which point they both discovered that he quite liked to talk, despite being firmly uncertain about anything he was saying. It was making working on the terrarium rather difficult, and she had trouble with the fine details at the best of times, but she found herself enjoying the company more than she expected.

It was nice to have sound in the house again.

By the end of the afternoon, she had learned he was pretty sure he had been traveling with someone else—the blue-moss cave was one of two places he was pretty sure he remembered, along with somewhere growing purple trees on blue and crimson rocks—he was pretty sure he had studied something at a university at one point, but had no idea what or where—he didn't know if he was from this area but he was pretty sure it seemed kind of familiar—he didn't know his name but he was pretty sure he knew what names were—and so on.

He asked her if she knew any names, and she found herself absently replying that she had no idea, before realizing her mistake.

To tell the truth, she had gotten distracted. When names got brought up, it occurred to her that if she could figure out his name, she might be able to find out who he was. If she started going through obituaries, maybe she could find out who he was—or had been. She was turning over the idea of looking through recent obituaries anyway, to see if any matched; while she wasn’t sure what had happened to the lad, obituaries about old folks dying peacefully in their sleep would hardly work.

Mainly her conundrum was that she didn’t know if she could tell him, either about the research itself or if she found out anything. The lad had gotten startled enough when realizing he couldn't remember his name; she had no idea what he would do if he realized he might be dead.

For now, she decided, it would be more helpful to the lad to listen to what he was saying and try to respond. She was about to rally her forces to his aid (her next strategy being to go through all the names from the Bible that she could remember), but the lad had gotten diverted again and was asking her about the papers open on the top of the desk.

"Oh, those?" she waved a hand. "I was trying to figure out if I'd be able to send a letter or two to Michael to pick up at his layover, but there don't seem to be any good letterships making their way out West. Probably wouldn’t get there in time. I forgot to put them away this morning."

Last night she had been trying to write a letter to him in her head, and had kept getting stuck on their guest. Hopefully, by the time Michael got back she'd be able to share information with him in some way that made sense; for now, she contented herself with keeping her diary updated and detailed.

"Who is Michael?"

"My husband." She took a second to fold the map and directory and timetables up, and stow them in their proper cubby.

"You're married?"

Gail had to chuckle at the surprise written all over the lad's face—the face of a child who finds out their parents' name isn't, in fact, "Mum." "Have been for the past thirty-three years, or at least so I've been led to believe."

"O-oh." He blinked. "I see. Do…do you have kids? I… I hadn't heard any… um…." He gestured vaguely around him.

"Four, but none living here," she said, resuming her work on the terrarium. "The youngest moved out a year ago, and she's working full-time as a professor now. Passed her last examinations for that station not six month hence."

"Ah. They’re all doing well for themselves, then…?" This sudden twist of information had rendered him back to incoherence.

In all fairness to the lad, Gail remembered it taking her some few decades to figure out how to talk to people. "Quite well, I'm happy to say. One took after their father, got into the shipping business. Moved rather far away, up north, where his wife’s family is from, but he writes often. A captain of his own airship now, in fact."

"Ah, congratulations," the lad said with awkward, but heartfelt, enthusiasm.

"The other is working in an orchard a few days journey away, seems quite happy with it." Gail knew quite well she could spend far longer than the lad would care to endure talking about her children, but kept the descriptions short. If he wanted to know more, he would. “From his letters, he seems like he’s getting rather taken with one of the other workers there, though I’m not sure he realizes it, himself. But they all seem to be well settled. I’m quite happy for them, though Heaven knows I’d like to see them more regular. ”

He cocked his head. "And the fourth?"

She carefully measured out how much gravel she’d need in between the layers—perhaps more carefully than she truly needed. "The Lord took him when he was a lad. Not much younger than you."

"Oh." He shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Gail rested her hands on the desk, looking out the window at the bright, clear day. "Thank you for that. We miss him dearly."

Even after decades of practicing how to talk with others, she never quite knew what line to take in this particular conversation. David’s death had been something she had come to terms with, but it wasn't like it went away. One couldn't just brush over the soul-deep hurt, say that they'd been fortunate overall with getting to have him in their lives at all. But it wouldn't be right to dwell too much on the loss, not when there had been so much good.

She looked back at the ghost in her living room, standing there and watching her with soft sympathy; she wondered where his mother was, if she knew what had happened to him.

Gail dropped her plan of searching through the obituaries for the time being. Death wasn't a matter to be rushed; let him get there in his own time, when he was ready. She turned back to the desk, to the terrarium, and poured in the gravel.

"Maybe I can take you by the university sometime," she said, more abruptly than she meant. "It has been longer than I sometimes remember since I've visited my Charity, and I'm sure you'd find the place interesting. Deep into the city, it is—perhaps you’d recognize something of it. And we'd pass by the lighthouse on the way, too, if we did."

"Oh?" His tone was polite. He could tell that she was shifting the conversation, and was letting her.

"A nice place. A lighthouse and a café and the good souls that run both establishments, and it would break up the journey into the city. Though such a trip couldn’t be immediate. I'd have to let Professor Charity know ahead of time." She smiled to herself—the title still felt new and strange in her mouth, but she liked it. "The city might be nearby, but sometimes the letter system is abominably slow. Practically faster to send a whole package aboard a lettership to catch up with my Michael than to send a note to the university."

She could sense him nodding thoughtfully behind her, as if he knew what she meant. Maybe in some part of his memory, he did.

"I…I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for… something like that," the ghost said in a small voice. "I feel disheveled, and… and… I don't know where I can even go to get a change of clothes, or a bath, or anything like that. I don't… I don't know where I live."

"Ah." Gail turned in her chair, facing him as much as she could and with one arm hitched over the chair's back. "That is a dilemma. No idea at all? Perhaps if you remember a neighborhood of some kind we could take a look. Or I could, rather, if you'd prefer not to go yourself just yet."

Could he change his clothes? Should she urge him to try, and perhaps find out there was something wrong? She didn't want to lie to him and pretend he could be normal, but she also didn’t want to discourage or frighten him unnecessarily. But… he deserved to know.

He tugged at the bottom of his waistcoat again. "That's… that's very kind of you. I appreciate it, I really do, but… I have no idea. Honestly, I'm not even really sure where I've been that hasn't been here. Just… vague recollections of things like trees. Or that I was in a city once. But nothing clear, nothing that makes sense."

The ticking of the clock in the background became more present, more audible.

"I’m sorry to hear it," Gail said softly. "I will be honest, I'm not very sure what I can do to help, but… I do think it might be something that will get better with time. After all, you've been telling me bits and pieces of things you remember. Maybe more will come."

"True, but… I don't know." He looked around him, as if hoping something in the room would give him a clue. "Those feel like memories but they also feel… distant? Temporary? Not unimportant, but… I don't think I lived in a cavern of blue moss or whatever weird places I've thought up that don't seem to be from around here. It's all… dark. Did I have a family? A home? A… a change of clothes." He trailed off.

"It will come," Gail reaffirmed, unsure of what else to do. "At first, you didn't even realize that you had memories missing. So maybe, now that you know they are, you can look for them, and maybe you'll be able to hold on to something."

"Yeah." His shoulders slumped, somewhere between resignation and relief. "That's true. Like… what I'd imagine waking up out of a dream is like. I hope."

Gail nodded.

"So, um, yeah… I think for now I'd rather not try and go anywhere new."

"I understand. You're welcome to stay here as long as you need."

"Thanks." He smiled, but his eyes were foggy again. "Even here, every now and then… feels like I can't quite see it…"

"Well, it is getting on towards evening." Gail pushed back her chair. "It’s time for me to light the lamps. That should help."

The blank unfocus didn't change.

Pursing her lips, Gail looked him over, turning thoughts around in her head. "Well, I can't quite offer you a change of clothes—my Michael is of rather a different build than you." She snapped back into motion, busying herself with moving around the room and gearing on the lights, calibrating them deftly. "But if you'd like, you can look yourself over in the washroom. And if it helps, your clothes are fine. Your hair is a tad messy, with a few loose strands and all, but easy enough to put right.” She hesitated, hand on the last lamp. “Only thing with your clothes would be that stain on your shoulder."

"O-oh." The brown seeped back into his eyes, staring at her as she geared the lamp on and turned back to him. He reached up to touch his hair cautiously, as if he expected it to come alive and bite him. "I had forgotten about my hair."

"Just a simple fix needed," Gail assured him. "Washroom is right over there, and we've a decent sized mirror, too. You can go and check the matter out for yourself."

Nodding, he meandered his way over.

Gail went to close the blinds, noting the first stars beginning to poke out of the depths of navy sky.

"Lord, give me wisdom," she muttered. She didn't even know if he could see himself in the mirror, much less do anything to actually alter his appearance.

She didn’t like how she was edging on covering up the truth. She had always taught her children that honesty was better than secrets, and she had no intentions of turning hypocrite at her age.

But how could she break the news to him?

This was the best she could do, for now, to try and tell him—or show him—that something in particular was amiss, beyond what he was assuming.

A few minutes later, he returned with his hair neatly combed and tied back into a proper ponytail. He seemed to have made an effort to clean his face up some, as well. However, the bloodstain on his shoulder remained unchanged, rip and all.

"I'm afraid I couldn't find anything on my shoulder," he said apologetically, if a tad bewildered. "Is it still there…?"

Gail sized him up.

The injury or stain or whatever it was still clearly visible.

"Well, I suppose it might have just been a bit of grime, or shadow," she said, unthinkingly approaching him, "you look quite the charming lad." She dusted off his shoulder, adjusted his tie, as she would with her own son.

He beamed, the melancholy in his features giving way to bashful pride. "That's very kind of you, ma'am."

“Shall we go into the kitchen?” Gail gestured toward it, hoping he wouldn't notice the sudden strain in her smile. “It’s about time for me to get my bread kneaded and in the oven, if you’d like to hang around.”

He nodded and headed towards the kitchen.

Gail waited a moment, looking down at her hand.

The sensation still sat there, like her skin was reliving the moment of touching and not touching. His clothes, his body, had not reacted to her at all. But there had been something there. Nothing physical, nothing solid, nothing like a person--but something. Like the feeling of a blanket that's been drying in the sun but isn't done yet, warm, soft, but wet and clinging. Except not there at all. And still there was a prickling in her hand, like static build-up during a cold winter.

In her mind, too, there was something more, a sudden flash, like an unveiled lamp, a moment of brightness and lostness, emptiness.

She closed her hand around the feeling, keeping it her palm and engraving it in her mind.

It was odd, but it was him. Maybe it meant something. Maybe it could help her figure out some way to help him. And if nothing else, she had connected with him for an instant. That alone was value enough.

He, apparently, had not noticed anything odd.

Squaring her shoulders, she followed him into the kitchen, and decided that, for now, she would not bring up the clinging charge and heat that moved with her.

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[cuddle-2-electric-boogaloo]

Unorthodox Shelter

Part 2

First part here

"...and after I swallowed her, she fell asleep pretty much straight away."

"Hmm... Is she still asleep right now?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, I don't feel any movement. Should I keep her until she wakes up or let her out now?"

"...I'd say now, but do It gently. Just lay her down on the couch, I'll take care of her until she wakes up. You get out of the cold, it's bloody freezing out there."

It took some time for Grace to fully become aware of everything around her again. At first she thought she was still in the naga's stomach, but the light hitting her eyes and the lack of dampness told her otherwise. As she both adjusted her eyes to the light and fully came to, she was able to properly ascertain her surroundings. She was laying down on a couch, under a... tree canopy? No, that couldn't be right. She was warm even without covers on, and it's not like the weather would switch from a freezing blizzard to a pleasant sun.

"Ah, wonderful, you're awake." The sudden voice startled her, making her almost roll off of the couch. She turned to look at the source of the voice and saw a peculiar looking man with a long coat, top hat with goggles and a shirt that cut of just under his chest exposing his stomach. "Ah, right, probably should've... announced my presence first, huh."

She very vaguely recognised his voice. She thought she might have heard a conversation he had with the naga that saved her while she was mostly unconcious in his stomach. "Who... are you?" she asked, almost hesitantly for some reason she couldn't explain.

"Name's Adam" he answered after swiftly moving over to beside the couch she was now sat up in. He extended his hand towards her for a handshake, and after a moment of processing, she reciprocated the gesture.

"I'm... Grace" she said looking him in his eyes, of which one was teal, while the other maroon, but both seemed... dead. Soulless. She stopped looking because the feeling she got from them was too disturbing.

"Grace. Lovely name" he responded with a smile, before returning to where he was before, that being a rustic looking kitchen area. "Anyway, I expect it's been a while since you last ate, so you must be hungry, no?"

"...I guess so..." She did feel a demanding emptiness in her middle. Battling a blizzard is a very draining ordeal.

"Thought so. Any requests?"

"I- wha?"

"Y'know, is there anything you particularly want? Anything you don't like or can't have? Don't worry, it's no issue for me."

This much hospitality from someone who is essentially a complete stranger was surprising to say the least, but even with his... quirks, she didn't feel particularly on edge. "Um... I'm not allergic to anything, and I'm not really fussy with food so, uh, up to you, I guess?"

"You sure?" She nodded. "Alrighty then" he said to no one in particular as he started to prepare a meal for her. By the looks of what he was doing it appeared to be some kind of pasta dish.

Grace piped up after a period of silence from them both. "Hey, is it ok for me to stay here?"

"Oh sure, stay as long as you need to. Which is probably when the blizzard stops. Trying to go out in that is a sure-fire way of getting hypothermia, which is definitely NOT a pleasant way to go, believe me. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's gotten worse since you got here."

A few more minutes passed, and Adam was putting the final touches on Grace's meal, before presenting it to her as they both sat down at the table. It was pasta with a tomato sauce. Simple, yet nice.

He pulled out a small mechanical device and began tinkering with it as she ate. This person seemed nice but also so... unusual. She felt a need to speak up about it.

"Hey, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but you're kinda... strange?"

He looked at her for a moment before laughing and saying "Oh, lass, believe me, I'd be more concerned if someone didn't find me unusual."

That definitely wasn't the response she expected, but at least he wasn't upset by her remark.

Out of nowhere, he suddenly looked towards nothing in particular with a concerned expression. "Sorry, there's a bit of an issue downstairs. Be right back."

Before she could say anything, he had already dashed off through the door behind her, leaving her to her meal.

A few days passed, and Adam kept true to his word. The long blizzard finally came to a stop, and Grace could now finally go home.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, where is it you're from?"

At that moment it finally clicked with her: she had no idea where she was.

"I live in Esterfast. You... do know where that is, right...?"

"Oh, yeah, it's over..." He turned and pointed in a specific direction "that way."

She felt a wave of relief after the brief panic, but at the same time realised she probably wasn't going to make it there on her own. At that moment she remembered how she got here, and wondered if she could get home the same way.

"Um, I'm not sure I'll be able to get there on my own, could your friend take me? If he's ok with it that is."

"Oh, I'm sure it's fine, let me just wake him up."

Upon saying that, he pulled himself up and out of the canopic balcony, disappearing amongst the leaves. She heard some muffled talking, before she saw the naga's huge body descend from above and turn to face her.

"Ah, well hello again, I would have thought you'd just go on your own" he said, seemingly still waking up.

"Yeah, about that... I don't really know where to go from here, and I'll probably just get lost... again. So, could you take me?"

"Of course" he responded, reaching out his hand for her to climb onto, "Where is it you want me to take you to?"

"Just to the edge of Esterfast." She avoided eye contact before continuing "And, um, could you... 'carry' me like you did before?"

His expression shifted to confusion, then to realisation, then finally settled on a smug grin. "Well, if that's what you want..." he said, picking her up by her feet and raising her high above his head, "...then who am I to deny that?~"

His attitude now was a far departure from when they first met. Compared to his soft and gentle demeanor, he was acting completely different, much more teasing and brash, but still gentle with how he treated her.

After he slowly lowered her into his mouth, he shut his lips behind her, and began slowly swallowing, making sure it lasts so he can have a decent taste of her. All the while, she simply kept her body loose, to make sure he had an easy time swallowing her.

He tilted his head back, and with a soft glk he gulped her down. He put his index finger on the lump she made in his neck, and traced it down, making sure she went down smoothly. In his esophagus, she was simply enjoying the soft, warm sensation of being pushed down to his core.

After a few seconds, Grace's trip was over, and she was comfortably deposited in the naga's stomach. She immediately adjusted herself to be more comfortable and relaxed against his stomach walls.

"Comfy?" asked the voice that seemed to come from all around her.

"Yup" she responded, snuggling up against him.

"Wonderful. So, to Esterfast?"

"Mhm." She suddenly realised something. "Oh, we never actually properly introduced ourselves. I'm Grace."

"Well then, Grace, my name is Ferris, pleased to eat you." He heard a small giggle from his stomach.

Ferris carried her in his stomach through the forest, with some exchanges of dialogue between them. After about an hour, they finally reached her destination.

He regurgitated her, before drying her of his saliva and putting her down. They exchanged one last goodbye, before Ferris slithered off back into the overgrowth. Staring into the area he disappeared into, she silently wondered to herself if she would ever meet him again.

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind, however, as she realised now she had to explain to everyone she knew why she went missing for a few days. It wasn't gonna be easy.

[paldean-ranger-brandy]

how does the capture styler thing work? Is it just like a pokeball??

Oh boy. Okay, I’m not a like, tech person but I will do my best to explain. Long post ahead.

So for my followers who don’t know, some rangers operate with a capture styler to help them recruit wild pokemon on their missions, as opposed to working with a standard team of pokemon of their own. The styler has two parts, the base styler itself (pic below) and the capture disk, which looks kinda like a spinning top. The capture disk is launched from the styler and then basically remote controlled. You can control the disk to wrap wild pokemon up by leading the disk in circles around it, and once you’ve drawn enough circles the pokemon can be successfully ‘captured’. If the pokemon attacks the disk or the line that is being drawn around it, the damage will eventually cause the disk to disconnect from the styler. If that happens you have to either grab a back up disk or find a different way to solve whatever problem you’re having.

It’s pretty different from capturing a pokemon in a pokeball for a bunch of reasons. A pokemon captured with a styler is still considered a wild pokemon for all intents and purposes. Capturing will briefly calm a wild pokemon, and help establish some communication between the wild pokemon and the ranger. This is mostly just because in addition to the calming effect, the pokemon will also generally stay focused on the ranger and view them as a friend. Capturing doesn’t magically enable us to speak to wild pokemon in the same language as them (sadly), but it does establish enough of a bond that we can get them to help put out a fire, or move a fallen tree, or just hold still while we treat an injury. Stuff like that.

Capturing is also pretty temporary. Eventually that wild pokemon will get bored of hanging out with you, and will likely wander off to continue its wild pokemon life. Once it gets far enough away the effects of the capture will disappear. Most rangers are also not allowed to lead wild pokemon outside of their natural habitat, for I think obvious reasons. The sylers will track where a pokemon is captured and send an alert when you get too far away from their home, warning you that the pokemon will be released automatically if you go much further. This feature doesn’t apply to Top Rangers, but that’s a different conversation.

Partner pokemon, the one that stays by the ranger’s side the whole time, can also assist in captures by providing ‘poke-assists’. This will affect the behaviour of the capture disk in different ways depending on the type of pokemon providing the assist. Michael, my mightyena, can help lengthen the range of the capture disk to make capturing larger wild pokemon way easier.

Lastly, capturing also does a pretty thorough scan of the pokemon. Once a pokemon is captured we can see if it’s hurt, how old it is, and any previous trainers who might have caught it in a pokeball (that data stays tied to the pokemon forever, even after release). That last one is super helpful for determining if a trainer released a pokemon into a habitat it doesn’t belong in, which can result in fines (which is a stupid punishment, but I digress) or suspension of league participation. The data from captured pokemon is recorded and stays with the ranger union database so that rangers and their home-base operators can monitor population levels and overall health of the pokemon in a given area. We also share that data with pokemon researchers when applicable.

Generally, rangers who are new to an area (i.e., they were trained and imported from out of the region), and field op rangers (who take on more specialized missions – that’s me!) are the only ones equipped with stylers. Sadly, not ever ranger can be equipped with one, as they are expensive and only produced in Almia. The idea is that rangers who are familiar with the area they are ranging in don’t need the added boost of being able to quickly bond with wild pokemon, as they should already have a pretty good grasp on the pokemon in that area. Rangers without stylers also tend to keep larger teams of pokemon with them in their pokeballs. Also, you have to complete special courses to use a capture styler (or just be friends with a chill ranger…shhh).

That’s the quick summary! Thanks for the ask buddy friend.

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Thunderbrush 2

The Bird's-Eye View

A conwoman disguised as a noble and the delegation of university students studying her have arrived in the jungle city of Thunderbrush, ruled by ancient dryads and organized crime. Will they manage to stay uninvolved in shady conspiracies? (No.)

Story so far | Session log index | Previous session

Last time, the party made land in Thunderbrush and had a run-in with the local gangs. They also met Quinn Squall, an avian paperboy who offered to (slash was intimidated into deciding to) escort them to a local teahouse in exchange for a scoop on the events in Corolos. However, it seems like the kid might not have been up-front about his intentions...

Quinn leads them to a colorful basket hanging down next to the trunk of Tonnera Mighty, the giant dryad-tree who towers over the city. They're accompanied by an unknown ninja who was following them for undisclosed reasons, and who Looseleaf just sort of... invited along to tea. They pile into the basket, and someone up top begins lifting.

They get a good view of the city on the way up, as evening turns to night, and mechanisms inside Tonnera's jewelery flicker to life and fill the sky with colorful lights. Looseleaf, a grown-up moth who has put away childish things, suffers no temptation to fly at the glowy lights.

Quinn leads them to an actual building- a large one, called the Canopy Primatrium, which tons of people (mainly avians) are coming and going from. A directory lists:

1F: Bird's-Eye View, Smack Dab

2F: Flyways Couriers

3F: Canopy City Council

Quinn leads them to the Bird's-Eye View offices, where a not-very-teahouse-looking place contains a quail receptionist behind a glass window.

"HERE WE ARE!" he says loudly. "OUR CAFE! Where you can get TEA!" "SOMEONE should prepare some TEA for our GUESTS!" The quail gives Quinn a strange look. "Quinn, what are you-" "These IMPORTANT GUESTS should be served some TEA at our TEA-SERVING ESTABLISHMENT," he repeats. "So they can have a NICE CONVERSATION, over TEA!" The receptionist looks at the group in puzzlement. "…One moment," she says, and gets up to head into the back.

Shortly afterwards, a conure avian in a bright green dress invites them to sit down in their seating area, of their definitely real café. She leads them through some offices where people are busy with printing presses and copying down various manuscripts- a normal café thing. They're seating in a lushly-appointed sitting room in the back, which someone less credulous might assume is the woman's office.

She pulls out a memo pad and quill from somewhere, which is a normal thing for a waitress to have, so it's not strange. She takes their order! Saelhen names an obscure elvish tea, intending to stump her, but for some reason she takes it in stride.

(While the order is being prepared, Looseleaf spirit-reads the walls of the building. Apparently, unlike most other structures in Canopy, the Primatrium is built of dead wood from elsewhere. Tonnera, normally aware of everything that happens on her surface, doesn't seem to be able to listen in here.)

The woman comes back with their tea, interrupting Saelhen's idle chat with the ninja, who's a huge elfaboo excited to be talking to real-life Kanzentokai nobility. She serves... wow, yeah, it's actually what she ordered? Apparently this woman is a connoisseur of teas, despite this place not actually being a tea shop.

She introduces herself as Verda Glye, takes out her pen, and... begins asking them a ton of questions about who they are and what they're doing here.

Looseleaf, suspecting nothing, begins telling her all about their recent adventures in Corolos- in particular, her recent discovery of a cure for partial vampirism, in the course of the murder trial. She's very interested and takes lots of notes on the affair, and Looseleaf's rare and special magic.

And then... she's got another question.

^That lady, who accosted them earlier after the fight with the Lichen thugs.

Looseleaf, at this point well-aware that this lady is the press, but intent on kicking hornets' nests... tells Verda just about the entire truth, short of Miriko's actual prior business with them. Chainer just approached them, thinking they were customers, and tried to sell them slaves- and they played along to avoid trouble. Miriko is kind of panicking and shaking with rage at Looseleaf, and doing her best not to let on.

Verda drops some oblique hints that maybe she's threatening to publish an unflattering story, if they're not more forthcoming...

Looseleaf, direct as ever, asks Verda if she's been bought off by the Chains. She takes mock offense, and claims that her sponsors are "considerably more aboveboard", which isn't ominous.

Verda offers to publish a story mentioning their vampirism-cure situation, which should get customers knocking on her door. Saelhen detects that there might be some nasty surprise waiting in tomorrow's headlines, so... she makes a good Find the Right Words roll to suitably intimidate Verda into believing that she's not the sort of person it's smart to make an enemy of, ensuring favorable coverage.

The party takes their leave, giving parting gifts to the ninja (a piece of paper Saelhen calligraphy'd the character "咪" on) and Quinn (a knife! No!!!) on their way out. As they leave, they overhear the receptionist whispering to Verda: "I can't believe you did that and it worked."

Also on their way out, they meet someone heading down the stairs- a very large eagle avian in a fancy modern suit, surrounded by other avians in formal dress.

It's Quinn's uncle, Pinio Squall- Canopy Commissioner, apparently in charge of the treetop city's government. It seems like he's running for reelection or something, as he's performatively friendly and keeps pausing for photo-ops. He expresses his sincere(?) gratitude to the party for helping with his nephew's career in journalism, and says to visit his office if they're ever having trouble in Canopy.

They leave the Primatrium and head back down to find lodgings at the university they came to visit. On the way down... Looseleaf tries spirit-reading Tonnera. She's not too successful- Tonnera's too big, so she only gets the branch they're standing on. Which seems... strong, but slightly unhealthy, like it's holding steady at minimum performance without enough energy to grow. Seems Tonnera doesn't have enough leaf cover as she should to stay healthy.

The ninja takes his leave- but first opts to just ask a few questions directly, since spying covertly doesn't seem to have answered them. He confirms they're not in league with Kudzu- or with Fallen and the Sounds, for that matter. Miriko seems confused- who's in league with the Sounds? They're rabble-rousing anarchists who tend not to be friends with any of the other big players. The ninja... has apparently said too much, and jumps away.

They finally get to campus, and find a locked gate with a wooden lock. Rather than try to pick or break the lock, or go over, they get the attention of a groundskeeper (one of those rock-people), who's been informed of their arrival and lets them in.

He also tells them that Evelyn, the ghost dryad of the school, makes those locks, and can tell when someone tries to break or pick them and sends the Student Council to deal with the intruders. So, good call on that!

They're given a room number, and head up to a dorm suite that's been prepared for them. Inside, they find Oyobi and Orluthe, who headed here earlier.

Or, they find Oyobi and the ALPHA DOOMHOUND.

He appears to be trying to get his werewolf curse under control, and doing some anger-management exercises with Oyobi, who is expertly playing the role of annoying-person-who-pisses-him-off. He apparently doesn't want to lose control and hurt anyone in this form- on the field, everyone's in armor, but it seems like he feels like he needs to be able to confront someone in this form in a noncombat situation. Odd!

Next time: anger management with the ALPHA DOOMHOUND, meeting a ghost dryad, skin parasites, wasps, and a meeting with the headmaster!

[creaturebehavior]

you wanna know something embarrassing? i still have no idea what a “report” is. Like at school?

I always struggled really hard to understand what was going on in school but i was too embarrassed to admit i didn’t understand how to do most of the work, apart from the parts where i got to draw, so i pretended to be defiant instead. and i pretended not to do my homework on purpose. and my teachers and parents never realized that maybe the reason i was behind all my classmates every year was maybe because i was struggling to learn, but instead of getting extra help i was just forced to stay inside every recess to “do my work” but i didn’t know how so i would just sit there.

i didn’t learn what “studying” was until a year ago.

i also didn’t know what a “book report” was until maybe 2 years ago. i also have a hard time reading, so i didn’t do book reports.

other reports though? i’m still not sure what those are.

two big ones that stand out in my mind are when we had to do a “report” on a national park in 3rd grade. i had to stay inside lunch a whole semester and missed our big field trip at the end of the year because i didn’t understand the assignment at all. I still don’t understand what they wanted us to do. They gave us this big piece of paper and i didn’t know what i was supposed to put on it. My classmates around me all started drawing the name of their national park in big colorful letters across the top of the paper, with trees and stuff on the sides, leaving spaces for different sections where they had words written, some of them being lists with bullet points. I remember spending weeks coloring on that paper and having no idea what words i was supposed to write on it. I remember i even copied the people around me by putting bullet points in some areas as if i was going to start a list, but i didn’t know what i was supposed to write so they remained blank.

i also remember in 6th grade, we were supposed to do a report on a country and i chose Kenya. We had to have a written report, some sort of diorama display, and we had to have an oral presentation ready. the only thing i did was the diorama because that was the only part i understood how to do. I spent hours crying the evening before it was due begging my mom to help me finish the written portion of the report and i think she just copy-pasted stuff from wikipedia into a word document for me. Also there was a fire happening nearby (if you’re from california, you know how it is) and my dad kept calling us freaking out saying he might need to evacuate or we might need to evacuate and i couldn’t get my parents to focus on me and i couldn’t focus on the work because i was 12 and being told we might have to evacuate for a fire. God that night fucking sucked and so did the next day.

So yeah idek. I don’t know what a report is.

I also had this big project we had to do at cosmetology school last summer that i don’t even want to talk about. i never would have been able to do it without my friend Taylor. i had no idea what was going on. and they didn’t give us very much direction either which sucked. they just kind of told us to figure out what we would need to open a salon and start a business and without giving any further information. Cosmetology school is a joke by the way. at least my school was. they didn’t teach us shit.

[gruesomejack]

Brows lifting, his eyes twinkled with excitement. The clearing was, like he said, off the path, so it was a touch risky, but wouldn't it be fun? And it meant that they'd have the area to themselves, no potential intrusion from being on the public grounds. It would be just them and nature. Rabbit smiled at the idea and shrugged, "I don't mind at all. I just hope you'll be able to keep up." The smile pulled into something warm and teasing, toothy and genuine. With a hum, he scanned the trail in front of them and picked through his memories. There should be a fork in the pathway coming up-- Rabbit trotted up ahead and grinned.

"Look! I marked my starting spot." On the left side of the path, there was a 'Y' shaped tree. It was quite ordinary looking and easily missed if you weren't keeping an eye out for it, but Rabbit grew closer and reached up to touch the bark. Near a lower hanging limb, etched in the wood, were his initials. They were a little higher up than the last time he'd been here, but that was expected. The forest grew despite his absence; while he stayed stagnant in his detention, everything else moved on. Taking in a short breath, Rabbit pushed away the feeling that brought in him and instead reached for his back pocket.

He wasn't supposed to have it; he stole it actually. He'd seen it in the corner store and it ended up in his pocket before he left. Flipping open the switchblade, he pursed his lips in thought as he deepened the mark he made as a child. Hesitating, he dropped the point an inch and scratched a second pair of initials there, only pulling back once he thought it was enough to stay. "There." He said and stepped back, closing the knife and shoving it back in his pocket. On the tree, only there if you looked hard enough: 'JS + AP'. "Just in case you uh... you ever come back by yourself."

Rabbit flashed a lopsided smile and scratched the back of his hair. Without waiting for a reaction, he ducked around the tree and started his trek off into the woods. "I remember by landmarks, so hopefully things have stayed put enough for me to get us out here." He explained, stepping over a fallen branch. Rabbit hummed the song from the car to himself and played along with his fingers, stopping himself only when he wanted to stare at something or grin back at Alex. "I guess you're just what I needed.."

The second mark renewed his excitement. A fallen log with a large stump beside it-- "The dinner table!" He said and hopped over to brush the leaves off the top. "When I was... a few inches shorter, this used to be my favorite spot to take a snack break. I'd sit and read here too." Rabbit scratched his forehead and kicked a little at the log, leaning over to admire the new moss and fungal growth on the decaying wood. "I'll leave it as it is though. Seems like some other animals moved in after I left." He said, pointing out the burrowed hole were some nesting material was poking through. "I bet if we came back at the right time, we might get a peek at whatever's living there now."

Rabbit spent the rest of the walk doing much of the same. He'd stop at different land marks and take a moment to babble about it, to snoop around, and to reminisce before moving on to the next spot, each step further away from civilization bringing out a more excitable side to him. By the time they reached the clearing, he was younger and brighter, nearly untouched by the three years he'd stepped away from this place.

The spot was wide and overgrown with grass and wild flowers. It was the perfect little place to find a little solace in the middle of the woods. Rabbit moved in quickly and stopped near the center, his eyes wide, but soft. This was his spot. The forest may have grown without him, but this place was very nearly the same as if... it were waiting for him to come back. Quiet, he moved towards a large patch where the shade had kept the grass low. There, a circle of rocks and the evidence of prior flame was sat right where he left it. Dropping his bags, he turned back with a wide smile and waved his arms to beckon his friend over. "Here! Right here!"

Knock knock-

Rabbit glanced back at his door as he smoothed out his t-shirt, his brows pinching together.

"You decent, man?"

Oh! Harvey. He was probably checking in with his instructions to take care of Little Thing for the night. "Yeah, you can come in."

The door creeked open and a young man a little older than he was made his appearance, letting himself lean against the frame. He was broad with a warm face, his hair picked out in stylish, cloud like curls. Rabbit liked him. He'd been kind from the moment he moved in, never outwardly seeking him out, but always friendly when they crossed paths.

"Your friend's downstairs waiting." Harvey said, his dark eyes flicking towards the bunny hutch in the corner. Rabbit had drilled in the rules already and he wasn't worried too much about the creature. He'd spend some time with her to let her get out her energy, feed her, and set her back in for the night. Gaze moving back up, he meant to look at Rabbit but found himself pulled to the bouquet sitting on top of his dresser. "...That for him?" He asked, nodding his chin towards the flowers.

Rabbit blinked and looked over at the dresser, his face quickly taking on a bright red tint. "Uh-" They were. It'd been an impulse to buy them and he wasn't even sure Alex liked flowers, but it was too late to return them. "I-"

"Relax, man." Harvey smiled and stood up straight, "You're good. I'm not bothered by it." There really was no reason to be. It wasn't his business or his concern who people were swapping spit with-- Especially people who were struggling already like he was. As far as he was concerned, Rabbit was a good kid. A little weird and troubled, but good.

"...Thanks." Rabbit managed, his lips twitching. Turning back towards his mirror, he grabbed his brush off the dresser and moved to drag it through his hair to try and tame it. Before he could, Harvey was in the room and snatching it from his hands, tutting at him. "Uh-uh, no more of that. People pay to get their hair to look like yours, you know?" He gently turned the younger man and looked him over, setting the brush down. Narrowing his eyes, he separated a few curls with his fingers and smiled. "Yeah, man! Grow it out and let it go." He said and pat the side of his face, his own pulling into a grin. "Trust me. Looks groovy."

Rabbit glanced at himself and back at Harvey. Well, it would be easier than trying to keep it under control, that was for sure. Shrugging, he offered the other man a noncommittal nod. He moved then, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder, then his guitar, and then, hesitant, the flowers on his dresser. "Remember to put her back in the hutch before bed. I don't want her to chew on anything-"

"I know. I'll take care of her, I promise." Harvey hummed and took a second to look Rabbit over again. He didn't want to keep him from his friend, so he'd have to save any more style advice for later. "Go on."

Smiling for him, Rabbit thanked him before dipping out of the room. A giddy feeling bloomed in his chest as he hopped down the stairs by twos, hitting the bottom landing with an excited hum. The enthusiasm followed him to the front room where he grinned when his eyes found Alex. Walking up to him, his expression softened a little, but didn't fall. "Hi." He said, his face warming a little. "You ready to go camping?"

@purposefully-lost

[genshinarchives]

𝐆𝐎𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐇. 𝟏

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏 : 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐊𝐘 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 : Shortly after being transported to another reality, you clash with a god who goes by the name Enkidu. You later learn that you have been thrown into a warring era in which the gods of Teyvat are fighting each other to claim a divine seat in Celestia.

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 : Al-Haitham, Kaveh; hints of Cyno x reader

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄 : Romance, adventure, isekai

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 : N/A

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 : N/A

𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

Year 2052.

The gaming industry has flourished in the past years, and VRMMO-RPG took over the market. VRMMO-RPG is abbreviated from Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, an online game that allows the player to enter a virtual world and experience it as though it were real life. On the pinnacle of VRMMO-RPG is Camelot Chronicles, a game that is popular for its unusually high player freedom which enables the player to customise their character however they want, and they could also create their very own unique NPCs. The latter requires a hefty sum of in-game currency and materials, so you were only able to create one NPC for yourself.

His name is Enki, a doppelganger capable of copying the appearances and abilities of the people he interacts with. Although your character is of the same heteromorphic race, most of your points were spent on levelling your magic skills so you're only able to retain your humanoid form. In your party, Enki functions as the vanguard and so was given high physical and magic resistance, but this is adjustable when he takes on the form of someone else. His primary purpose is to aggro the enemies while you attack at a distance as a mage; outside of the battlefield, he's your loyal attendant who caters to your every whim.

As you stretched your arms over your head, you expelled a deep sigh before closing your notebook. You've just finished taking notes of the reading material your teacher had assigned you this week, and decided to play Camelot Chronicles for the rest of the night since it'll be the weekend tomorrow. Humming a random tune, you put on the specialised VR headset that's needed to play VRMMO-RPG and logged into the game.

You were immediately greeted by the sight of Enki standing next to you in Arondight Forest, the surrounding pine trees and uneven topography conjuring up the feeling one might get when venturing through a coniferous forest. You've been farming Jagged Fangs for the new craftable weapon that's coming in the next update, as Enki needed a new spear; you wanted to make him stronger so you could explore Galahad Ruins, a new area that was recently released. Extending a hand in his direction, you gently waved it from top to bottom.

"Follow," you said. The in-game command was immediately processed by him, prompting him to trail closely behind as you led the way. You traversed Arondight Forest in search for the bird-like mobs you'd usually farm for Jagged Fangs, only to notice their unusual absence. The lack of mobs in the area was already concerning enough, making you wonder if there was some sort of lag that's causing a delay in their spawn time.

Just as you're about to teleport to the nearest save point, your console froze.

"What's going on...?" you mumbled, tapping the air where your console had frozen in place. You then tried to close it by force which didn't work, and when you shifted your attention to your surroundings, you saw distortions in the environment. As incessant buzzing filled your ears, glitch patterns appeared around you before vanishing abruptly, and this repeated until the scenery shattered like glass.

You stared in awe. Things that you've never seen before were reflected in the shattered pieces. Upon closer inspection, you noticed that those things - those people - were moving, which drew you in. One scene showed an armed group of humans uniting under the leadership of a young boy holding a lyre; another showed a multi-headed sea serpent being rained on by gargantuan spears of stone; another showed a brutal war between a gigantic white snake and a woman with long violet hair wielding a spear.

"Master!"

A hand clasped your elbow suddenly, startling you. You were then spun around to meet the crimson eyes of Enki, your creation. Your jaw went slack when you realised that he had somehow become sentient amidst this strange glitch.

"E-Enki?!" you squeaked.

"Master, it seems like we've gotten ourselves in a dangerous situation," he said, "Stay close to me so that I can protect you. We don't know what's going to happen next."

Quickly recovering from your surprise, you told him, "I believe the server had crashed. My console froze and I don't think I can contact the admins at all." To prove your point, you tried using the call function only for unpleasant crackling sounds to echo in your ear.

Suddenly, the ground beneath your feet cracked. With panic overtaking your mind, you clung to Enki for dear life whilst he held onto you firmly.

"The ground is about to break!" he exclaimed. As if on cue, the cracks swiftly webbed out and an ear-splitting crash resounded through the area.

The next thing you knew, you were falling.

❀

"... aster... ake... up..."

You let out a groan and knitted your eyebrows together.

"Mas... Please..."

Is someone calling for you?

"Master, please wake up!"

Eyelids flying open, you quickly sat up with an audible gasp. Your eyes immediately burned from the sudden brightness overhead, forcing you to close them again as you raised an arm to shield them. Seeing your discomfort, Enki moved himself in front of you, casting a protective shadow over your form.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm alright," you replied, "Just a little disorientated." Lowering your arm back to your side, you slowly lifted your eyelids and scanned your new surroundings curiously. "Where exactly are we?"

Standing up, Enki then looked around briefly. "It appears that we've been transported to a desert by mysterious means. I'm afraid I don't know any more than that."

You pushed yourself to your feet whilst brushing the sand off your clothes. This doesn't look like any of the deserts in Camelot Chronicles, and as you rummaged through your brain for any coherent explanation to the situation you've found yourselves in, you suddenly remembered the moving images you had seen during the glitch. The young boy with the lyre reminded you of Venti, who's a popular character in an old fantasy ARPG; the woman fighting against the serpent-like monster also resembled the Raiden Shogun, another iconic figure from the same game.

What was the name of the game?

You knew that Camelot Chronicles took inspiration from it after you watched an online interview with the game developers. You had done a little research on the game it took inspiration from out of curiosity and was impressed by the unique gameplay and rich lore.

"Jen... Jenshin...?" you mumbled.

That didn't sound right.

Your attention then shifted to Enki, who appeared to be waiting for your orders patiently. You noted that up close, he's quite good-looking; his sharp red eyes complimented his long ivory hair that's tied in a half-ponytail. Without a second thought, you held his wrist and was surprised to feel a pulse. You cupped his face and gently caressed his cheeks, your jaw going slack in disbelief; not only did he become sentient, he looks and feels real! He has a pulse like most living creatures do, and he smells pretty nice as well... While you were busy admiring Enki, you failed to notice his flustered look.

"Wh-what is it, master?" he asked with a slight stutter.

Before you could answer him, a loud explosion sounded at a distance. Startled, you both turned in the direction you had heard it come from, and your eyes widened when you caught sight of a sandstorm heading straight towards you. As it neared you and Enki, you noticed a shadow barely concealed behind the sandy veil.

"A hostile object is beelining towards us from 12 o'clock!" Enki exclaimed, summoning his spear. You instinctively slammed your hands on the ground, spawning a glowing glyph beneath you and Enki. "Making contact in 3... 2... 1!" On cue, silver chains shot up from the glyph and overlapped each other to form a makeshift shield in front of you. Something crashed into the chains at high speed, the impact causing the sand near its point to spew towards you like a tidal wave. Gusts of wind whipped around the two of you, and once the chaos has settled, the chains dissipated at your command to reveal another human standing before you.

Your gaze immediately settled on the bull horns protruding from the sides of his head. The mysterious man smiled, but you could sense the underlying malice in that supposedly friendly gesture.

"How brave of you to step outside of your god's domain," he said, "Which god do you follow? Gugalanna? Rukkhadevata?" He arched an eyebrow when he perceived your puzzled expression. "Is it neither of those two? Then perhaps you're one of those desertfolk whose god I've slain." He then threw his head back with a loud laugh, as if the words he had uttered carried no weight at all. "He was truly a weak god. For someone who's revered as the God of Heroes to fall so easily... How pathetic!"

"Who are you?" you asked with a frown. Although you didn't know who this God of Heroes is, his arrogant attitude still got on your nerves.

He ceased his laughter to answer your question, "Enkidu. You picked a wrong time to go adventuring, humans."

Enki couldn't accept the rude way in which Enkidu had spoken to you and immediately became aggressive. "Where are your manners? Do not speak to my master in that tone, and kneel when you greet her!"

Enkidu was unfazed.

"Oh... So that woman is a god as well?" he mused, grinning, "I suppose that makes us enemies!"

"Watch out!" Enki said, swiftly moving in front of you to deflect the light projectiles Enkidu had fired from his palms. Before you could fully process what was happening, your attendant had engaged in a ferocious combat with Enkidu. Sparks flew like steel birds of prey as their weapons clashed, their feet manoeuvring around each other's like elaborate pieces of footwork.

Gods. This world has gods, and the gods are fighting each other for some reason. You wondered if you got thrust into another reality during an era that's being devastated by countless power struggles - because if that's the case, you're the unluckiest person on the planet right now.

"Whatever," you mumbled, raising a hand with your open palm facing the sky. You'll worry about the war ravaging this world later; helping Enki take down Enkidu is your top priority, and fortunately, you possess the very weapon that's meant to combat god-like beings. "My soul has united with the stars. I command the celestials of the sky! Where the heavens shine, there am I! Thou wait at the gates of hell! Come forth, divine restraint! Shirshirdingira!"

A large golden portal expanded above Enkidu. Its sudden appearance made him falter as he looked up, and Enki took this chance to swiftly run him through with his spear. Enkidu bellowed as his chest exploded with pain, and the sight of a gigantic spearhead attached to a silver chain emerging from the portal prompted Enki to drive him into the ground before leaping out of your attack's range. As Enkidu lied on his sandy grave, you dropped the chain on him, quickly cutting his life short.

"That's... it...?" you said, blinking. That seemed far too easy; his bravado earlier gave you the impression that it would take more to kill him. When the chain dissolved into golden particles that were swept away by the passing wind, crimson webs were seen on the sand.

Enkidu is dead.

You killed someone.

But why do you not feel anything?

You stared at your hands.

Could it be because your character's race has merged with you when you came to this new world, it made you indifferent towards the things that humans would normally react strongly to?

"Y-you must be..."

You were pulled out of your thoughts when a new voice filled the silence, and you looked to your right to see a man crawling out from behind a rock. His expression was a mixture of fear and wonder as he regarded you with wide eyes, and the next thing you knew, he had prostrated himself before you, his forehead touching the sand.

"What are you-" you began, but were cut off by him.

"You must be the new god Celestia sent down! You're the one who will become the new God of Heroes!"

When Enki stepped forward to punish him for interrupting you, you barred his path by raising your arm in front of him.

"I don't think I follow. What is this world exactly?" you asked.

"You have descended to the world of Teyvat, O Exalted One," the man answered.

"And your name?"

"I am Ushar, a humble desertfolk from the sands of Sumeru. I work as a soldier for the city the God of Heroes had built."

"Raise your head," you ordered, and Ushar complied. He had clear crystal blue eyes, dark brown hair and a tanned complexion... You can't help but notice how much he resembles Dehya, a Pyro character from Sumeru.

Your pupils dilated when realisation dawned on you.

Celestia. Sumeru.

You finally remembered the name of the game.

Those are places in the world of Genshin Impact.

But how can that be? How can Genshin Impact be your new reality when it's been 30 years since the game was released?

"Then right now... It must be in the middle of the Archon War," you murmured.

"That's correct. Every day, the gods of Sumeru are at war with each other," Ushar said, having overheard you, "The God of Heroes whom we follow... was slain by Enkidu, the one you had defeated. Which means that you must be the god he spoke of before he passed! The god who will avenge him, and take his place to guide us! Please hear your servant's plea, and be our new God of Heroes!"

You were hesitant to accept his request. You didn't know if the deceased God of Heroes was fighting to protect his people or to claim one of the seven divine seats in Celestia. You had enough knowledge of Genshin Impact's lore to survive with just Enki by your side, and you were well-aware that if you participated in the Archon War, battling the future Dendro Archon - Greater Lord Rukkhadevata - will be inevitable. At the same time however, you needed more information, more than what the game has already revealed about Teyvat's history.

"... I want something in exchange," you finally said, "If you can give it to me, I will protect you and your people as your new god."

Ushar bowed deeply in gratitude. "Whatever it is that you wish for, will be yours."

You knelt down to his level. "I want information about this world."

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐

The picrew below is Enki.

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 : @flowwerpot​ / @myevergarden​ / @hey-comrade-hold-stil​ / @genshin-idiot /

[balkanradfem]

The basics of growing food

So, growing food sounds very intimidating, and in reality, it's something people knew how to do thru all history, and it's made even easier by new methods of 'no till' and 'no dig' garden. I didn't know almost anything about it until 3 years ago, when I got a plot in a community garden and started growing food with no experience. Still it went good! Here's what I learned:

The basics are as simple as 'if you put a seed underground and keep it wet, it's going to come out.' If you start off from that, even if you know nothing else, eventually you will succeed. The additional stuff is done to ensure success. The biggest actual issue of gardening isn't how, but when. When are you supposed to put all the seeds underground to get good harvest? For most of the plants, it can be as simple as 'Spring'. For others, it's very important just when in the spring you plant it.

Let's say you want to start your first garden, you want to plant some onions, lettuce, peas, green beans, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. All of these can be planted in the spring! But these plants are sorted in 2 categories: Those who can survive a frost, and those who cannot. We call these 'frost hardy' (those who survive the frost) and frost-tender (those plants will die if they're exposed to lower than 0 temperatures). From the ones I listed, onions, lettuce and peas are frost hardy! It means you can plant them very early in spring, such as February and March, and they can be hit with snow and ice and be just fine. They can also be planted in autumn, and they only really start growing in the spring.

Green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini are frost-tender, meaning you absolutely can't grow them before the chance of freezing temperatures is gone. This is known in gardening as 'the last frost date'. Every area has a different last-frost date, so it's good to google yours to be sure you're planting these when it's safe to do so. For me it's mid-April.

Now, since it's a long time to wait for your plants to grow if you've only planted the seeds in mid April, people have found a way around it by planting the seeds in little containers inside of their house, or in a greenhouse, so they grow in a nice warm place on a windowsill, and are moved out in the ground when it's warm and safe. This is a very fun thing to do as you will have bunch of little plants growing in your home. Important thing to know about it is to use really light and airy soil, not garden soil, (you can use forest soil!) and to make sure you're not over-watering them and you give them as much light as possible.

Soil is another big thing in gardening, the grass grows so easily from it, but you can't exactly plant your seeds into the grass; they will get suffocated. For a long time people have tilled the ground to make it empty of all the weeds and easy to handle; however this isn't healthy for the soil, because it ruins the quality of top-soil, exposes it to sun and wind erosion, and it dries up very easily. Here are some beneficial methods of gardening: mulching and no-dig. Mulching means adding stuff like hay, straw, tree leaves, woodchips, pine needles on top of the soil. You're protecting your soil from sun, wind, erosion, drying out, and if your mulch is thick and dark enough, no weeds will grow in your garden. You are gardening by science.

So what does this mean for you, when you're standing before a patch of grass, thinking of turning it into a garden? You need to do this months before the actual planting, using time to your benefit is the smartest thing a gardener can do. You pick a patch of land and bring in everything you can on top: cut grass, hay, tree leaves you raked or found, straw if you have any, woodchips, anything that will stop the grass from growing. If you really want to build up your soil you can bring in compost too! All that organic material will eventually turn into compost and fertilize your garden as it degrades to soil. It's important to not mix it with the soil, and to only keep it on top of the plants. Mixing it will deplete the soil of nitrogen, and you need nitrogen to grow anything green. If you keep bringing in organic material for years of gardening, and on top of that put some compost as well, in 3-5 years your soil will become so rich and soft you will no longer have to use tools to plant in it.

But, hey, if it's your first time, you don't need to aim for perfection. If you didn't prepare your soil in the fall, whatever! You can still pull the weeds, dig around a little to make some clear soil, and plant your stuff! I've done this last-minute planting and it works just fine. Mulching and adding organic material is only the easiest, most scienc-y way to garden.

The next big thing in gardening is spacing and depth: how far apart should your plants be? And how deep to plant them? For depth, the rule of the thumb is 'twice as deep as the seed is tall'. But I've seen people pull various shit in this area and succeed so do what you want. As of spacing, I would also say, try out what fits for you. It takes a year of gardening to get a sense of just how big the plants get, and what would be ideal spacing for each of them. I decided only on my third year to plant tomatoes VERY far apart, because I realized in this case, one plant will give me more than 8kg tomatoes and it's much less work than planting 3 times as many plants that are close together. Peas seem to like to grow close tho, for some reason. Sometimes you can decide you want a bunch of tiny plants because you'll eat them young, so you don't space them on purpose, people do that with lettuce, leeks, spinach. If you want your plants as big as possible with as much yield as possible, give them half a meter and see what happens.

Fertilization is another big thing in gardening; if you add a lot of compost and mulch your garden consistently, you won't need a lot more; however there's a cool free trick you can do (if you're not currently sick): you can mix your urine with 10x water, and water your plants with that. And I really mean mix it with 10x water! Plants can get very fried by it and start to wilt if they're bombed with too much fertilizer at once! There are rules for this: use it when you want your plants to grow a lot of greenery, not if you want them to flower or produce fruit. This fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, and nitrogen inspires plants to grow more leaves! If you wanna fertilize them later in their growth, put a lot of nettle plants in a big container with water, leave it in the sun for 10 days; when it starts to smell real bad, it's ready. (you can also do this with comfrey). Also dilute it with 10x water! Don't use these fertilizers on bean or pea plants, or any legume, they don't like it.

Now I've given you so much info at once, you're probably struggling to take it all in, so here's a good youtube channel where I learned all I know: Roots and Refuge. If you watch this lady garden for long enough, she will tell you all of the secrets.

I remember being a first time gardener overwhelmed with worry; what if I fail, what if nothing grows, what if I kill all the plants, what if I have a black thumb, what if the plants die because I am stupid, what if I put all of this work in and get nothing, what if people make fun of me, what if I run into problems I won't be able to solve. Here are some of the answers to these!

A part of what you grow will DEFINITELY DIE. I can guarantee it, it happens to everyone, every single garden in the world has had plants die, sometimes for no reason at all, but in no case will EVERYTHING die. We all count on a part of our plants dying, becoming slug food, not doing well in general, and we always plant 30% more than we absolutely need. Even if you are personally responsible for killing the plants, the plants will not hold it against you! Plants appreciate you spreading their seed regardless of success, they understand that by trying multiple times you will eventually succeed and they absolutely want you to learn thru occasional failure. The answer is again to plant a lot, and it never ever happened that nothing came out of it. Most often, it's not going to be your fault at all. Sometimes the year will be good for tomatoes and carrots, and bad for peas. It's all okay! Because you just planted extra peas, and you'll get more tomatoes than you expected to have.

If you have the desire to plant food, you do not have a black thumb; the green thumb is in the heart that yearns to grow. You're not stupid if your plants die, plants die for everyone. And people are likely to come at you with million advice; listen to no one, try everything yourself. If they make fun of you, they're gonna look real stupid when you have home-grown food. Any problem you might run into while gardening is google-able! Or you can join a page of gardeners and they'll be happy to identify the issue.

The real main issue with gardening are slugs and bug-type pests, and that is a problem for another day because all I know to do is to yeet those away by hand and shake my finger very sternly at them. Hope this helps!

[uvobreakmylegs]

Prey

got a request for a monster!Uvo as well as a request for an Uvo fic where he chases the reader. hope it’s cool that I combined the two of them

@ramwrites​ and I are in agreement that werewolf is the best type of monster for Uvogin

werewolf!Uvogin

Warnings: death, blood, gore, body horror, little bit of smut, graphic depictions of violence, mentions of cannibalism, attempted suicide, implied kidnapping, reader does not have a good time

Thin rays of sun that were able to slip past the branches of the trees hit Uvo's back as he went about his work, placing another upright log on the now considerably worn down tree stump and bringing his axe down upon it, slicing the wood in two and tossing the pieces into the pile to his right before he grabbed another unchopped piece from the pile to the left. Based off of the sun's position in the sky, it was only a bit after midday. Uvogin had been going at this for a while now, his sweat staining the white tank he wore.

Though the sweating wasn't because the work was in any way debilitating. Any other day of the month Uvogin would've been able to chop the same amount and not even break a sweat.

No, today was different because of what was happening tonight: a full moon.

Even though the night was still a long ways off, Uvo could already feel the very beginnings of his transformation shuddering through him. Faint, but still noticable. Unfortunately, with the ever present fact that nightfall wouldn't come for hours yet, there was little he could to other than to keep himself busy and distract himself lest the anticipation kill him. So he continued to chopping the logs, even though the amount he had cut already was bordering on excessive.

In the midst of his distraction, his ears perked up when he heard the faint rumblings of a car engine. His senses of smell and hearing were always pretty good even when it wasn't close to a full moon, but those senses were ten times as sharp now, and he could clearly hear as the car came in closer and closer.

Whoever they were, they wouldn't be the first people to have approached him today. Already he'd been asked two different times for directions to the nearby campgrounds, the first time by an elderly couple who were likely well into retirement, and the second by a group of individuals who had also gotten lost. The woman from that group who went up to him told him more information than he'd needed to know, informing him of how theirs was a company sanctioned team-building retreat. She had a piece of gum in her mouth and smacked it loudly as she talked, and because of his sensitive hearing, the sound of it became distressing to the point that Uvo had to keep himself from clawing his ears off.

Everyone in that group deserved to die because of that woman alone.

Uvogin didn't stop what he was doing even when he heard the car drive past and then suddenly brake, just continuing as he was while he heard the sounds of a car door opening and someone stepping out. Words were being spoken; what was being said exactly he couldn't say, but based off of previous experience it was easy enough to guess.

The car door slammed shut and the engine rumbled again as the car began to drive further down the dirt road. It'd be back in a little bit – over that way was a dead end. But Uvogin quickly switched his focus to the footsteps he heard walking through the unmarked pathway and headed towards him.

“Excuse me?”

He heard your voice call out to him, and Uvo finally turned to face you. Upon making eye contact with him, you smiled and held up a map as you called out again “sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could help out with some directions? We're looking for the Visca lake campgrounds, but I think we've been going around in circles.”

You didn't come any closer when you said that, though it seemed to be more out of a desire to not intrude on his space as opposed to being nervous about the axe he was holding. There was a hopeful look in your eye, though you also seemed ready to apologize for bugging him if he instead told you to fuck off.

Already he knew he liked you much better than the bitch from earlier.

“Sure,” he replied.

Uvo set the axe down and walked towards you, his hand outstretched so you could hand him your map. You smiled and handed him the map without any hesitation, coming up beside him as he unfolded it and scanned the paper so he could give you an idea of what direction you needed to go. The height difference between the two of you meant that he needed to lean down a bit as he pointed out to you the appropriate road that would get you to your destination.

“The road to the campgrounds is here,” he told you.

Despite the way he had tried to accommodate the height difference, you still needed to stand on your toes to see where he was pointing. Your arm came up briefly before you swiftly pulled it back. Like you'd been tempted to place your hand on his forearm to better balance yourself but stopped yourself since the two of you were complete strangers. Though Uvo wouldn't have minded too much if you had done so. Taking advantage of the way you were right next to him, he inhaled, memorizing your scent for later.

Uvo then moved his finger towards the left as he continued “we're around this area, so you'll want to drive back the way you came and take the first right you see. Then you'll want to take another right to get onto the campground road. As long as you don't fuck up turning, you should get to the lake in about ten minutes. Maybe less.”

“Ah, okay!” you responded, taking back your map as you looked over the route he'd pointed out to you. As you were desperate to make sure you got his directions right so you wouldn't need to be in the embarrassing situation of messing up his instructions and needing to go back to him for further clarification, you didn't notice the way he was looking you over or how he inhaled more of your scent.

Your hair smelled of something flowery, some kind of hair product you must have used that morning before you drove out here. Your clothing also had a rather soapy smell, though it wasn't as noticeable as the product in your hair. Beneath all of that, he was able to take in your natural scent that was free of any products or chemicals, as well as... Perfume? An odd choice for a camping trip, he thought. Then another smell hit him, one that surrounded you but you were definitely not the source of.

Oh.

It was the unmistakable scent of another man.

The perfume made more sense now. You'd said 'we' earlier as well, so chances were you'd come here with a boyfriend for a romantic weekend getaway and his smell has just gotten all over you after spending several hours cooped up in a car with him.

Not terribly displeasing. A boyfriend being in the picture might make things a bit more interesting.

“Okay, I think I've got it,” you said, snapping him out of his thoughts, “sorry if I took up too much of your time.”

“No problem,” he answered, “I get a lotta people asking for directions, so I'm used to it.”

“Really? That sounds like it gets annoying. Why don't they put up signs or something?” you asked.

“They do,” Uvo said, “but they usually get taken down by vandals.”

More like self-righteous teenagers who'd found out the truth about him and couldn't stand the fact that the elders of the nearby town allowed Uvogin to do as he pleased and thought they could thwart his killing sprees by taking down the signs leading to the lake, like they could save any innocent vacationers if they weren't able to find the campgrounds. Those kids had yet to learn that if they managed to deprive Uvo of his prey, he'd be forced to go to their own town and hunt there, maybe snatch up one of them or their families. The older folk in charge of the town understood that, and they'd decided that it was better to let the occasional out of town stranger be his prey than risk him coming in and picking off whatever stragglers he could find in their community.

People vacationing in the wilderness died all the time, after all.

“Vandals?” you asked. There was the slightest bit of concern in your voice, and when your eyes went slightly wide as you looked at him, he couldn't help but muse at how cute you looked like that.

“Just dumb kids,” he explained, “there's a small town a little ways back and I reckon they don't have much to do around there.”

“Ah, I see. Do you think we'll need to worry about them bothering us?”

“Nah, they wouldn't do anything,” Uvo said, “besides, they know that I'm out here today, and they know better than to bug me.”

You laughed a bit at that, any deeper meaning to his words going over your head.

“I can't blame them. If I was one of them I'd be too scared to do anything to get on your bad side.”

Uvogin just smiled.

A voice then called at the top of the path, and you both looked to see a dark-haired man around your age standing there. He called out what Uvo assumed was your name, and you waved to him, calling out a short “coming!” before you turned back to Uvogin.

“Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it,” you told him.

“Once again, not a problem. Hope you two have a good time.”

You smiled and nodded at him, and then began to walk back over to your boyfriend. But before you had the chance to bid him goodbye, Uvogin spoke again.

“You wanna know something that's not in any visitor's guides?” he asked.

“Huh?”

He grinned at your slightly confused expression as he explained “if you go down to the southern side of the lake, there are these really beautiful cliffs in the forest. A lot of clearings that show a pretty good view of the sky, too. And it's a full moon tonight; if you want to make some memories, you should check it out when it gets dark.”

Clearly intrigued, you turned back to face him, asking “really? Why isn't that part advertised?”

“The locals want to keep parts of the lake to themselves,” he said, “but I think it's something that you might appreciate.”

“You sure you won't get in trouble for telling me?”

“Not if you don't say anything,” said Uvo, raising an eyebrow as he smirked.

“Ah, gotcha,” you said. Behind you, your boyfriend was starting to look a bit suspicious, and his lips soon formed a frown. You weren't paying him any mind at the moment.

“What's your name?” you asked.

“Uvogin.”

You held out your hand as you introduced yourself, and he humored you by giving you a handshake.

“Thank you so much for everything,” you said, “maybe we'll see you again while we're here.”

“Maybe.”

With that, you finally turned and made your way to your awaiting boyfriend, who gave Uvo one last narrowed glance before he turned his attention to you as you eagerly pulled your map back out and began to tell him the directions that had been given to you. Your boyfriend only gave one more glance towards Uvogin before focusing his full attention on you, looking over the map with you before the two of you made your way back to the car. He seemed rather boring, Uvo thought to himself. Yet before you made it back in, you stepped up and kissed your boyfriend on the cheek. Uvo saw the way your boyfriend stiffened and the blush that reached his ears as he sat down in the driver's seat to escape your random but sweet action. You laughed as you entered through the passenger's side, and Uvo kept an eye on the two of you until he saw your small, light blue car pull away and drive down the road.

When the two of you were gone, Uvo went back to chopping wood, picking the axe back up and slicing the log into two even pieces. He didn't expect that anyone else would come blundering into the forest before evening, but if they did, he wouldn't pay them much mind. If he killed every single person who came in to enjoy the lake he would quickly lose that particular food source and then need to find another area to hunt.

No, the only ones that were on the table tonight were the company group and you and your boyfriend – he wouldn't bother hunting down that elderly couple as it wouldn't be interesting in the slightest to go after them. The larger group had a good number of people in it, so there would be no need to seek out anyone else. Honestly he shouldn't even bother with the two of you, but Uvo thought of you again, thinking over every action you had taken, from the way you had approached him to how you held out your hand when you introduced yourself.

The little bit of affection you had offered to your boyfriend also came to mind but he brushed that thought away. It was unimportant, he told himself.

No, he shouldn't bother with the two of you, but he wanted to see how your naive little expression might change when you saw him next, after the moonlight had transformed him, and hear how you might scream and cry as he hunted you down.

He grinned at the thought, and when his axe came down again, it sliced the log and the stump beneath it clean through.

The true beginnings of his change had started hours ago when the sun sank past the horizon and the moon slowly rose in the night sky. Just little things, like the way his teeth began to shift in his mouth, or how the black tips of his claws were starting to show beneath his fingernails, slowly pushing up beneath the nails and trying to force themselves out so he could have an easier time tearing apart whatever unfortunate victim happened to be closest to him.

His skin was starting to shift a bit in places as well as it began to detach from the muscle beneath, and he was hit with an overwhelming urge to run outside and allow his transformation to complete so he could go wild as he always did on a full moon night.

But he waited, forcing himself to focus on the fire that was burning before him, to wait until it had gone out completely before he stepped foot out of his cabin.

It had turned into something of a ritual for him; when he had started it he could no longer remember. It was purely ceremonial, and at the heart of it he knew that it did nothing to add to his hunt, but after being alone in the woods for so long he supposed he was entitled to a bit of superstition. And at this point, it would have felt wrong to do it any other way. When the fire went out, the moon would be at the highest point in the sky, and when he left the dark cabin and bared himself to the moonlight, his werewolf form would tear through and he would track down the victims he had met earlier in the day, the ones whose scents he had remembered after he'd chosen them for his prey. Didn't matter much in what order he got them, just whatever scent he came across first.

Although maybe tonight it mattered a little bit. If he could manage it, Uvogin wanted you to be the last one to die tonight. After the group from the company retreat and your bland looking boyfriend, he'd hoped he could then have you for last. Something about that made him feel like that would be the only appropriate ending to the night.

But that all depended if he could manage to remember that after he'd transformed.

The light of the fire was growing more dim, and he was having a harder time sitting still, his entire body itching to burst through the cabin door and let the moonlight take him.

Not yet, he told himself.

But soon.

Those black claws were showing a bit more now, and at least two of his fingernails had popped off, blood coating his fingertips as his hands clenched onto the skin of his legs. That same skin shifted once more as he did so, and after a few moments he felt something trickling down his thigh, and when he glanced down he could see in the faint glimmer of firelight the hole in his skin that he'd torn open, and the dark fur beneath the human flesh that was still covered and the blood dripping down his leg.

Not yet not yet not yet

A few more agonizing minutes later that had seemed endless in his mind, and finally the fire he'd begun earlier was reduced to a smoulder, the flames dying out and the wood glowing red as the fire reached the end of its life.

Now

No sooner had he thought that Uvogin had thrown open the cabin door and ran out into the woods that surrounded him, bare as he gazed up at the full moon as he allowed himself the moment that he'd been holding off on.

There were multiple changes simultaneously and Uvogin was barely able to comprehend all of what was happening to him because of it. There was always a pain that accompanied his transformation, and while it was a pain that he was used to at this point, it was pain nonetheless.

At the sight of the moon his green eyes turned yellow and his pupils narrowed into slits, while the bones in his body began to shift and grow. It started with his spine, extending and pushing out through his skin and almost causing a ripple effect through his whole body. His bones were snapping and stretching beneath his skin, growing as his muscles were expanding and making him into even more of a giant than he already was. Claws on his hands and feet tore through the flesh that surrounded them as those parts of him extended, the skin ripping open and allowing more of the fur that was hidden underneath to show through.

When he felt the flesh around his shoulders stretch out in an attempt to accommodate the transformation he sped up the process by reaching up and tearing it away with his own fingers, the black claws easily ripping in and pulling the skin away like a latex glove. Soon the skin that had been on his arms sat around him in pieces on the grass and he began the same process with his chest and legs, tearing away his flesh in messy strips and allowing the fur that had formed on his body to be exposed, matted with blood and looking almost black in the light of the moon.

His skull went through the same process as the rest of his body, and he felt his face crack into several different pieces before the bones began to remold themselves and pushed outward, taking the shape of a wolf's muzzle while his teeth extended and shifted to fit properly in his newly formed mouth. When his ears began twisting and pushing upwards into sharp points was when he tore at the skin on his face, pulling it off as he had done with the rest and throwing it to the forest floor.

When the last of his human flesh had been removed, his transformation was complete. The man who had stepped out of that cabin was gone and replaced with a large, bipedal wolf whose yellow eyes dilated as he looked up once more to the moon. Lifting his head up, he arched his back as he let out a howl loud enough that echoed through the woods and across the surface of the lake. Those that heard it in the nearby town quietly whispered their prayers to whichever gods they worshiped while those who were visiting the lake's campsite merely marveled at the sound.

If Uvo was in a different mindset he might have thought of you in that moment, and what you might be thinking when you heard him. If you had any clue of the danger you were in.

But in this moment, there was no thought of you or even saving you for last as he had tried to so hard to ingrain into himself. There was no thought of doing this in any order or trying to end the night correctly as he had mused about earlier.

The only thing going through Uvogin's mind was the need to kill.

As luck would have it, he'd managed to kill the ones from that company first.

There had been more of them. More that were wandering around their campsite, more that were talking amongst themselves, and in general just making more noise that, combined with their scents from earlier, allowed him to find them first.

There were actually more of them in that group than he'd anticipated, and as he killed off the last woman in the group, gum falling from her mouth as he twisted her head completely around. Uvo then looked around at the carnage he'd left in his wake. It was hard to tell with the way they were all in pieces now, but the number of people group had easily been in the double digits. That would probably cause a bit of trouble, as it would be hard to try and cover this up. This would easily make the news. Annoying, as Uvo would need to make sure to lay low for a bit, and it could possibly lower the amount of potential victims in the area when the next full moon came.

But it had still been worth it.

Uvogin felt more like himself again now that the murderous urges had been sated. Able to think a bit more clearly, more rationally. And he was able to remember you and what he'd hoped for early on. He could imagine it: your scared expression as you watched him kill your boyfriend before he slaughtered you like the rest, your screams cutting short as he bit into the skin of your neck and tore out your throat.

Now that his hunger was taken care of, he left the campsite of the now-dead group. Right now all he wanted was to find you and your boyfriend.

Remembering what he had told you of the southern side of the lake, he took a gamble as he headed off in that direction, making his way through the woods at speeds much faster than a regular human would be capable of. He stopped when he felt the wind blowing again, and lifted his nose in the air, trying to see if he catch anything.

….. There

It was faint. Very faint, but he managed to catch a familiar human scent.

He turned and headed off in your direction. It was too far away to get your exact location, but it was enough that he could get at least an idea of where you were.

Continuing towards the south side of the lake, he stayed close to the shoreline until he found your little blue car from earlier parked close to the lake, a tent set up not too far off from it. Your scent became a bit more clear as he came closer, and yet when stopped to scan the area, his eyes looking for the slightest bit of movement and his ears straining to hear any bit of noise, he couldn't find you.

A bit annoying, but based off of the way the two of you had left things, you should still be in the area. It was just a matter of hunting you down.

Uvo stalked about the campsite, just in case he missed something while also puncturing two of the tires on your car and cutting off that potential escape route. Satisfied that neither of you were on the site or next to the water, he walked back into the woods, following after the little bits of that fragrance he'd latched onto.

As he walked, he thought to himself with some amusement that you'd actually taken up his suggestion. Uvogin had found that most people didn't bother, either because they were too dedicated to the plans they'd made before arriving or because they didn't trust that the landscape was as beautiful as he'd made it out to be. In fairness, it mostly all looked the same to him, but there had just been something about that particular bit of campground that made him enjoy hunting there more. So it was even more perfect that the two of you had ended up there. Most likely you were just doing what you felt like and didn't feel like adhering to any particular schedule.

His ears perked up as he heard a low voice in the distance. Not yours. Probably your boyfriend, then. Focusing himself so he could move silently, Uvogin weaved through the trees, his eyes searching for you while he listened for more noise from either of you.

When he heard your voice next, he had definitely gotten closer. Your voice had sounded odd, though. Almost breathless.

He found the two of you in a larger clearing that stood beneath one of the cliffs he had spoken of. You were laying with your back on the grass, dressed in a swimsuit with only a shirt over it. Your boyfriend was in a similar state with the moonlight falling onto his bare back, and it looked like both of you were a bit wet, some drops of water still on your skin and hair still damp. So the two of you had gone swimming before you wandered over to this area to mess around.

You said something to him before the two of you shared a kiss, and you moaned into it when he slipped his hand under your shirt to grab at your chest.

It certainly wasn't the first time Uvo had come across a pair of lovers in the woods. Such encounters usually ended with one or both betraying the other, as several times in the past one would push the other into Uvo's path in an attempt to save themselves after having a passionate make-out session only moments before.

Uvogin stepped out from the treeline and waited for one of you to notice him. You let out another moan, and to him it sounded like it was slightly exaggerated. Was your boyfriend not that good? Not too surprising, based off of Uvo's impression of him.

If Uvo had been the man on top of you, he was certain he could do much better.

….. Where did that come from?

Uvo didn't get much time to wonder about that as he heard you let out a sharp gasp, and when his eyes refocused on you, he saw that you were looking right at him. Your eyes were wide and your skin paled as you stiffened, your hands grasping at your boyfriend's arms.

“What's wrong?” your boyfriend asked when he noticed your reaction.

Keeping your eyes on Uvogin, you answered him in a small whisper “there's something over there.”

Your boyfriend turned his head to where you were looking, and he went stiff as well when he saw Uvogin's werewolf form.

It was quiet in that clearing, free of any noises from any woodland animals or even the insects, as anything that was in that immediate area sensed the danger and were desperate to keep silent. No, the only sound Uvo could hear was your breathing that became more panicked as you struggled to keep it under control and the way your boyfriend tried to shush you while he broke out into a cold sweat. You two were both under the impression to stay still and not make any sudden movements for fear of provoking him.

Then your boyfriend whispered your name.

“When I move,” he breathed out, “I want you to run back to the car and get out of here. Even if I'm not with you, you have to take the car and leave.”

As he spoke, your boyfriend slowly moved his hand over to a pack beside you that Uvo hadn't noticed at first. Still, Uvo grinned. He thought he could take him on?

You tried to protest but your boyfriend wasn't hearing it, only repeating his instructions to you and trying to make you promise that you would do as he said. You didn't want to; that was clear, but when you looked back over to Uvogin's form outside the treeline, you shuddered once more and agreed to leave with a short nod.

Uvogin waited for the boyfriend to make his move. He looked just as terrified as you were, but he was clearly trying to be brave for your sake, and his resolve seemed to steel when he got a hold of whatever he had been searching for in the pack.

“Now!”

Your boyfriend yelled as he shot up and charged at Uvo. For the first time since seeing him, Uvogin felt mildly impressed with your boyfriend; he'd been genuine about wanting to save you over himself. Not like he wouldn't still die for it as he was still incredibly weak, but there was something to be said about the willingness he had to face down a beast like Uvo for your sake.

You must be something special to make a man go that far for you.

The thing your boyfriend had pulled out turned out to be a can of bear spray as well as a medium-sized hunting knife. Uvo managed to doge the stream that had been aimed at him easily on account of how badly the hand that held it had been shaking. The boyfriend ran back a bit, unwilling to get too close to Uvogin even with the knife. He tried to aim it again, but Uvo used his claws to slice at him, slashing upwards as he aimed for his throat.

Somehow, he missed the boyfriend's throat and only managed to hit the side of his face, opening up his cheek and taking off his ear. The boyfriend cried out at that, one hand going up to his bleeding cheek while still trying to incapacitate Uvo with the bear spray. But with the way he stumbled about, it was almost too easy for Uvogin to grab him by his face and hurl him into the trunk of a nearby tree. He hit headfirst, and there was an audible cracking sound that came from the impact. Uvogin didn't even bother to watch the way his body hit the ground, experience telling him that he was definitely dead.

Uvogin was much more interested in you.

You were still in the clearing. At first you had done as your boyfriend had told you and bolted the second he yelled, running back to your campsite. But you stopped and turned back when you heard him cry out when Uvo had slashed at him. You wanted to help him but you also knew there was nothing you could do, and so you were left standing in the clearing, your whole body shaking as you struggled with the decision to stay or leave your boyfriend behind.

It was cute how loyal you were to him.

And loyalty certainly wasn't a bad quality.

When you saw your boyfriend die you froze, tears streaming down your face as you looked between the now dead man and the thing that had murdered him. You were clearly in a panic, your legs trembling as your brain struggled to figure out what to do, where to go from here. Certainly you had to be aware that you'd lost any chance of getting away like you'd been told to do, right?

Apparently not, as when Uvogin stepped forward you bolted, running back towards the camp. Yet Uvo found a sense of relief with that, that you wouldn't just sit there and let him kill you and end it so early.

For whatever reason, that last thought displeased him.

But he brushed that away as he chased after you only moments later, not bothering to be quiet with his movements and instead being as loud as possible, breaking apart any low-hanging branches in his wake as he howled into the night air once again.

You had only made it a little ways past the car when he emerged from the forest and lunged towards you. It seemed like you were trying to get away on foot given the damage to the car. Already there was a scent of blood in your wake, as the soles of your feet had already been cut up on the sharp debris of the forest floor.

You turned towards him just in time to see him raising his clawed hand over his head before he sliced it downwards. Through what must have been some bit of luck, you stumbled backwards at that moment and all he managed to do was give you a flesh wound.

You hit the surface of the gravel road hard, crying out in pain at the force of your fall as well as the cuts that were on your arm, your hand immediately grasping at your wound as you desperately tried to use your legs to get yourself off of the ground.

Then he was on top of you.

He opened his jaws wide; you saw as he did so, and attempted to crawl out from under him.

He snapped his jaws shut on your throat.

And you went stiff.

It was quiet for a few moments.

And then a small rush of air escaped from your mouth as you let out a breath you had been holding.

Almost.

He had almost killed you in that moment.

The pointed tips of his teeth were pressing lightly into your skin, not quite hard enough to make you bleed, but that would change if you shifted your neck just slightly.

Why had he stopped?

He stayed there, hunched over you, his arms caging you in while his maw was around your throat. He felt the pulse in your neck beating wildly, almost causing vibrations against his teeth. You had stopped struggling, your legs still while you continued to clutch at your wounded arm, the only noises coming from you now being your uneven breathing.

What was he doing?

His yellow eye glanced over to your face, and he found that you weren't even looking at him. You were gazing in the direction of the night sky, where the light of the moon shown down on you like a spotlight, but it didn't even seem like you were even looking at that. Your eyes were wide as you breathed hard, and Uvo had to wonder if you were currently seeing your life flash before your eyes. That perhaps your mind had accepted that this was the end of your life and was remembering as much as you could before Uvogin would sink in his teeth and sever those major arteries in your neck.

Were you satisfied with all that you had accomplished up to this point, or were you disappointed and felt that you should have done more?

Moments passed like that, his hulking form engulfing yours with no movement from either of you. He took in a deep breath, and he once again caught some of the flowery smell of your shampoo, though it had largely faded by now, and you smelled much more like the woods after the hours you had spent there. More like pine and tree leaves, and the fresh water of the lake, and....

Uvogin let out a short grunt that made you whimper and you clenched your eyes shut as you believed this to be the end. You had no clue that Uvo could smell your arousal coming from between your legs. It had come from the way you'd been fooling around with your boyfriend earlier – there was no way you could have been turned on by this.

Uvo thought again of what he had seen when he stumbled upon the two of you, and that odd thought that had interjected at one point. You had been on his mind almost all day, and he thought it was because he wanted to kill you. And now you were beneath him and the moment couldn't have been more right, and yet now that was the last thing he wanted to do.

It hit him then. The different urge he'd had about you since he had seen you earlier in the day, since he had seen the way you treated your boyfriend; the way you had kissed that man had stuck out in his mind. Hardly any different than any other couple he had seen who were too big on PDA, yet combined with the way you had first come up to him, had smiled and thanked him, and introduced yourself so willingly while also asking for his name had made all of the difference in the world.

His days in the woods were lonely. It was something Uvo was well aware of but had thought he could handle, and he had done so for several years now without issue. But now that he knew you, with your actions and your touch and even the sweet scent of your arousal that he wished more and more that he had been the cause of, another second of being alone sounded more like torture.

Still, the biggest reason he had stayed on his own for so long was that he had accepted that there would be few in this world who would be alright with spending the rest of their lives with a man-eating monster. And any that he may have wanted to keep alive despite that probably wouldn't have been worth the trouble. Keeping someone else with him would also mean he would need to put in the effort to keep them alive, and if he had them unwillingly he'd need to make sure they wouldn't be able to get away, either by restraining them or locking them up.

He watched you, watched the way your face stayed scrunched up as you waited for him to finish it. He wanted you, but were you worth the trouble?

When Uvogin pulled off of your neck and sat back up, you meekly opened your eyes in confusion and trying to anticipate what horrible thing he would do to you next. You yelped when he grabbed you by the back of your shirt as he stood, pulling you up to your feet and setting you in front of him. With one hand on your shoulder and one on your hip, he turned you so you were facing away from him, making sure you were steady on your feet.

He leaned down so his maw was right next to your ear, and in a voice that sounded more animal than human, he growled out a single word:

“Run.”

With that he pushed you forward. You stumbled a bit, your brain still processing what he had said as you barely took a few steps away from him. Then, like a lightning bolt had hit you, you finally seemed to understand as you snapped back and made a beeline for the woods. Your bare feet were loud on the cluttered forest floor, and he occasionally heard little gasps and soft whimpers of pain when you cut your foot open further on a rock or a sharp branch.

Uvo waited, wanting to give you a good head start before he began to chase after you. It would be easy to track you, especially with how much you were bleeding now, but he shuddered with barely contained excitement, eager to chase you down but knowing that he needed to give you a decent head start or else it would be over too quickly.

If you proved yourself worthy of keeping alive, then he'd take you back to his cabin.

And he really hoped you wouldn't let him down.

…. But then something felt wrong.

Uvogin's eyes narrowed as he sensed that you were still within the immediate area and not moving away from him as he had expected. The direction you had gone in was the same one the both of you had come from; the patch of woods and the clearing where he'd found you in the pathway. There wasn't anything there that you could have fallen over or gotten stuck on, so why....

A new thought occurred to him, and Uvo growled lowly to himself as he hoped he wouldn't see what he felt he might when he found you next.

You were back in that clearing, sitting next to your boyfriend's fallen body. Your body was facing the direction Uvo had arrived from, both of your hands in front of you as looked down at your now former lover. There were tears rolling down your cheeks as you sat there.

A wave of disgust hit Uvogin as he found he was correct and was thoroughly disappointed with your actions. He'd given you a chance to get away and you'd wasted it by sitting around crying. Clearly he had given you too much credit.

You heard him as he began to walk towards you, and he noted the way your hands slipped beneath your boyfriend's slightly upturned body, your head still downcast.

He stood across from you, letting out a huff that made you flinch. But still, you didn't move from that spot.

As he opened his jaws your head shot up and you lifted your hands from beneath the body.

Just as you did so, something sprayed into his nose, eyes and his open mouth. Something that stung and made him gag. Fuck it burned, and Uvogin let out a howl of pain as he clutched at his face.

The bear spray-!

Something sharp then dug into the flesh beneath his collarbone, and the pain from the bitter spray was accompanied by the sensation of a knife blade stabbing into him.

With another howl as he was now blinded, he swiped a hand in your general direction and heard you yelp as he simultaneously clawed your shoulder and forced you to the ground. With his hearing now being his greatest sense, he managed to pick up the clatter the bear spray can made as the force of his blow made you drop it, and he moved one of his feet to stomp at it, crushing it and making it useless.

Uvo roared again as he swung about wildly, trying to catch you once more, but you managed to avoid his attacks and made your way into the woods again as he heard your labored breathing and footsteps growing fainter and fainter.

He clutched at his face as he tried to make himself calm down, trying to will away the pain and regain his sense of sight and smell.

…. Not bad.

Even with the rage he had felt in the moment, he found himself relieved, almost happy that you had caught him off-guard. You had gone as far as to use your boyfriend's body as a prop, to make him think that you were too broken up about his death so he would lower his guard. Had you been a bit taller, you could have done a decent amount of damage if you'd managed to stab the knife into his throat.

The knife was still in him, he realized, and after regaining a little bit of his sight in his left eye, he easily pulled it out and threw it across the way.

Now you had no weapons, but he was also at a disadvantage as his eyes were still watering and he could no longer smell you as clearly, the harsh chemicals of the spray making him internally wince every time he breathed through his nose. If he wanted to catch you, he would need to rely almost entirely on his hearing to search for you.

The sounds you were making were quite distant now, but he grinned to himself and stayed there a while longer, letting you get further away.

The direction you were going had no civilization, there was only forest for miles, and he was happy to let you get yourself more and more lost if it meant that his hunt would continue.

By the time dawn was nearing, signaled by the sickly pale color the sky had turned to, Uvogin had managed to chase you further into the wilderness, up through the trees and near the edge of a cliff face. Throughout the night there had been times where you had slowed or stopped completely as you tried to regain your strength, taking advantage of your smaller size and slipping into places that he couldn't easily get to. You also had several brief spurts of energy where you had sped up suddenly, more determined than ever to get away from him while you threw various stones and branches back towards him, though you never tried anything else as bold as you had with your trick from earlier as you didn't allow him to get that close again.

But as you stumbled to the edge of the cliff and looked at the steep drop before you, it was clear to him that your fight was gone. He knew it even before you fell to your knees on the sharp rock. The chase had ended, and just in time, as daylight would be here soon, and when that came he would revert back to his human form.

It had been one of the most memorable hunts he'd had in years, and even though your will had been broken in the process, by now he was certain that he wanted to keep you. To have a little partner in his solitary life, someone to keep his bed warm and wait for him to return home in the evenings. The scenario was nice to think about, and he especially liked the idea of you cuddling up to him during the colder months of the year, trying to keep yourself warm with his body heat to fight the chilly air that would sneak inside. Maybe eventually he'd get you to give him sweet tokens of affection like you'd given to your boyfriend, perhaps a kiss on the cheek before he went out to hunt.

And maybe every once in a while, if you were still insistent on putting up a fight, Uvo might let you out during a full moon and make you think you had a chance to escape, just so he could hunt you down and drag you back to his little home in the woods.

The thought of it gave him chills, and he wondered how long he would need to wait before he could let you out.

You were lightly swaying in place as you looked to the ground below while Uvo was consumed in the thoughts he had about you. He assumed that you were just waiting for him to finish it – your willpower was dried up, and there was no way you would try to run around him or do anything as stupid as try to climb down the cliff face.

He had no clue where your thoughts had taken you in that moment.

Realization shot through him when he saw your shoulders sag and your body began to fall forward over the edge.

Uvo rushed forward and grabbed you by your shoulder before you fell off and he threw you back, a good distance further and far rougher than he had been intending, as you wailed weakly when you hit the ground.

If you were willing to kill yourself to escape him, he'd need to wait some time before letting you run about the woods again.

By now, you were covered in dirt and blood and whatever else had stuck to you from the forest while you had run from him. Your skin was covered in cuts that he and the forest had given you and it would likely be some time before you would be able to properly walk again based off of the state of your feet. When he approached you once more, you clenched your eyes shut again. By now you were past the point of tears and just waited for him to finish you off.

You jolted at the feeling of his fur brushing against your skin when straddled you once more, but just as before, the killing blow you were expecting never came. You opened one eye, and just as you did so, the first rays of the sun shone over the landscape beyond and hit Uvogin.

You watched in silent horror as the fur that covered him caught on fire and began to burn. He was briefly consumed by the flames before they vanished into puffs of smoke. His bones were snapping again, breaking into pieces and retracting back into their normal size while his muscles and skin rippled and shrunk back down, tightening around his fingers as the claws also retracted and vanished beneath the skin. As his wolf face broke apart and reformed, there was a look of shock in your eyes as you saw the beast on top of you become more and more human. And that shock soon turned into a realization when you found that you recognized the man who was on top of you.

His transformation back to his human form was over in a matter of seconds, and when it was over and his green eyes looked back down at you, you stuttered as you tried to find your voice.

“U-Uvogin?” you asked weakly.

He grinned, pleased that you had remembered his name.

Without another word, Uvo leaned down over you so he could begin the process of properly claiming you as his.