Chapter Text
The sound of sludge and thuds on dirt was obvious, the forest only had the occasional sound of birds chirping and animals going through the grass. But who would be out in the middle of the forest on a Sunday evening? Only a maniac would do so, that was Sumi's thought process as they attempted to find shelter for the night.
An overhang of rocks was ideal, safe from the dangers of rain, and safe from predators such as humans. An overhang would also be good for keeping a fire, not like Sumi needed to stay warm, after all they are literally a monster who's made of entirely ink, but it would be comforting. With a rustle of the irrelevant toga Sumi wore, they rested on the ground to relax after a day of travel.
Suddenly, the mechanical sound of a camera shutter disrupted the peace of the nature surroundings.
What was that?
Sumi immediately moved to a dark spot and absorbs the toga in their inky body, if ink could tremble like a human in fear, thats exactly what Sumi would do. As footsteps crunched on the dirt breaking a few twigs, there was a yelp in fear and the loud smack of a body falling. It's obvious what had happened, the photographer wasn't taking a photo of them, but was taking a photo of something else, ended up taking the wrong step backwards and fell down quite a height.
Was the human unconscious? only one way to find out. The ink monster regained their human-shadowish form, just without the clothes and moved over to peer at the man. Through the cloth blindfold Sumi could see the man's eyes closed, but also got a better look.
The man had dark brown hair that was covered by a knit beanie, he had a mustache that was surrounded by stubble of a not so recently shaved beard. He wore a white shirt with an open red and blue flannel as a jacket, and then just basic jeans and shoes, not to mention the camera lying next to him. Sumi was almost so fascinated they didn't notice the blood starting to come out of the back of the man's head. This wasn't good.
You see, Sumi is not heartless, well. they are but they wouldn't just leave something or someone to die! So, they did the reasonable thing anyone would do. They took off his flannel, wrapped it around his head as a makeshift bandage, and brought him under the overhang to take care of him… Despite not wanting to be seen. Well, who would believe a random guy saying there's an ink monster roaming around the woods that took care of him?
Hours went by, Sumi made a fire to keep the stranger warm.
When the fire had almost fully dwindled out, the man's eyes opened. "Oh shit.. my head" he raised his hand to clutch the back of his head, wait. Why was there a cloth- no his flannel around his head? Who was here? He turned his head right, then left.. "what is that.." he thought, a solid black figure that had a relatively similar shape to the average person. "Hello?" He called out weakly towards the being.
Sumi's head snapped to face the now conscious man, "You're awake?" they murmured then rushing over towards the mans side and checking the ink-stained flannel. "Hopefully you stopped bleeding" the sound of Sumi's voice was deep yet had an undertone of gloppiness, it was kinda soothing.
"Who are you?" the man asked, wanting some sort of explanation of who he was interacting with, and who kept him from dying alone taking photos in a forest.
"uhm-" Sumi paused hesitating on whether or not this was a good idea or not, "I'm Sumi. Who are you?" they outed themself.
"I'm Julian" We finally got the mans name, Julian. How.. normal. "wh- where am I?" Julian continued.
"Not far from where you fell earlier." The monster answered, its surprising how Julian didn't notice the oddities of the figure, was it because of the blood loss he didn't question the fact theres an ink monster taking care of him?
"Alright then." Julian tried to get up, feeling lightheaded and absolutely could not walk in a straight line "I have to.. get to a hospital or something that can actually help" he waddled.
Sumi couldn't help but follow behind the strange man (despite Sumi being a literal Eldritch horror) as he went to a hospital.
It took half an hour of walking, but Julian made it to the ER in town as Sumi lurked in the shadows, keeping an eye on the injured man.
A week later, Julian was doing much better in his cottage surrounded by woods, it had a clear driveway leading to the nearest road but it was far more secluded than the average house.
The doctor recommended getting some fresh air whenever Julian could, appearantly its good for you.
Little did the man know, there was something watching him.