What's your favorite bug/arachnid? I personally love Bold Jumpers, my runner-up arachnids are the Brazilian Jewel tarantula, Pink-toed tarantula, and a few select Orb Weavers (long-horned + spiny back). I think my general favorite among bugs would be the Orchid mantis/Spiny Flower mantis, Death's-head Hawkmoth, Luna Moth, Silk Moth... There's a lot of them 🫣
Oh theres too many to choose from!! Aa, I also love a Bold Jumper, I had one as a pet in high school. I'm really fond of cicadas, didn't have them growing up so now that I've moved somewhere with cicadas theyre quite a fun novelty (plus they're cute). Adore me some moths too, lunas and atlases are beautiful, I like tiger moths in general too.
Across the hall neighbor came over tonight to spray and bait my kitchen (he works for pest control and discovered we're both dealing with roaches that he believes an upstairs neighbor brought in, and he's been fighting with the property management company, who are dragging their feet about handling the issue. Neighbor: "They were like, 'Well we'd have to have the whole building treated…' I'm like, 'Well yeah, no shit?' But they made me so mad I just said fuck it, I'm stealing shit from work and dealing with this myself. Hopefully we're getting ahead of it before it gets too bad for you. I'm in roach hell over on my side.")
(Finding out there are roaches in my home IS in fact why I had a panic attack and ended up crying in the middle of my kitchen the other night, and why l've been moving around my apartment in a heightened state of fear ever since)
ANYWAY. He brought his older daughter, who loves cats and really wanted to meet Sushi. I can't tell a 6-year-old that my cat hates children and would bite her in a heartbeat, so I said, "oh, well, she's a little shy, but we might be able to find her." So my poor, suffering cat not only had to deal with a man in her home, but also a child. The two things she hates the most. And the man was here to kill the roaches, which she's been enjoying batting around like soccer balls. A horrible situation all around, in Sushi's life.
Before they left, the daughter insisted that they both say goodbye to the cat (neighbor, kindly: “honey, I think the kitty might be a little overwhelmed, it’s usually just her and Erin here, she’s not used to all this commotion…” daughter, assertive: “daddy. say goodbye to her.”), and while we were in the living room, he looked around at the art on my walls and complimented it, then saw this:
and said, “Wait, what’s this?” I said, “Oh, uh, it’s, they’re just wrestlers…” He said, “Who are they?” I said, “The Young Bucks…” He went, “Hang on…” and looked back at the Hangman/Swerve poster, the Bray Wyatt plaque, the Kris Statlander sketch. “Oh damn, you like wrestling a lot!” Meanwhile, I was drowning in that familiar shame, wishing so badly I could hide everything that I enjoy before this stranger could judge me or mock me. I was starting to feel real anxiety creep in, like I was genuinely being hunted for sport because this man was looking so intently at my wrestling art. I was like, “Haha, yeah.” He told me his wife does too, and that she tries to hide it from him but he thinks it’s neat. “I’m really into anime and Magic. We all have our things. I never want her to feel bad about what she likes. This is great, can I tell her you’re a wrestling fan? Maybe she’ll stop feeling as embarrassed.” I said sure, meanwhile his daughter was studying the Scream posters in my dining room and going, “Whoaaaaa, daddy, look at this! Cool.”
And I realized that like. Nobody is ever going to be as mean to me about my interests as I imagine they will be, or as mean as people like my dad were for my entire life. These things are cool to me and sometimes they’re cool to other people, too.
i KNOW i said I wouldnt make anymore original posts about them but guys.
they aren't walking on their legs very much. guys they are wiggling. they are scooting and wiggling like bugs. the legs are hands for holding things and sewing and maybe slight movements. they are pushing themselves with their thick body muscles. like grubs. grubs do not walk on their front feet v much they push themselves with their backsides and wriggle.
their main locomotion is flight and small pushing movements.
I woke up and in a daze decided I wanted Hush to have antennae (thanks to the many posts I've seen about him being a very cute insect lol /pos) so here is some fluff of doc and hush and insects.
CW: discussion of insects and insomnia but nothing too in depth and the only insect described is a rosy maple moth.
As always here it is on ao3 if that's easier! And my requests are open (tho no NSFW and MDNI pls and ty!) Please do not feed to AI, claim as your own, or repost to other platforms without my permission. The characters belong to Redacted Audio and this is a fan work. Hope you enjoy!
₊˚ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ˚₊
By all means waking up at 2am isn't unusual for Doc. Typically there's a relatively mundane reason - insomnia, nightmare, bathroom breaks, insomnia again. Recently however the reasons very quickly became, well-
“Doc?” Hush’s eyes catch and reflect the light of a passing car as he stands over their bed, looking down at them unmoving. “Are you awake?”
“Ah fuck!” Doc startles and falls off the bed at Hush’s feet. Face down on the floor brings consciousness flooding into their mind with a sharp pain as they land on their nose. “...ow.”
“Oh no.” Hush picks them up effortlessly and delicately places them back on the bed. “You do seem to be awake, even if you got up strangely.”
Doc rubs their nose, trying to ease the ache. “Hush, why were you standing over my bed at-” they blearily look at their phone, blinking at the bright light, “-2:24am?”
“I wanted to see you.” He says simply, “but you were asleep. May I?” He gestures to their nose, seemingly quite worried about it.
Doc shrugs, “Alright, it's not that bad though.”
“It looks like it hurts though.” Hush frowns as he gently runs his thumb down their face. “I don't want you hurting.”
Cool relief spreads out from where the pad of his thumb meets their skin and Doc visibly relaxes into the touch as the pain fades, their nose as good as new.
“Thank you Hush. I thought you didn't need to touch to heal?”
“I don't. But I like touching you, you're warm and nice.”
They flush at the praise, still unaccustomed to his sincerity. “Is this why you were standing over my bed staring at me?”
He nods emphatically, they fight down the urge to bite his cheek at how adorable it is.
“Why didn’t you wake me up, you know I’m always happy to see you.” They say through a yawn, turning on the lamp next to their bed.
“On average, a healthy human adult needs 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.” He recites, “You do not do that, I wanted to wait until you were finished with your cycle.”
“I try.” They cross their arms defensively.
“I wanted to ask you about bugs, but now you are upset with me.” He looks disappointed, a small pout on his face. “I’m sorry.”
Doc sighs fondly, reaching for his hand and pulling him on the bed next to them. “I’m not actually upset, I’m just sleepy and sleep is… difficult.” They force the honesty out, something they’re not used to; but Hush is good to practice with and it feels truly refreshing.
“I can put you to sleep with magic, if you’d like?” Hush immediately gravitates to rest on them, tucking himself behind them, resting his chin on their shoulder. His hands never stop moving, tracing the veins from the back of their hand up to their elbow and back down again.
They shake their head, “I’ve missed you, you’ve been gone for a while.”
“But fatigue and sleep deprivation has been associated with various health risks such as-”
Doc stops him with a finger to his lips, “nope, you are not giving me a list of things to be anxious about. We are looking at bugs.”
Hush seems torn between wanting to convince Doc to sleep more and the tantalising offer of bugs. “...Only if you sleep afterwards.” He eventually concludes as the most effective way of getting Doc to rest.
It was just a lucky coincidence he also got to discuss bugs with them.
“Deal.” They hold out their free hand to shake his.
He looks at it puzzled for a moment, before sweetly taking it in his with a smile, pressing a kiss to their knuckles.
Doc can’t help from laughing, even if they are a little flustered.. “Where on Earth did you learn that?”
“In a library. I read books on relationships and flirting. I wanted to get better at expressing interest, like you did when you kissed me.”
The thought is sweet but then they remember the last time they visited the local library. “Oh gods, which book?”
“Many. Very strange some of the fiction that has been created.” He hums pensively.
Doc shudders as a rotating stock of questionable romance fiction titles flash through their brain, and they silently pray that Hush never comes across Edward Cullen.
“So… bugs?” He asks hopefully after the horrified silence shows no sign of ending.
They nod and extract themselves from his grasp, still holding his hand however, and make their way over to the messy bookshelf. They scan the rows of books, while Hush contentedly watches them.
“Aha!” They pull off an imposing and heavy book, and sit back down on the bed, still pulling Hush along with them, neither one wanting to break contact.
Resting in their lap is a large encyclopedia of animals, they’d picked it up their first day of moving out years ago now. It had been an impulsive attempt to prove their adulthood and freedom, that they were grateful for now as they see Hush light up curiously at the sight.
“What did you wanna know?”
“They have extra limbs that I would like to try.” He waits impatiently for them to open the book, not providing any explanation.
They flick to the insect section and it opens to a page on moths. Hush takes in the information greedily. He scans the page and points to a particularly fluffy one in the corner with pink and yellow wings and bright fuzzy antennae.
“I like those. This one will do.” And a pair of matching pink antennae appear on his head.
Doc does a double take. “You can do that?”
“Of course I can Doc, I told you before my shape is fluid.”
“It’s different seeing it up close!” They peer up at them, tenderly reaching a hand to brush against them.
“Do you like them?”
“Does it matter?”
“To me - yes, very much. I… shouldn’t care what you think. But I do. I want you to like how I look.” For once his expression is clear on his face and his tone much more vulnerable. Deviation from his purpose was still something he was treading the waters in, but they felt more shallow with his Doc.
“I always think you look wonderful, Hush.” Doc mimics his earlier action, kissing his knuckles.
“Oh. I see why this was popular in the books.” He mumbles to himself, as he watches them raptly.
They smile at his bashfulness and their gaze drops to the heavy book in their lap, and they can’t fight off the question. “Not that I’m complaining, but couldn’t you have just read this book like you normally do?”
“Yes. I like it with you a lot more though. I missed you.”
Their heart skips a beat and they’re nearly speechless for a moment. “I missed you too Hush.” They reply quietly, stifling another yawn.
“Now you promised to sleep so-” and he ever so slowly pushes them back down onto the bed. “-now you rest.”
“But there’s so many more animals we could look at! You could get feathers like a peacock or ooh a tail. There are some awesome lizard tails that are made of beautiful scales and-”
He cuts them off with a reproachful look midway through putting the encyclopedia back on the shelf. “You promised Doc. I want you to be healthy.”
They snort, relenting, “okay okay. Join me?” They try to hide the hope in their voice that he will stay tonight, even if they know they’ll have to wake to empty sheets. They’re determined to make the most of the time they have together, but cannot fight the insistent tug of sleep.
He slides in next to them without protest, smiling at their laughter, pulling up the covers over them both. “I would like to hold you, even if I don’t sleep.”
“I would like that very much.” They whisper, and he tucks them into his arms.
He’s warm. They think fondly, and allow themselves the illusion that this will last forever fill their mind as they finally drift off back to sleep; not noticing a brand new tail manifesting to wrap around their ankle, nor the gentle brush of fuzzy antennae against their head as he kisses their cheek.
