#stardustonthebay

[vengeancedemon]

@stardustonthebay replied to your post “who is your best friend?”:

ME. DUH. I'M YOUR NEIGHBOR AND EVERYTHING.

​Well, I would think my best friend would be bringing me whiskey to my door. You have not done this.

[bladesbounties]

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. MAGGIE. @stardustonthebay

[goryglam13]

PARTIES: @stardustonthebay, @goryglam13 TIMING: Mid November LOCATION: Vicker's Beach SUMMARY: Jessie meets Maggie the seal, but thinks it's Drew! WARNINGS: None!

Okay… so she was a seal, now. 

She still didn’t understand the how or why of it all- Maggie was sure it had to do with magic, which was proving more and more real by the day. But who just turns into a seal? There were some stories her mother told her about as a little kid, but there had been a sea witch in those, and the witch… cursed? blessed? blursed? The person to turn into a… swimmy thing. Was it a seal? 

She couldn’t remember. Her stomach was growling. 

Obtaining food was no longer as easy as walking into Rock Lobstah and ordering a lobster roll. As good as that sounded, she couldn’t get her new body to turn back into her normal body, so that scratched restaurants off the list. She could probably go hunt? But that felt… well, weird still. What, go into the water and swim around and catch a fish and eat it whole? Nope. Too weird. But people… people might still feed her. 

The new mission: find a friendly-looking person who would take pity on her new, adorable, squishy little face, and give her something to eat. Hopefully a lobster roll. Please, god, a lobster roll. Or just a lobster. With all the determination of a hungry seal, Maggie galumphed down the shore to find a person to swindle out of their lunch.

—

After the last experience at the beach with some random were-seal, Jessie had been apprehensive on going back to the beach. What was supposed to turn out as something peaceful and relaxing, had turned into a complete nightmare. But she had missed the ocean and missed being able to listen to the waves crash against the shore, and if it was one thing Jessie wasn’t, it was a quitter.

Jenna, I swear if I run into another seal trying to fight for their territory again I’m going to scream. Of course, just about the time she had said that, and found a place to sit down, here came a blobbus, gray mass galumping down the beach towards her. “Oh what the actual fuck?” Scrambling to her feet, Jessie tried to hide behind a mass of rocks hoping the creature hadn’t seen her. If it awkwardly waddled on by, she was in the clear, and that’s what she was hoping and praying would happen.

Please be gone. Please be gone. Please be gone. Jessie’s hands were gripped into tight fists as she kept her eyes closed and leaned back against the giant rocks staying as quiet and as still as she could.

—

Most people weren’t scared of seals- most, but that didn’t mean people were used to a great big blubbery puppy-faced blob bouncing down the beach directly at them. Maggie kept having to remind herself that people who saw her weren’t seeing her. They were seeing a wild animal, a creature that could bite or might be sick or hurt or have some other reason for approaching humankind. She had to remind herself that animal control was a thing- hopefully, though, not something she would encounter. 

She would just have to be decidedly cute about it. 

Her lunchtime guilt-trip target had scrambled away behind a rock, probably in an attempt to avoid the wild creature approaching them. But Maggie was just hungry enough that someone hiding behind a great big rock would not stop her from trying to look incredibly pathetic. 

The gray and black spotted creature plodded along through the sand, forcing its way up the beach and around the rock to where the girl now stood. The hiding girl was about her age, if she had to take a guess. She stood so still, Maggie could hardly hear her breathing. Large dark eyes blinked a few times, trying to will the girl to look at her and maybe (hopefully) decide she was adorable and deserved food. Preferably a lobster roll. God she really wanted that lobster roll.

Look up look up look up, I’m hungry look up… It came out as more of a pathetic whine than anything else.

—

Jessie had heard the slaps of blubber on sand, until she didn’t anymore, and for a brief moment she assumed she was in the clear, until…

The whine sounded weak and desperate, and when Jessie opened her eyes, she saw the seal she was trying to avoid, staring up at her looking incredibly cute, and almost, ALMOST drawing on the young woman’s feelings, “No. NO. You tried to threaten me the other day after I tried to help you. TWICE. I’m not falling for it again, no matter how many times you blink your big, black eyes. But you can’t have the entire beach! That’s not how this works.”

Shaking her head no, she walked out from behind the rock. If anyone else had been around, it probably would’ve looked insane, her arguing with a seal, but she wasn’t going to let this animal…human…whatever she was, take advantage of her niceness again, just to turn on her.

—

No? Maggie stared up, completely bewildered as the young woman started scolding her. It didn’t surprise her that this girl had had a seal run in before- Maggie had encountered a whole pod chilling near some sea caves. Some were chill, some were territorial. If a seal had chased this girl down the beach, it probably made sense that she was upset. 

The seal cocked its head to the side, trying to express the confusion the girl within felt. I didn’t meet you the other day! She wanted to say. It was another seal! Probably a real one. They can be mean if they think you’re gonna hurt their pod, but I’m nice! I’m a person stuck in a seal. And you want to get me a lobster roll. You want to get me just the lobster on the lobster roll so badly, because I am soooo cute. 

The sentiment translated into seal sounded a lot less convincing. “Mbbbbbbbblp? Plllllllllllllllllllllllllllblblblblbl baaaaaaaaaaaaw! Eeeeeeeeph!” 

To try and prove her innocence (and cuteness) she rolled onto her back and scrunched her eyes closed, trying her best to make her muzzle smile, while pat patting her blubbery belly. See? So cute, so nice, gimme a lobster roll I’m begging you…

—

Jessie was just about to walk off when she heard weird noises coming from the animal. Was it trying to talk to her? “Excuse me, but I don’t speak seal. I know you know that, because you were just fine threatening me as a human.” She wanted to leave so badly, but when the animal rolled over onto her back and attempted the ugliest, yet cutest smile known to man followed by patting her own belly, Jessie was starting to get the picture.

Food. It’s what most random animals wanted from humans when they approached them right? Unless they wanted to hurt them, but oddly enough, if this was the same seal, it wasn’t trying to murder Jessie. It was trying to act cute and play on her emotions, which was weird. But also kind of infuriating after the way things had previously gone down.

“Is food what you want?” Jessie opened the messenger bag she was carrying to see what she had in it. What did seals eat anyways was the real question? Fish for sure, but Jessie wasn’t just walking around with raw fish in her bag, “This would be so much easier if you just changed back so I could tell you no to your face.” She continued digging through her bag, until she found a granola bar that looked like it had been in there for ages, “Can you eat granola? That’s all I have. Or is that not good enough.”

—

Wait, there was a human? A human seal? 

Maggie sat up very quickly, eyes growing wider by the second. If there was another person like her, maybe they could help. But by the sound of it, they weren’t exactly… a peach to deal with… Some people felt like they owned places that weren’t ownable. She had met a few- Cass, who had made her destroy things in a cave; Drew, who made her feel unwelcome on a… beach… 

Surely that had to be a coincidence, though. Right? There had to be a lot of people who were kind of dicks about people being on the beach.  Maggie forced the thought as far out of her mind as she possibly could when the girl finally uttered that beautiful, wonderful, magical word: food. 

She tried really hard to look so grateful, so angelic, so unlike whoever it was this girl was talking about. So much so that Maggie was willing to shuffle closer, nose first in the sand, before booping her snout against the tip of her shoe. If she was being completely honest, granola did not sound good. The seal wanted a fish, or five million fish, or a lobster, and that was not granola at all. But the girl seemed so upset by whatever the person she’d talked to had said, that she didn’t have it in her to refuse. That, and she could feel her stomach aching, like there were teeth and claws within ripping her apart. 

Maggie would hope that seal people could still eat granola, and that she wouldn’t be a miserable seal on the seashore after the sort-of meal…

—

The boop was different. The other person, whose name Jessie was pretty sure she didn’t catch, did not boop. She was more likely to bite, and it caused the woman to pause, “What am I thinking?” She looked down in her bag at the granola bar and let it fall from her hands, “I can’t give a seal granola, no matter how angry I might be. It could hurt you. And if you are the same seal-person, I already kicked your ass once. I’m not gonna do it again due to internal bloat or chocolate toxicity.” She let out a loud sigh.

This was not what she wanted for her day. At this rate, Jessie was just going to stop coming to the beach, if seal intruders were going to be a common thing. “I’ve already got enough to worry about with a fucking demon chasing me…” Life was shitty, but she could still be nice. And who knew. This could’ve actually been a totally different seal-person, or just a well trained seal, “Do you want real food or something? Fish or…I think there’s some lobster place down the beach not too far from here.” She looked down at the animal waiting to see its reaction.

—

Oh, no, she was going to starve. 

The hope of granola, however shitty it sounded, rapidly went away as the bar fell back into the woman’s bag. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo… Maggie couldn’t help the moan that rumbled in her chest, forlorn for the fallen and distant snack that would have filled her belly, no matter how miserable. The seal let its head fall back to the sand. If she didn’t turn back soon, she would starve to-

The girl, maybe an angel despite the mention of demons, spoke once more, and Maggie swore she had never heard such beautiful words. Fish. Lobster. A happy squeak erupted from the creature. Yes! Yes lobster! Please? The seal’s flippers patpatpatpatpatted against its sides before bouncing a little closer and pressing its nose against the girl’s leg again. I am so hungry please,

—

The immediate reaction was just the indication Jessie needed to know that fish and/or lobster was exactly what the seal wanted. “Fish it is.” Letting out a sigh, she started to move forward after feeling the second soft boop on her leg, “At least you haven’t tried to bite me with your sharp ass teeth. I appreciate that a lot.” It was weird, having a conversation with a seal. She had conversations with Ghost all the time, but Ghost didn’t turn into a human at any point.

“Maybe this is all a dream or a nightmare. Maybe I never woke up one night and here I am, stuck in this weird town where my girlfriend died, and I was cursed by a demon that’s trying to hunt and kill me like my friends.” All the knowledge had been out and about. Even speculation, and at least, when talking to this animal, there was a chance that it was just that. An animal.

—

Maggie plopped along beside the girl in the sand, a seal following in the wake of human footprints. If she could have spoken, she would have thanked her for the offer of food, or apologized for the other seal person, who sounded suspiciously like someone else she knew. If she could have spoken, she could have assured the girl that she wasn’t dreaming, apologized for the loss of her girlfriend, ask more about the demon problem. Fuck, there was so much she would say.

But that was the problem with being wrapped up in a seal’s pelt. Despite any effort to be something different, Maggie was just a creature. Nothing more, nothing less. Magic- fantastic and wonderful as it might be- always had a price. The shift had taken her voice.

So she would take the food- perhaps selfishly, or as selfish as survival could be. And Maggie would have to hope that whatever spell had bundled her up in another creature’s skin would fade away soon.

[incatsclothing]

[pm] Heyyyy girlieeeeeee uh so have you received any threats from the estate of Sir Cuthburt Quincy Montegue Von Fosselmeer IV?

[pm] Oh, great, it's not just me. I've gotten a couple of weird messages about it, but I've just been deleting them. They can't prove anything, right? No way a public library has security cameras.

[taliasshaw]

@stardustonthebay replied to your post “[pm] Did you know that Wyatt got shot by a pigeon...”:

[pm] IM STILL GETTING THE DETAILS FROM THE LADY WHO SCREAMED ME OUT OF A FUCKIN GIANT CLAM HOLD ON— apparently the pigeon had a knife??? And they took that away??? So the pigeon shot him instead????????

​Babe, you just created, like, fifteen new questions. Screamed you out of a clam? What does that mean? Are we talking about a real clam? [...] How did the pigeon have a knife? How would a pigeon even hold a knife, right? I love that the pigeon started with a knife when it had a gun on hand.

I love everything about this story, I hope you know. I want to know every detail so I can cross-stitch it onto a pillow and gift that pillow to Wyatt.

[highoctanegem]

[pm] Is it sad that I think my cat might be my best friend right now? Does that mean I need to like... go out to a club or something and have a feral night out instead of being boring and sad? Am I turning into a sad cat lady? Who also has a lizard and a mouse?

[At no point user thinks this is a wrong number situation]

[pm] First of all, nope. That's literally so valid. Like, I tell my cats all my deepest secrets. Cause they're the best listeners and they never judge, you know? Not to my face at least. I bet they talk about me when I can't see them.

Second of all, I can be your best friend. I come with great reviews. But in general, you're not gonna find your best buds partying your heart out at the club, you know? Except for the drunk girlies in the bathrooms, those queens are for life. I just mean... If the goal is pure fun, sure. But your goal is actual friends, maybe you should go somewhere you really like, and there'll be people there with the same interests.

Third, you can't say any of this and not show me proof of your besties. [user shares pictures of the cats and the clam in turn] It's etiquette. From left to right you got: Melody, Lullaby and Echo.

[appalachiannightmare]

PARTIES: @stardustonthebay, @appalachiannightmare TIMING: The last week in April LOCATION: Periwinkle Paints SUMMARY: Hazel goes to meet Maggie about a jar of Sour Patch Kids. WARNINGS: Unsanitary tw, Food Poisoning tw, Vomiting tw

Was a full jar of sour patch kids enough to bribe a new friendship into being?

Maggie had dumped half her sour patch stash into an old jam jar she’d nicked from the back room. There was more weird junk from her weird bosses shoved into that little glorified closet than Maggie thought was humanly possible. Jam jars, tin foil, garden gnomes, sporks, none of it made sense. But then again, they didn’t make sense. She saw them walking slowly up and down the stairs every so often, and they’d talk to her with each word feeling like she was hearing it in reverse- but they always paid her on time. At least there was that. 

And at least, maybe, an offering of 32 ounces of sour sweet not-worms would convince this Hazel girl that she was cool and not weird and definitely friend shaped. 

She drew a little cartoon of a sad gummy worm to stick to it in the meantime. 

After a little while, the front door gave a merry little jingle. Dark brown eyes lifted up from her work, trying to discern if this was a customer or a Hazel. “Uh… hi! Are you here for the sour patch jar?” 

—

What was the old saying? Never take candy from strangers or something like that? She couldn’t quite recall. And while Hazel didn’t want to outright admit she was going all the way to Harborside just for a jar of Sour Patch Kids, it was the honest truth. But she did need more sketching supplies AND making a friend in the process was a major bonus, since those were few and far between these days. Besides, if things got rough, she unknowingly knew how to take care of herself thanks to the monster inside that she was supposedly possessed by.

Hearing a voice call out from behind the counter, Hazel peaked over one of the small racks near her to find the person speaking, “Yeah, that’s me. Hazel. You're Maggie right?” A smile spreading across her soft features, the young woman made her way towards the counter passing up any supplies to lay eyes on and claim the coveted jar of Sour Patch Kids, “I can pay you for these. I don’t want to take your stash. I still plan to buy supplies, but let me pay for this. You were kind enough to put ‘em in a jar for me and everything.”

Hazel may have been a murderer, but she was an honest one. At least when it came to her human side of life. The other side…still had way too many questions to be answered. And while eating people never got any easier, she had found that life was a little more okay upon admitting what she was and that she did have a problem. Just one that she didn’t know how to really tell anyone about, much less figure out how to solve. And most of the time, when they saw that side of her, they either didn’t survive or ran as far away as they possibly could hoping and praying to anything that would listen, that she wasn’t chasing them.

—

Oh, she knew this face! Not very well, but Maggie was certain she’d see in the girl who entered the shop pass through a few times or more. Plus, there was the accent- very distinct, unique, cool. An easy smile spread across her features as the girl leaned against the counter. No need to act so serious if it wasn’t a Customer customer. “That’s me,” She chirped as she slid the jar of candy across the counter.

“Oh, no! Don’t worry about it, friends share.” Charging someone for a bunch of loose sour patch kids she’d shaken into a jar she’d repurposed felt borderline criminal. Especially when there were actually better things Hazel could buy within the store. And the fact that it would probably technically maybe be seen as cheating her bosses out of a sale. Not that cared about much of anything. She’d seen one of them slowly dragging themselves up the stairs when she’d gotten in, moving at a snail’s pace as they went. 

Half the time, Maggie wondered if they even knew she was there, running their shop. 

“Just like… pay me back with a snack or something some other time. Save your money for things you really need or want- speaking of which,” Dark brown eyes sparkled with mischief as she plopped a stack of supplies- pencils and paper and journals and erasers, everything Maggie could think of in a short amount of time- right atop the counter. “Pulled some stuff you maybe might like. You don’t.. have to feel obligated to… get-“

The girl’s voice trailed off, her attention turning towards the back of the shop. Thud… thud thud. Thud… thudthudthud… Dull and repetitive. Was something banging on the door? Like a tree branch or something?

 “I’m sorry, do you hear that?” 

—

Hazel’s eyes lit up and her mouth watered at the jar being slid towards her, “Would it be rude if I just opened these up right now and took out a handful?” She looked from the jar and back up at Maggie half-smiling, half-genuinely concerned if it would, in fact, be rude or not, “I was taught manners, but sometimes” a lot of times as far as her devil was concerned “they go right out the door when I get excited about something.”

Hazel let her eyes fall on the jar again, until Maggie had mentioned them being friends, “Wait a minute, you barely know me, and you want to be friends?” The idea of chowing down on the sweet and sour candy easily left her mind. Her friends back home in Tennessee had up and abandoned her once word had gotten out about what she had supposedly done. But hearsay and gossip was a powerful tool and no one had been able to prove what Hazel had done was true. It still didn’t mean they were concerned, even her best friend, Winter, had just quit checking in on her, so hearing this come from someone she had only seen in passing a handful of times had left Hazel in a bit of shock.

“Of course, I’ll pay you back. I think I’m still just…Why? If you don’t mind me askin’? Is there somethin’ about me that makes you think I’d be a good friend? I mean I am…” When I don’t eat people or things.

She was probably making a bigger deal out of it than she should have, even missing the fact that Maggie had pulled a bunch of great supplies for her, but all of that was interrupted by a sound coming from the back of the shop, “I, uh, I hear it. I take it that’s not normal?” Hazel’s eyes narrowed as she leaned to the side to look past Maggie and towards the back, “Is it always that dark back there?”

—

If she hadn’t been so distracted, Maggie might have told Hazel that she could open the jar and shake its contents into her mouth for all she cared, as the very concept of devouring a sweet treat was not an inherently shameful thing. She might have said manners were, at times, overrated. Even if her mom told her otherwise. “... ‘course I wanna be friends…” Was all she could manage as she leaned her ear against the wall, trying to decipher exactly where the thudding noise was originating from. “I think you’re cool, and you’re nice, and you’re new to town which means you oughta have a friend who knows town…” Nope, it was definitely in the back room… “So I…. uh…” 

The back room looked as if night had fallen quite unexpectedly. The back door with the opaque glass window that usually cast the floor at that time of day with a rectangle of butter yellow was shaded, no light creeping through. A glance to her right revealed the cartoonishly blue spring sky was still there. Which meant it should be light back there. But it wasn’t. Not even a little bit. 

“Nnnnnnope…” The end of the soft-spoken word popped as if to exaggerate the fact. If she was being really, really fucking honest, Maggie was a little, mildly, tiiiiiiiny bit creeped out by the weirdness of it all. And yet, in all her brilliant stupidity, she took a step towards the back room. Then another. 

Thud thud thududududd… Thud… THUD… 

With every step she took, the louder the banging on the back door got. She glanced back at Hazel, a look that could only be described as what the actual flying fuck is going on etched into every line of her face. Maggie opened her mouth to say something – say what she didn’t know – when a loud CRACK split the air. As did splinters. As did a large chunk of the door. The girl couldn’t turn back fast enough to look or even move before she was bowled over by something large and rather squishy.

—

The conversation would’ve been a lot more meaningful and the start to building a great friendship, if they both hadn’t been distracted. And as much as Hazel wanted to pay attention to Maggie, it was hard when the threat of something loomed just on the other side of where they were standing. And Hazel had wanted to tell Maggie to backway from the wall, but to back away from what? She didn’t even know what was going on.

However, the young woman had noticed the shop had gotten visibly darker in a matter of seconds, and while she was no expert in weather patterns, she knew that whatever was going on outside, wasn’t good, “Okay, I don’t like this, Maggie. Maybe we should just go out the front and call your bosses or somethin’.” She wanted to pull her new friend towards her and out the door, but before she could, Hazel noticed Maggie going towards the back door, “I-I don’t think that’s the best idea…”

Stepping forward slightly, she was almost going to pull the other woman back until all hell broke loose! With a loud crack!, thud!, crash!, and squish!, Hazel watched as Maggie was taken down by whatever the outside threat had been, but when she finally laid eyes on it, it took her all of two seconds to comprehend what she was looking at, “What in the ever lovin’ fuck?!” Hazel rarely swore, but desperate times called for desperate measures especially when a big ass gummy worm that was larger than life came barreling towards you!

“Is this because I said I didn’t like gummy worms?!” She wanted to scream and run out, but she remembered Maggie being the casualty of its squish as it came through the door. “Maggie! Maggie, can you hear me!?” The giant gummy was still coming towards her with its wide maw and hollow eyes, which forced Hazel back into a nearby corner. But conveniently near the front door. And she couldn’t help, but let her eyes linger longingly for freedom, but she had just made a friend, and she wasn’t going to let her die a horrific death by a horrific candy!

“Maggie, I’m comin’!!!”

—

She’d never imagined that this would be how her day went: being smooshed by a giant gummy worm. 

Maggie’s field of vision was covered in stars for a moment- who knew a door and a giant worm to the face would pack such a punch? Unfortunately, the worm did not simply wiggle over her and leave her behind. Rather, she stuck to the belly of the thing, and it dragged her right across the floor. When the spots of painful light fled her vision, the world was slightly opaque and vibrant green-blue. It also smelled like sour apples. Which was probably the least worst part of the whole debacle she found herself in. 

She could hear Hazel’s voice, slightly muffled through the gelatinous gummy body of the… was it a gummy worm? Was it just shaped like a gummy worm? If Maggie wasn’t being dragged along like an angry toddler on one of those stupid child leashes, she might have pulled out her phone to take reference pictures and draw the guy later. “Mphhhhhhhbbbbblll-” was the best she could manage in the way of a response. 

If this was how she died, she hoped that someone made a whole lot of puns out of it. Because really, what wilder and funnier thing to read in an obit than ‘she got squished by a gummy worm’. 

Only, it did become slightly less funny when she remembered that breathing was a thing she needed to do, and Maggie could not do that with the damned worm holding her with a extra-strenght-suction-cup-like grip. The girl tried to wiggle her way out from beneath the creature, but the more she moved, the more stuck she got. Well, shit. Hopefully, Hazel didn’t get stuck under the worm, too…

—

Hazel had never been afraid of a gummy worm before. Never in her life. She usually just liked to suck the sour off and then bite their heads off in the process, before devouring the rest of the jelly-like creature, but this…what exactly was this?! What was happening?! And was this even considered real life anymore? Or had something happened?

Maybe she had never left her bedroom and was still stuck back in Tennessee being held prisoner by her parents. Maybe she had finally keeled over and this was some kind of Hell she was living in. Hazel’s heart was pounding nearly out of her chest at this point with all the horrific possibilities, but the weak mumbling coming from the worm’s ass reminded her that Maggie was still stuck like a damn hair in a biscuit.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Just as Hazel managed to get her bearings back, she noticed the worm coming towards her, and like Mackenzie Ross in one of her action movies, Hazel ducked and dived out of the way just in the nick of time. But the faster her heart beat, the more agitated she became, and before she could find a place to hide to at least try and calm herself down, it was too late.

With a loud crack followed by an ear piercing scream, Hazel could feel her body begin to shift. Organs rearranging; fur sprouting; and the strength of something huge taking over what was once just a small, twenty-three year old woman dodging a giant gummy worm. But while the grotesque change was occurring, the giant multi-colored worm had managed to wrap its wide mouth around Hazel to begin the process of the om-nom.

—

If the gummy worm attack wasn’t how she thought her day was going to go, then the sound of bone cracking and her new friend screaming as something happened in the world beyond the gummy. Had Hazel been hurt? How the gummy worm had hurt the girl more than it had Maggie was beyond her, considering she was the one who was gonna be covered in rug burn and have a few unfortunately placed splinters if she got out of the wormening alive. 

But then, she noticed something funny from within the worm. 

There was a head going into the gummy worm’s mouth, specifically a head that should have been Hazel’s. But Hazel did not have a long snout when she came into the store. And Hazel did not have a furry face. And Hazel did not have fuzzy ears that pointed up like a dog’s. Fucking hell, had a dog broken into the store too??? No, doggie, run away! 

But… also… that was one big dog… 

The worm sat back on its… well, Maggie would have said haunches, but what was a worm but one long squishy torso, oops all butt, so it just sat back, attempting as best it could to get its gummy worm mouth around something that was rapidly growing to be much bigger than it. Where the hell went Hazel? The girl couldn’t help but wonder. Had she left to find help and then a dog ran in? What was going on? All was strange and vague in the death by gummy worm… Maybe trying to call for help from her utterly useless bosses would help? 

“Mbbbibbbbllppp! MBBBBBBPLLLLLLLLLB!!!” 

Nailed it. 

—

Her devil had taken over. Hazel was now the Berserker, and even though her senses were filled to the brim with sour apple flavor, it was going to be the pleasure of eating this thing from the inside out that the beast was looking forward to. And with this in mind, the huge dog let the worm continue to gum and devour and slurp her down, before she reached its gelatinous belly, and then?

All hell broke loose.

Forcing her toothy maw open, Hazel began to chomp down on the massive gummy worm as it started to thrash itself around. The Berserker’s concern was not on Maggie and any damage that might have come her way. No, it was on the thrill of ripping this giant piece of food apart and devouring every last bit of it.

Sure, Hazel’s devil usually preferred blood, but this would do. Juicy, sour gummy goodness. No, it wasn’t a sour patch kid, but it did cause chaos and that’s what this massive furry monster lived for! And the harder it thrashed and let out a gurgling wail, the more the Berserker tore into it, before she was finally free and rolling around on the floor – her fur all matted in sticky goop, before back on all fours and pouncing back into the dying gummy like a puppy playing with a chew toy!

—

There was one moment where there was just… a very large puppy silhouetted in the gummy worm prison Maggie had found herself in. And then that very large puppy ripped through the gummy worm like it was its only mission in life. She only really caught a little bit of it, simply because the worm was wiggling about trying to save its own life. Guess the thing had eyes bigger than its stomach. 

The closer that puppy’s mouth got to her end of the gummy worm, the more Maggie began to think that it was not a puppy at all. The mouth alone was massive. She could have probably stuck her whole damned head inside its mouth and there would still have been room. And the teeth. Well, she only really caught one good look before, between the worm thrashing and the giant puppy shaking the worm like a chew toy, Maggie finally came loose from the worm’s belly. Which was more like someone ripping duct tape off her entire front and then throwing her into a shelf filled with paper… that was now stuck to her. 

Freed from the belly of the gummy, the girl could really get a feel for the level of chaos that had been wrought upon the shop in just under five minutes. There was green and blue gummy goo everywhere. On the ceiling. On the walls. On the shelves. On the ceiling fans. In her ear, she was pretty sure… And the puppy, which was so big its tail was literally threatening to take out a chunk of the front desk, was right in the heart of the mess. Covered in goop. Rolling around. Shaking the worm like it was the best toy in the world.

Honestly, it was kind of cute, in an oh, I’m so getting fired sort of way. 

—

The Berserker growled and ripped and rolled. She tore and gnawed and pounced. And by the end of it, she was laying on the floor gnawing at the final pieces of the no longer existent gummy worm; it’s head between her giant paws as she chewed on its face. There had been no interest whatsoever in Maggie, because even though she was finally birthed from the belly of the worm, she hadn’t been the target of Hazel’s devil, nor had she angered the beast.

With the last bite finished, the Berserker began licking the goop from her paws trying to clean it off as best she could, but a sudden low growl made her stop and look back towards her tail like something at the back half was happening. Fortunately, when all had settled again, she resumed cleaning the blue and green sticky off of her fur, but this time a deep rumble came from her own belly and she let out a whimper of pain.

Too. Much. Gummy.

It was like buying a bag of Sugar Free Haribos off of Amazon and eating all of them on a dare without remembering all the reviews that came along with that purchase. And before long, the massive lupine creature was up and pacing the small shop trying to stop the pain from happening in her belly. But it was no use, and as a self-preservation of its own stomach, the Berserker returned Hazel’s body to her, leaving the poor girl as pale as some of the paper in the store and laying on the floor in a heap of colorful goo as naked as a jaybird not remembering a damn thing that happened.

—

Maggie was either severely concussed and was hallucinating things as a result, or the Big Ass Murder Puppy that had destroyed like, half the shop, had transformed into a very, very naked Hazel. There were about a million questions she wanted to ask. Were you aware you turn into a giant dog when there are killer gummy worms was at the top of the list, followed by so do you still want those sour patch kids after downing a whole Mini Cooper’s worth of gummy worm? 

The girl rolled herself up to her feet, wobbling for just a moment when she found her foot stuck in a pile of gummy worm goop. “... Hazel?” Her voice warbled a little, keeping her eyes fixed on the ceiling until she could work her way over to the supplies closet to try and find a tarp or something to cover the girl in. “Hazel, are you feeling okay?” Since Murdermittens the Gummy Worm Slayer had eaten the whole gummy worm and didn’t look too good, she could only imagine that the poor girl who was now back to her normal state was feeling… miserable was probably not a good enough word. 

The worst part? She wanted to be excited. She wanted to be so damn excited because A WEREWOLF? HAD JUST? SAVED HER LIFE. But now said werewolf was delirious and looking like she was going to add to the mess Maggie had to clean up any minute. She snagged a few towels and a bowl off some stuffed shelves before rushing back to Hazel and wrapping her up. “I’m gonna guess the answer to that question is like shit, so just sit and relax for a minute okay?”

—

The pain in her stomach hurt somethin’ kinda fierce, which was saying something considering Hazel barely felt pain. But it was like being punched repeatedly in the gut by the world’s top rated boxer on a loop, “I think I’m gonna be sick…” She refused to move off the floor and curled herself up tighter into a goop covered little ball that smelled like sour apple – a smell that seemed to make things worse. And then she remembered Maggie being covered up by the giant worm and regretfully forced herself upwards until she saw the other woman coming towards her, “Maggie…are you okay? That worm…I thought you were gonna be suffocated by it…What happened to it? How did you get out?”

Her mind had been so hazy. One minute she was being chased by the thing, and the next she was laying in this mess on the brink of death by gummy worm. With the bowl nearby and the tarp over her, Hazel shivered fiercely, and before she could say anything else to Maggie, the massive worm she had unknowingly consumed came crawling back up in not such a pretty way time and time again, before Hazel had wanted to quit everything and was laying on the floor of the art store in a cold sweat.

“Give me a f-few minutes okay, and then I’ll help you clean this all up.” She covered her head with the tarp and for a moment resembled a corpse lying in a bodybag, but the fruity-putrid scent that was trapped under the tarp was starting to make her sick again, and she was right back with her head hanging over the bowl.

“Y-You can keep the Sour Patch Kids…I don’t think I ever want to see another gummy in my life.”

—

Poor Hazel was not looking good. 

There was a pang of guilt twisting in Maggie’s gut. If she hadn’t gone back to the door to investigate, would the worm have gotten in? If it had, at least maybe then she wouldn’t have been stuck to its big wormy butt, and maybe then she and Hazel would’ve gotten out of the store before the other girl had to wolf out…

“I’m fine,” A headache was probably the worst she’d gotten from the encounter- and the impending doom of being fired, but that wasn’t as important at the moment. Crouched down beside the girl, all she could smell was sour apple. Maggie hadn’t even taken a bite of the worm, and its sticky sweet smell was enough to make her stomach churn. A cool hand smoothed back Hazel’s hair as the poor thing hung her head over the bowl. 

“You saved me, don’t you remember?” How did Hazel not recall turning into a very big very angry worm eating and hating doggo? To be entirely fair, Maggie had never met an honest-to-god-real werewolf before. Maybe that was normal. “You went all giant fuzzy puppy dog and demolished the thing… which is why you feel like shit, you ate that whole gummy worm- or Murdermittens the Gummy Worm Slayer did and then left your poor stomach to deal with the consequences…” Poor Hazel was looking as green as the gummy worm she’d devoured. “How about you just rest and don’t worry about the cleaning up… I might have some gym clothing in the back you can change into in a few, but for now, just… breathe…”

—

Hazel listened to Maggie explain the situation. The only thing she could really recall was the giant worm being her main target, especially when it came at her attempting to eat her, but after that everything went dark, just like it normally had. It was hard living with constant holes in your memories and trying to piece together broken lapses of time. Though it probably didn’t look like it, at that moment, Hazel was grateful for Maggie explaining things to her, and even just being by her side. It had been a long time since she had had anyone on her side. Most people either ran off screaming or weren’t alive to explain the aftermath.

Slowly swallowing the reluctant taste of gummy worm, Hazel wanted to gag, but managed to shake it off, and instead, let out a sigh of relief when it didn’t result in having to be over the bowl again, “Thanks, Maggie. For not runnin’ away from me, and for tellin’ me what happened. Most people don’t hang around long enough…for various reasons…” She paused, before speaking again, “I understand it, if you’re afraid to be around me now.” She didn’t dare tell Maggie about her past. Maybe someday, but not now; even though nearly being eaten by a giant gummy worm was quite the bonding experience. How many people could say that happened to them in their lifetime?

“I-If you don’t mind, I’d like them clothes now. I think you might have some company.” Hazel’s eyes had quickly shifted from Maggie to someone standing in the back hallway where the giant worm had initially done its damage, before Hazel got a hold of it.

—

“Why would I be afraid of you?” The math wasn’t mathing. Yeah, sure, Hazel had turned into a very angry wolf that looked like it was the size of a Hummer and that wolf had just demolished a big ass gummy worm like it was nothing, BUT that hummer-sized-angry-doggo saved her ass. Plus, it was cool as fuck! When Hazel didn’t look like she was gonna yack, maybe then Maggie would pepper her with questions about the whole being a werewolf thing. “No, you’re stuck with me now. Gummy worm trauma bond and all,”

Company? She hadn’t seen any customers walk in… “Miss… Carter….?” A sedentary monotonous voice questioned from the edge of the back room, where the steps to the apartment above met the shop. Well, shit. Maggie turned to see Mr. Slough, one of the two owners of her beloved Periwinkle Paints gaping at the mess that had been made of his shop. Fired. She was getting fired today. 

As quick as she could, she went fishing in the closet behind the counter to grab her gym bag and plonked on the counter. “Hazel? You sit ‘til you feel better, clothes are here when you need them… I’ll… talk to you later- message me,” She gave the girl a wobbly grin before scuttling into the back to attempt an explanation. Who would’ve thought, killer gummy worms!

—

The voice from the man standing towards the back of the store didn’t sound pleased, but how could he be when everything was a big gooey mess?

Hazel watched as Maggie grabbed her gym bag and left it on the counter. It had been one of the most inconvenient things, constantly losing your clothes to that of a massive furry beast most of the time. Money don’t grow on trees, Devil. I can’t afford to keep buying new clothes just for you to rip them up. The thought had crossed her mind multiple times, but still nothing ever changed.

“Thank you, Maggie. I’ll text ya tonight.” She nodded softly at her new friend who was slathered in gummy worm goop watching as her and the store owner left the front room.

When she was finally alone, Hazel slowly stood up from the floor. Her body was exhausted, but the last thing she wanted was to walk home in a tarp. There was no way she was riding her bike back covered in sticky slime. It didn’t take her too long to throw on Maggie’s gym clothes, and she had managed to gather up what was left of her own ripped attire. With one last look around the store, promising herself that she would help Maggie anyway she could, Hazel started to walk out the front door, until she laid eyes on the jar of Sour Patch Kids, “Yeah, fuck you too.” And with that, she was gone.

[vengeancedemon]

@stardustonthebay replied to your post “what would the perfect funeral for you look like?”:

SHANT

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