Destroy All Monsters lived a very simple life. There was a lot of eating, sleeping and wanton destruction. The world he had been born into was very breakable for someone as large as he and nothing was more satisfying than crunching, stomping and knocking over anything that got in his way.

He had also discovered, very recently (IC’ly a least lol), that he had a love of fishing. Of course he’d always enjoyed swimming and chomping on fish but it wasn’t until he was casually showing up other kin with just how many he could catch, that he realised just how fun it was.

He hadn’t caught the most but that was because he found himself sluggish in the cold and after devouring that many fish he would often nap for a day or so. But now that the winter market was over and there was no longer a reason to be there, Destroy All Monsters was heading back to the ocean.

There were plenty more fish to terrorize there.

And so along he went, knocking over anything that had the misfortune of being in front of where he was walking.

[imgright]http://www.matope-swamp.com/images/maxx ... uncert.png[/imgright]Once Broken was an excellent soldier, and an even more excellent scout, because, ever since he was stomped flat as a child, he had become very, very good at keeping out of the way. He had stealthily followed this buck for miles now, silently creeping through the lush growth of the Swamp, and he wished he could say he was doing this because the kiokote was a deadly mark, a danger to others, but the truth was that he was following him because:

He was the hunkiest hunk of a monster buck he'd ever seen.

Once Broken had spent a lot of time during the Winter Market fishing up absolutely nothing, because he had been too busy staring at this hunky buck snap up fish in his jaws like the terror he was, water cascading through the impressive spikes down his back, trickling past his rippling muscles...

...This hunky monster buck kinda made him...want to be...uh...twice broken.

So he was stalking him home.

@Ruriska

Destroy All Monsters was completely unaware that he was being trailed by an admirer. Either the Totoma was indeed very sneaky or the Kiokote just didn’t care to pay that much attention to his surroundings. It was probably both.

Why be on the lookout when nobody had no hope of being a threat anyway? Anyone could see that Destroy was large enough to handle even the most aggressive of kin or beasts.

So completely oblivious, he travelled on, unwittingly leading Once Broken to his home as slipped from one wet marsh to another, knocking over bushes and generally being the easiest kin in the whole Swamp to follow.

Eventually the swampier swampland took on a more windswept shrubland look, where the storms driven in from the ocean hit the hardest and the going was tough. This was where many a kin would turn back or at least take a break but not Destroy.

He never broke stride, unless it was stomp on something that looked breakable.

@Jun

Well, it was certainly harder to hide in the foliage when the foliage was getting more and more sparse, but the buck didn't seem to notice him darting from bush to smaller bush behind him, so the operation was still on. It seemed that they were headed towards the ocean, and it did concern him, because what he knew about the shore seemed to suggest it would be fairly hard to sneak around nothing but bare stretches of sand.

But he couldn't stop now. The thought of seeing the kiokote wade into the crashing ocean waves was making him...very...thirsty...so he'd better get to the sea or he'd never find enough water to quench that thirst. Don't drink that, Once Broken

@Ruriska (I'm sorry it took me forever to get back to you with this nonsense XD)

The way to the ocean was a long one and eventually Destroy All Monsters was forced to stop and rest, finding himself a muddy hole or puddle to sleep in through the night. Then the next morning, he would be back at it again.

Time passed, the sun turned, the moon sunk - and finally Destroy All Monsters was back where he belonged. Standing on a sand dune, watching the ocean roll in to crash angrily against the shore. Dark clouds on the horizon and frenzied wind promised quite the storm. He grinned, nostrils flared to take in as much of that salty scent as he could.

And not once, not even a single time, had he looked back and noticed the Totoma.

@Jun (lol all good, sorry this is such a nothing reply. godzilla rolled a nat 1 on all his perception rolls)

Majestic. Simply majestic. To watch the massive kiokote standing supreme in his natural habitat was akin to seeing the face of the Motherfather herself. It made the onerous journey to the ocean worth it, every tiny shrub to hide behind, every muddy pit to shrink into...Once Broken regretted not a single second.

Although, the beach was as bare as he'd feared, and he could only pretend to be a rock amongst the sand dunes for so long. Carefully, he began to sneak towards the sea. He could hold his breath for quite some time, so if he ducked under the waves, the fin on his back, he imagined, would camouflage him as an ordinary fish of some description...and it would be nice to wash off all the mud...that was now caked in sand...

(Maybe he regretted all those muddy pits a little bit.)

@Ruriska (those are the best rolls u3u<3)

As thunder rumbled ominously, he stretched his lengthy body, unwittingly showing off every smooth muscle as he worked the kinks out of his back and legs.

It was time for a swim.

There was nothing better than feeling the violent riptide and the trembling sea as a storm built on the horizon.

Destroy All Monsters strode down towards the water, waves crashing against his chest as he forced his way forward until he was just a dark shape in the water marked by tall spines.

( @Jun time to go fishing )

For a moment, Once Broken was not a kin. He was merely a cloud of consciousness, put on this earth by the Motherfather to witness the glory of the kiokote striding into the sea, an unstoppable force even in the face of nature clashing and crashing off his indomitable form.

But he was a kin after all, because he wanted more.

Carefully, silently, he crept towards the shore, and slid into the tide. Then he was not a kin again, but a fish.

Yes. Just an ordinary fish. With every right to glide into the ocean, close as he could to this glorious beast.

@Ruriska

Destroy All Monsters could be described in many different ways; strong, powerful, fierce, hungry. However, smart was not one of them. Not that he was stupid but his intelligence was a primal one, that cared only for his base desires and little more.

One of which, the aforementioned hunger, was a need he had partially ignored during his forced march to the ocean. So when he finally noticed that there was something (not somebody) nearby, a large darker shape amongst the waves and the hint of a fin, it did not occur to him that this might not be food.

Of course it was food.

And it would make for a big meal for a very hungry fellow.

It wouldn’t be the first time he had wrestled a larger toothy finned sea beast to the death and so there was no hesitation as he turned towards it, propelling himself through the churning water towards his prey.

@Jun

This fearsome beast powering towards him was everything he'd ever wanted, and, for a moment, Once Broken almost surrendered himself to the inevitability of being a fish.

But some sense of self-preservation sharply honed by being smushed to paste by his sister as a foal survived, after all, and he veered out of the Kiokote's path at the last, rearing from the waves to show himself as a kin.

Of course, he couldn't tell him he had been stalking him.

So he decided to lie.

"I was here first," he said.

Destroy All Monsters was very disgruntled. Upon realizing that his intended dinner was not all that edible (he wasn’t that hungry just yet), he came to a halt, bobbing uselessly in the waves, his stomach growling.

His brow furrowed.

“And I’m here now,” he replied.

Because he was, which kind of negated anything else.

Hm.

"Yes," he said, "you are."

At least he hadn't called him out.

Nevertheless, it was time to change tack.

"I haven't caught any fish," he said, "even though I've been here all day. Are the fish here hard to catch?"

@Ruriska

In the long silence that followed, a seagull cawed mournfully and the dark clouds blew closer.

Eventually he grunted out, “no.”

And then he swam away.

At first it seemed as if he was leaving but then he turned and began paddling in a wide circle, head down, clearly searching for something. Around and around tirelessly as the waves rolled around him, then he ducked beneath the waves, disappearing from sight.

More time passed, longer than comfortable for anyone watching.

Until finally his dark shape appeared alongside the Totoma and his head broke the surface, sea water streaming down his face and neck, nostrils flaring to drag in the air lost from the dive, a large fish clamped triumphantly between his jaws. He held it out, clearly showing off.

You’ve been here all day and couldn’t catch anything? Well, check this out! His gaze read.

If Destroy All Monsters had wanted someone to gape, astounded - if he had wanted someone to stare with unbridled lust awe and veneration as he exploded from the water, head high, muscles rippling, his trophy aloft, he got it.

"Magnificent," Once Broken breathed.

And he seemed pretty good at catching fish, too.

Destroy All Monsters did indeed want that and was quite satisfied with the result.

He snorted sea water from his nose, getting snot all over his prize and in a horribly violent show of strength, bit the large fish in half, guts spilling out messily as he thrashed his head back and forth. As the back half plopped into the waves, Destroy nudged it in the Totoma’s direction with his nose.

He had magnanimously decided to share.

The fish tail bobbed in the waves while Destroy consumed the head with a big crunch and a lot of teeth.