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ironheartedfae · 11 months

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Timing: February 2023 Location: Osgood’s Dump Feat: @honeysmokedham & @ironheartedfae Warnings: none! Summary: Nora happens upon Ren’s den. Ren doesn’t like trespassers.

Someone was in Ren’s camp. Bright hot fury pooled in the nymph’s chest. The moment she realized something was different. That the ‘alarms’ she’d laid had been sprung, someone had come in from the south. From the direction of town. Someone was in Ren’s Camp. And they were still there. The tiny fae crept in, knives at the ready, only to find a small hunched figure casually drawing on one of the more mobile rocks. A piece of slate, one that Ren often used and reused like a chalkboard. One that had a study of a particularly interesting pinecone on it when she’d seen it last.

And now? Now there was this stranger, dark messy hair in stark contrast to the snow and bleached winter wood. She should have jumped at her. Taken the first opportunity to strike. She hadn’t been spotted, not yet. Something stayed her hand though. Kept the fire at a dull roiling roar rather than a blazing inferno that bursted outward. Kept her ten feet back and glaring rather than driving the twin blades into the tresspasser’s back.

“Who are you? What are you doing in my camp?” The words echoed through the hollow woods. Sounding like they’d come from something much larger than the five foot nothing Ren who didn’t exactly cut an intimidating figure. Scaring something away with words wasn’t exactly her strong suit. Action, quick and decisive, was. And yet, she stood still. Asked for answers she knew she wouldn’t like. All because this stranger was drawing too.

— Snow dusted everything as far as the eyes could see. Nora had gone to plenty of places with snow during her two years of travel, but she was still unsure how she felt about subjecting herself to the cold substance that melted in her boots and caused her toes to freeze. Part of her reminded her that she was a polar bear. She was meant to be in the cold, but why did her human form shake so violently? Nora was unsure if she was going to stay in this area. The friend she made, a dog with tentacles, had seemed like he wanted her to stay. It was a lot to think about. Nora decided she would explore the area to decide.

Coming across the dump had been a mistake. At first Nora had thought it was just a regular dump, Nora had been walking along a row of cars when she noticed a shelter made out of metal. This was someone's house. Nora was no stranger to breaking and entry, and finding herself on someone's prosperity sounded no alarms within her. However, seeing art drawn in charcoal against the frame of everything did open something in her. It was beautiful. It was a collection of different pieces, but together they made something grander. Nora knew she wanted to contribute. To be a small part in a larger work. To be a part of. That would be nice.

Nora sat next to the shelter, fishing a pen out of her jacket and started drawing. Nora was lost in her creation, she never smelled the person's approach. When the voice spoke, she paused, lifting the pen away and turning to look. A giant insect stood before her. It was settled. At that moment. Nora would stay in this town. Between the tentacle dog and a humanoid insect, Nora was surrounded by fellow monsters. Nora knew she could make a home here. “Hey.” Nora turned back to her drawing. “I’m Nora.” Fuck. She was going to need to get better at not giving her name if she planned on staying in one place. “I’m drawing.” Nora leaned closer to make sure she got in some details. Now that she’d seen the insect, Nora knew she’d have to add to the portrait. “Sick camp. Did you draw all of this?”

–

Nora. The name tumbled about in Ren’s head for a moment as the entomid tried to process what she should do here. The other girl was calm in a way the fae didn’t think she’d really ever been. Always too on edge to just be anywhere fully. Always half distracted by everything else around her. Looking for a way out, looking for a way in, looking for weaknesses in herself and everyone else. It was a constant stress, something this Nora didn’t seem to share.

The other girl was drawing. Said so casually, like it didn’t matter. Like she hadn’t just waltzed into somewhere she shouldn’t be. She had been sitting in Ren’s camp and she was just drawing. Almost in sync with the phrasing Nora had used, Ren’s stomach turned sour at the thought. Taking up that much space that clearly was in use by someone else. Not owned. Ren didn’t get to own anything. Not really. But still.

The uneasiness showed very clearly on the nymph’s face. Even un-glamored as Nora saw. Twitchy antennae sat just above two massive compound eyes, appearing to dart this way and that as Ren surveyed the scene. She looked like something from a sci-fi movie. Like a humanoid praying mantis. (currently) all greens and pale blues. Her shoulders heaved with the strained breaths she was taking in trying to remain any kind of calm. A calmness that wouldn’t keep if she actually knew how well the other could see her.

“I–” Words caught on her tongue, scrambled up in her chest and didn’t seem to want to release their stranglehold. Not in the way she wanted. “I drew them, yes.” Why did she answer? “Because is my camp.” As if in response to her surprising response. Had to let the anger out somehow. It wasn’t like the drawings were meant to be warnings or anything like that. Or really anything at all. They weren’t that deep. Just images that flooded the nymph’s mind and wouldn’t quit until they had been realized in some kind of physical medium.

—

Nora's back was firmly turned against the insect, her hand steadily working away at the small portrait she was working on. It wasn't detailed, it was figure shaped, artistically etched into the side. In the time it took the insect to answer, Nora had added her, standing next to Nora and Babadook on a little hill, her antennae marking her as not human. Perhaps Nora should give herself bear ears. To show she was just as much as a monster. Nora turned from her little etching and turned her eyes to the insect.

The way she'd said my had been telling. It was common for people finding Nora in their spaces to get annoyed, which left Nora unphased by it. "Look, I drew us." If Nora had more time, maybe she could have something detailed, something that really captured them both instead of vague figures. Nora would love to draw an insectoid human. She was cool, beautiful even. It reminded Nora of someone from her past, someone who she forced herself not to think about often.

"I won't stay at your camp for long," Nora added, moving away so the other girl could come closer to see what she drew without having to be near Nora. "I was just passing through, saw some art, and wanted to contribute. You know, be part of something big." Nora started to stretch out her limbs, There were many things she could have said. I'm new in town. Why are you staying in a dump? How long have you been an insect? But Nora didn't ask anything. She let silence fall between them as she stood there stretching, trying to decide where to go next.

—

Curiosity melted quickly into fear as Ren realized what was on the page. Her hands went up to her head, taking the time to switch from the long spiked forelimbs to something more… touchable. Had she slipped? Were her sins on display? Why did this girl know about the antennae and why did she draw them? Worse still, she was being far too calm about it all. Nora’s demeanor never really shifted, never cracked. In a way, Ren wished she could do the same. Wished her panic didn’t show so clearly every time it reared its ugly head.

Nora drew the antennae, and acted like it wasn’t a bad thing. Or much of a thing at all. There was a logical conclusion to draw from that. She’d seen others like Ren. She was comfortable around things like Ren. The other girl might not have been fae, Ren would’ve known if she was, but she was something.

“Is not group activity.” She scowled. Though, if that particular expression showed through the carapace that Nora was seeing, who could say? “But–” Damnit why did she start up again, why did she want to keep talking? Ren was furious, but also… curious too. “Is not bad. What you have done. Trespassing yes, drawing no.” The nymph never really met anyone else who liked to draw. Maybe that’s why her heart felt so conflicted. Maybe that’s why she let herself move a little closer. Get well within striking distance, a stupid risk to take. If this Nora wasn’t human there was every chance she was stronger than Ren was. Every chance this was all a trap of some kind.

“Are you–” Phrasing. So hard to keep track of. “Living in place near here? Or also just pass through?”

—

What Nora didn't understand about reading people's - or in this case bug's- expressions she made up for by her smell. Fear wafted from the insect, a strong scent of heavy rain, grass, and smoke. Nora tilted her head examining the carapace with increasing curiosity. People being scared of her wasn't an uncommon reaction. In fact, it was the reaction she looked for from most people. What she didn't understand was why a fellow monster was scared of her? Nora looked down at herself. Dressed in all black patchy clothes, covered in dirt and grime, smelly sure - she hadn't gotten access to a shower in a long time- but it was just Nora. Well. Just Nora was something to be scared of. She wouldn't fault the other for that.

"There are no no trespassing signs." Nora pointed out, hands shoved back in her pocket as she looked around. "Thanks though. I like art. Can I draw you sometime?" Oh. Nora had combat boots on. Maybe when she stood up the bug saw the big heavy boots and thought Nora was going to step on her? Nora was an inch taller, if at all. Shorter than her if they were counting the Antennae. How would Nora get her leg that far up to squish? Or was it the snake in Nora's pocket? Nora didn't think, she paused checking in her pockets to see which friend had come along. Nora didn't think Motley was big enough to eat her.

"I think I'm going to stay here," Nora answered. "Just got here the other week. It seems cool." Nora shrugged. "What about you? This is your forever off-grid camp?" Nora was careful with her distance from the insect, to avoid further threats. Nora was all about terrorizing the locals, but there would always be a part of her that didn't want to be the only monster. If she could befriend another... Well. She just thought it would be nice to not be alone anymore. Like back in New York, with... Nora cut herself off. That memory hurt too much to keep thinking about.

Nora leaned against an abandoned car, one leg coming up to rest against the tire. "You said just camp? So not home?"

—

“Is it not enough that is occupied?” No trespassing. Hmm. Ren hadn’t heard the phrase before. From context she could get the meaning, but was it really that powerful of a saying? Would it actually keep people out? With an awkward shuffle, Ren decided to include that on the outskirts of the camp. Maybe make some signs and what not.

The mix of emotions running through the nymph settled like a swarm of bees. Never quite still enough to be solid, buzzing with the indecision of it all. Another question, another thing to set off fear inside her. This Nora had seen the antennae enough to throw it on the hasty drawing she’d done in the few seconds between meeting and the show and tell. What else would she notice about Ren if she were to sit for an actual drawing? “I do not know how I feel about this.” Another honest answer. Nora was quite adept at pulling them from the nymph. “But… perhaps?”

The shack back at the compound never felt this… lonely. It was, but it wasn’t at the same time. Darya would be there for training every few days. And Ren would occasionally get to venture inward to the center, where familiar faces and their mixed reactions to her waited for whatever lesson she was going to be a part of that day. Wicked’s Rest wasn’t like that. It was vast and empty, despite being full of people. Nobody looked at Ren here. In a way, it was worse than being judged. Worse than being looked down on. She was supposed to be invisible, taking information and destroying monsters without a trace. So why did it feel so bad to remain unseen?

For a second, Ren misunderstood. ‘Staying here’ directly contradicted the early statement of ‘just passing through’. Guess she meant the greater ‘here’ as in town. Hopefully. Alone was better. It was easier. Right? “Been… in area for several weeks. Place is serviceable for now. No need for home or anything like this.”

—

"I've only met one other monster before." Nora's head tilted to the other side. "I don't look like one. But I am. I'm a bear." Nora didn't like her bear. Nora hated her bear. Her bear was the trace of everything that had gone wrong in her life, but she wanted to accept it. She'd spent the last two years walking as a bear to try and accept it. It wasn't working, but maybe if she told this other monster... She'd never told Cass. They'd simply never talked about it. "You're cool, you know?" This wasn't some pickup line or anything. It was staring at someone who was so fundamentally different than anyone she'd ever met, and being in awe. She hoped it wasn't weird. "The way your wings capture the light behind it." Nora paused. She could go on, about the shade of the exoskeleton, the way the antennae moved, the reflection in her eyes. "It's just really cool."

"How do you keep humans from reacting to you?" Nora asked. It was a question that had haunted her for a year now. She wished she'd asked Cass. With Cass, it always seemed like there would be more time. Nora would be able to ask tomorrow, or when the opportunity came. But then there wasn't a tomorrow, and the opportunity slipped past her when she was forced to leave Cass behind. It was now or never, right?

Nora nodded as the insect talked about being here for several weeks. Nora could relate. There wasn't a need for a home. She'd been traveling around and staying in odd places. Hell, she'd settled down in a crypt here. Just another young adult trying to find themselves in the world, Nora figured. They were two peas in a pod. Two homeless monsters meet in the woods. It was the setup to a joke that Nora didn't know the punchline to. The punchline was probably them, being monsters in a world of humans.

It felt weird to keep referring to her as the insect. Obviously she was more than that, she was a universe of her own creation, containing a life that Nora knew nothing about. She was more than the simple word insect. “What’s your name?” Nora probed, hoping to put a name to the constellation before her.

—

If indecision and stagnation felt like a living hive, this felt like a lightning bolt. Ren had to look over herself to make sure that her glamor was in fact, intact. Her heartbeat was racing to a crescendo. A chaotic symphony of unpleasant tones and fears and thoughts all swirling in her mind. The stranger could see through, somehow. Not just bits. The whole of her. No one ever saw her like that. Darya perhaps. The other hunters who had found her as a babe, and that’s it. Freshly thrown out by the others who looked like her, who were the monsters she feared she’d become. The monster she’d been accused of being now. No, that wasn’t right either. Nora was correct. She hadn’t said anything wrong, she just didn’t know what it meant to the nymph. Didn’t know the weight it carried.

“I am not–” Rushed, nowhere to go. Words running off the side of the cliff like the coyote in those old cartoons. Hanging in the air for an angry moment before falling to the wayside. “I am–” She was. She was a monster. And apparently so was Nora. A bear. Bugbear? Maybe. “I am not cool.” That was the best she could settle on. The only thing that wasn’t a lie. The only thing that wouldn’t make her stomach hurt worse than it already was. “Bear is… better. Than Bug.” At least Nora wasn’t fae. Monsters were monsters, but fae were abominations. Ren didn’t like feeling like she was floundering. She didn’t like not knowing exactly what to do. She was mad and she wanted to make Nora stay. She wanted her to leave so badly, but she also wanted to know more about her.

If it was for research, Ren reasoned with herself, it would be okay. To talk. To get close. She’d never really been close with someone before. This wouldn’t be so different. Not when she’d have to keep the other monster at arm's length. Never really letting her or anyone know how she really felt. “People cannot see usually. You are different. I–” Ren flexed the magic weave over her skin. It always had such a strange sensation, but it was honestly all she was used to. Even when she was completely alone she never let the guise fail. In a way, it felt like lying. To herself. Like she could ever really pass as human. Maybe that’s why she always felt just a little sick all the time. “I do not know why this is. Others see me as girl. Like you but different. Red hair I think.”

Should she? Tell this stranger her name? As far as the nymph could tell, the bear had been honest. Open. Strangely calm, but kind. Not at all monstrous. But few knew better than the fae that looks could be deceiving. “Ren. You can refer to me as Ren.”

—

The grass was always greener on the other side, right? Nora stared blankly at the insect, Ren, the name she would soon learn. Bear was better than bug? Months from now Nora would discover that the name for what she was is Bugbear, which would have made that statement funny. Bug was in her name, but only the bear was present. Her kind must have thought that a bear was better than a bug. But in this moment, at this time, the only thing Nora could think about was the grass must look greener on the other side. No one was ever happy with what they were.

A shrug. "If you say so." There was no point arguing about it. They didn't need to get into the nitty gritty of the facts. Nora still didn't know the facts of what she was. Maybe bear was better than bug and there was a long standing rank system that Nora had never been taught. There was a world of information out there and she knew none of it. She was swimming blind in this world, she didn't want to start doing it competitively.

"Oh." Nora blinked. People couldn't see. What a simple and dumb answer. No wonder the people of New York hadn't stopped and gawked at Cass. They hadn't seen how beautifully bright and wonderful she was. They - No. Nora took herself away from those thoughts. She would never see Cass again, it hurt too much to think of her. Nora had fucked that up anyway, just like she fucked up everything else. "People don't see." Nora repeated. "Guess that makes sense. Humans would be scared of you." Humans were weak, weren't they? Always scared of anything they didn't understand. Nora wondered if she should make a bug illusion some time. Just for fun. To see what would happen. "They're scared of anything different." That was a last minute addition. Nora had realized it could sound rude to say humans were scared of you. While meant as a compliment in Nora's eyes, she was coming to understand that not everyone wanted to be the most terrifying creature in the room.

"Ren." The name fit right, flipping off Nora's tongue. It was better than calling her a bug or insect in her mind. She was Ren. Just Ren. "Well, It's good to meet you Ren."

—

“I do say.” Ren confirmed. In her mind, there was no contest. For all the things she’d been taught, anything was better than being a fae. A bear could exist in the wild and not bother people. Shifters didn’t have to feed off trickery and mischief in the way that so many fae did. Didn’t gain power from binding humans against their will. Shifters stayed in packs. They didn’t abandon their young before they could even take care of themselves. Though… If that was true, why was this one on her own? Drifting through Wicked’s Rest, staying in a… what had she said, crypt? Maybe it was choice. Or maybe she was just old enough that she could venture out. Find a new pack.

A bitter pit pushed Ren’s stomach closer to the earth below. Her eyes fixated on the pine needles and decomposing leaves that blanketed the ground near her feet. “They should fear me.” Regretfully. Angrily. Mournfully. Most days the nymph wished she could be just about anything else. “My kind are not good to… be around.” In all the research and learning she’d done about the fae, Entomae like her seemed exceptionally rare. Even in the wild they might hunt other fae. Solitary creatures of destruction and murder. Ambush predators like the bugs they represented. Maybe it’d just been oversight that Ren had been left behind, maybe it hadn’t been malicious. It wasn’t something she could dwell on. Not really. The feelings it stirred were too much to contain in her tiny chest.

It was… good to meet her? Ren frowned. There was something to communication she never really understood, some unseen line between what was supposed to be said, and what people meant. Was this just a pleasantry? Some courtesy you were supposed to say whenever you met someone and it seemed like your time was coming to a close? Or did she mean it? And why?

“You should leave now.” If there was a response owed, Ren didn’t know it. However, leaving it at that sounded too harsh, too final. She knew she did not understand the other girl, but something in her wanted to. Wanted to know more about her, what she really meant by just about anything she said. She seemed knowledgeable and more kind than most people Ren had run into so far. You had to be kind to be able to see Ren for what she was and still want to talk. “But perhaps… we may see each other around this town?”

—

Ren was adamant that bear was better than bug. That people should fear her. In Ren, Nora found something she'd never seen before. Another monster of terror. Nora wondered if Ren also fed off of fear. It had missed Nora completely, the bitterness in the words, the tinge of sadness. Monsters were made to be feared, in Nora's mind. That was the staple of everything Nora lived off of. That was where she got her meals from. "They do fear me." Nora answered. An illusion flickered over her face of a bear screaming in anger. Nora did her best to make it as scary as possible. A treat. A gift from one monster to another.

Just like that Nora was being excused. A nod. Yea, that was fair. She'd trespassed on this campsite long enough. Nora pushed herself off the car she'd been leaning on, a whistle piercing the air. Babadook materialized from the forest behind her. "Time to leave." Nora told her newest companion. Another monster in the group of them. "We'll see each other again." Nora decided. The town wasn't small, but it certainly wasn't big enough to hide in. Wasn't it better for monsters to stick together? Probably.

"Keep warm." It was the last words Nora said, she wasn't even facing Ren as she said them. Instead, she'd turned her back on the fellow monster and was headed off into the tree line. A lazy hand swung up, a lazy wave goodbye, before she disappeared into the forest and the two of them started their trip back to the crypt. It was getting too cold to stay outside. They were going to need to steal a space heater or something, anything, to keep the crypt from being cold in the winter. A yawn forced itself out of Nora's mouth. There was just something about the winter that made Nora so tired. She felt like she could nap for hours.

Nora did nap for hours when they arrived back at the crypt. Nora napped for hours and she had dreams of living in a community with fellow monsters. Ren and Cass were there along with a myriad of other monsters her mind populated, some she'd used as illusions to scare people before, and some she would go on to use to scare new people. It was a happy dream. Hopefully one day it would be her reality.

#wickedswriting #honeysmokedham #ironheartedfae #keep warm

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