[B] He Loves Me (Lost Apathy x Bitter End)

[Ryuukishin]

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/images/blue/lostapathy_ryuuki.gif[/imgright]"He loves me." Crunch. "He loves me not." Crunch. "He loves m—hey!"

Lost Apathy had been plucking the petals off a flower and feeding them to her best friend. With every nibble, its eyes moved further and further from its beak. Usually this made it uncoordinated enough that she could keep her treasures from its grasp, but in this instance it consumed her flower whole.

"Give that back!" She raised the fleshy-colored thing by the long tuft above its eyes and shook. "How else will I know if he loves me?" she asked, the words muffled between fur.

[Maxx]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]

Bitter End has been skulking around all day with a distinct feeling, that sense of duty that became almost predatory in instinct. When she'd distantly happened upon the doe, she knew. She had crept closer as a caiman, gently, quietly, to evaluate the situation before choosing a form to spring upon her...

...and when she had properly sighted the doleful doe and her bizarre pet, her scaly brow furrowed in a mix of disgust and confusion. She heard her words. Her mind had come up with a brilliant retort, which would have delivered much better as an elegant, glowy-eyed mare...but really, she was absorbed in the strangeness of the creature that just ate the sweet doe's flower whole.

Bitter End stepped out, an elegant, glowy-eyed mare, her mouth reciting her brilliant retort, "oh, I'd say he quite likes you, at least," because why else would a glowy-eyed mare come to find a doe?

Certainly not because of that terrible cock-eyed monster, which was currently being shaken around.

( @Ryuukishin bless you, literally)

[Ryuukishin]

Apathy perked up at the words, then immediately became suspicious when she realized it was not a flower talking to her, but a long-legged caiman. She supposed if her caveworm could grow hair and a beak, it wasn't too far-fetched for a caiman to grow legs and also hair.

"How would you know?" She had released her worm but, rather than falling, it remained in the same half-raised position with the help of its powerful and frighteningly muscular legs.

@Maxx

[Maxx]

Though she was clearly suspicious, she seemed sweet, and from her straightforward question, perhaps a little naive. Bitter End was a meanie in general, but found it very hard, in the face of her solemn gaze and question, to say anything especially aggressive or explicit.

She tilted her head and lightly chewed on her lip, reptilian tail swishing gently, before she said, "because...uh...you're...you know...you..."

She shifted from hoof to hoof, momentarily distracted by the upright monster beside the poor doe, before looking back into her sweet face, "night...? Activities...physical...activity...with...him?"

(@Ryuukishin  )

[Ryuukishin]

There was a furrow in Apathy's brow; with every careful, deliberate word, the furrow grew deeper.

"But we do that all the time, night and day. I even try to wait for as many kin to be around as possible so it won't be as boring, but I don't really know if he finds it fulfilling, you know? And it's hard for me too, crying myself hoarse all the time."

Her sigh was sharp enough to fell trees; the furby dropped bonelessly to the ground and lay there with unblinking eyes as she stepped over it to lean her head against the caiman's shoulder.

"I just... I don't know where all these eggs are coming from and we can't seem to get rid of them fast enough. I thought it must've been those frogs, but they can't really have so many, can they?" She had been steadily attempting to cover the caiman in eggs as she spoke. It was true some caiman ate tadpoles, and certainly frogs, but she had been impeccably covert (caiman often rubbed their chins on each other's backs as they conversed, didn't they? Did caiman converse? No matter) and it was her hope the eggs would wash into their new homes whenever the caiman went for a swim, before they grew large enough to seem worth a meal.

"Its awful kind of him to keep me company while we find them parents, though. And we [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] almost every night."

@Maxx (Forgive me. )

[Maxx]

There was quite a bit of headtilting involved throughout her spiel, and Bitter End understood that this doe had took her there, so to speak. Her expressions certainly stretched the limits of her extended scaled brow.

"Well," she said, voice emerging slightly meek, certainly hasty, "if he's keeping you company so very often, uh," she could feel the slimy eggs coating her scales, but at this moment there were so very many things to be occupied with at the back of her mind - the eggs, the stilled furry worm, the extent to which she had misjudged this doe - "certainly he has interest in you. There might be eggs from you yet. It is very likely, what with so much [redact(ing)]."

That may have been a touch crass, but it was all she could handle at the moment.

"For those eggs...what would be your wish?"

She felt a little bunch fall and slide down her twitching tail, her eyes drifting to and fro from the absurdity of it all, from doe, to the creature, and herself.

"...and what is that hideous thing?"
Bitter End's head nodded towards the furry length, distantly.

@Ryuukishin

[Ryuukishin]

"You really think so?" Apathy visibly brightened; her posture was straighter, and eggs fell from her chin with an audible plop. "My wish would be simple: that they wouldn't be tasty! Especially to hungry brutes like this!" She knocked the furby around playfully. "It's a hairy caveworm--getting ready to pupate, I think!"

@Maxx

[Maxx]

All at once her mind raced at the thought of just what this monster could further become, but another part of her - the caveworm part of her - was soothed at the realisation that caveworms themselves did not become a monstrous, mammoth butterfly of sorts. Perhaps, this creature would not.

And yet, she was drawn to the bright, factual, chipper tone of this egg-hoarding doe. That...that should be easy enough to grant. Surely the Motherfather would not...let this...thing...eat...sacs...?

Well, another possible thing to contemplate while accepting her eventual demise.

"May the Motherfather let your sacs be like..." what would...she looked at the rotund shapes drip, "like...oranges, with a bitter pith, but the sweetest, tenderest insides."

She looked at the beaked mouth of the monster, and found that she too, was licking her lips at the thought of oranges.

"No - as inedible as they could be, and sturdy and happy and healthy, and alla that. When you have them. Thank you for sharing."

She gestured vaguely to her slimy covering.

"- and telling me about your hairy caveworm. I've got to tell my swampwitch friend that even the Motherfather makes mistakes."

With a careful nod, she backed out of the good doe's territory, and with just enough caution, turned into a caveworm and skittered away.

@Ryuukishin