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4C always liked insects. They were arguably some of the coolest creatures on the planet. Like, sure, there were elves and slimes and dragons, but insects! With wings, mandibles, and jointed legs. Some of them could lift like- 30x their own body weight! That was awesome!
In the swamps, there were a lot of insects. Dragonflies, fireflies, butterflies… a lot of flies, apparently. But there were also crickets that filled late night silence, and ants that were seemingly everywhere.
There was also the praying mantis he kept as a pet. He named her ‘Filly’ and loved her dearly. Even after his siblings tried to kill her, he kept her away. Until they eventually found where he was keeping her..
Shortly after that, a bounty was put on his head, and he was in a cell. Still, there were insects there as well. More accurately, insects and arachnids. There were trails of ants skirting around the edges of the wall, little beetles somehow making their way in. Spider webs coated basically all of the upper walls, and he swore to the stars he saw a scorpion once.
After moving to Blue, 4C was greeted with even more insects. Basically the entire arthropod family. He saw crickets, and spiders, and butterflies, and little crabs on the beach and centipedes scurrying in tree roots. He had never seen so many tiny creatures in his life - the swamps could only house so much - and he loved it.
He even found another praying mantis, this one he named ‘Tari’. Nom had stared at him with a bemused expression as the slime insisted they stop so he could pick the critter up from the side of the road. The mantis stayed with him for most of the time, staying in the well well well if he needed to do important things.
~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~
The first time something silly had happened regarding insects in Blue was when 4C was walking with Nom. They had taken to a walk after a storm had passed. Dew covered a lot of the leaves, and the slime's eyes were fixed on the ground, watching for bugs.
The duo had entertained light conversation, while making sure they didn't end up completely lost in the middle of the forest. The rogue had gone onto a small rant on how his blood and the poisoned daggers worked before he noticed Nom staring at him.
“What?” He asked the dragon. He stifled a giggle.
“Are you aware there's a butterfly on your nose?” Nom snorted. The slime blinked.
“Yeah?”
The knight startled.
“Wha- and you didn't try to get it off?!”
“No??” 4C said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Why would I do that?”
“I- because??”
The slime shrugged as he put his hand up and the butterfly crawled into his palm. It was quite pretty, a mix of purple and blue hues. The knight watched in wonder as it practically laid on his palm and presumably fell asleep.
“What magical bug powers do you have?! Do you do this with all the bugs??”
“I dunno, they just like me. Have you not seen Tari?”
“What the heck is Tari.”
“The praying mantis!” 4C said, mock gasping in fake shock, shaking his head. “My pet!”
“You kept it as a pet?!?” Nom gasped. “How??”
“This is like my 5th pet mantis. Don't act so surprised."
“Respectfully, you're insane. How do they not freak you out?!”
“Wait till you hear about the rest of the insects I have,” 4C snickered, rolling his eyes and carrying along the path with the butterfly in his hand. Nom made a strangled sound as the slime smirked.
“Theres more??”
~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~
The next time, 4C was hanging out with Mae and Nom. The kingdoms had been at ease, almost too much, but he ignored the looming sense of the farkle games and hung out with his friends instead. If he ignored his problems, it didn't matter.
Unbeknownst to the slime, his two friends had decided to play to 50,000 instead of 5000. How they messed that up, he had no idea whatsoever. So he instead silently walked out of the Rue Bar, deciding to look for things in the forest. In hindsight, randomly disappearing while telling your friends God was threatening to kidnap you was not the smartest idea. But it's fine! Probably! Maybe!
Was the actual reason he went into the woods because he saw a cool beetle and wanted to look at it? Yes. In his defence, it was a very cool beetle. 4C walked into the forest, eyes scouring for the beetle. He eventually found it and scooped it up in his hands, grinning in satisfaction. It was one of the multi-coloured ones that shifted colour in the light. It was probably just smaller than one of his palms.
The slime carried on walking though the forest, looking at random insects and also collecting ferns. Mae had mentioned that they wanted to collect some, because it was a ‘cool activity’ and they apparently had a bet with Katie. If it annoyed his sister, he would gladly help the rogue.
Without warning, a blur of white and black landed on his nose. 4C squeaked slightly, nearly dropping the beetle and the bundle of ferns he was grabbing. After recovering, he held out his free hand to the creature, which slowly crawled onto the tips of his fingers. The slime got a proper look at what seemed to be a peppered moth.
With said moth back on his nose and still holding the ferns and the beetle, 4C guessed he looked akin to a very lost traveller. Which wasn't wrong. He had no clue where he was right now.
The moth suddenly flew away in a random direction in the forest. Abrupt, but he didn't try to chase it. Although, it might know which was the right way to get out.. well, too late for that, he supposed. The slime took a random guess and headed left at a crossroad (since when were there crossroads in the forest?) towards where he could see a few small mountain tips. Worst case scenario he followed the edge of those.
“4CVITTT!” A voice suddenly screamed. He jumped slightly, turning to try and see the source. “WHERE ART THOUU?”
“HERE!!” He yelled back, to the voice he recognised as Mae. “UH- LEFT! I THINK ANY- Æ-“
He shrieked as the rogue barrelled through a bush and practically tackled him to the ground. All of the stuff he was holding fell to the ground as Mae basically pinned him to the ground, smirking as he processed what the heck just happened.
“Well hello to you too.”
The two of them sat - more accurately laid - there awkwardly for a few more seconds before Nom walked through a gap in the trees, huffing.
“4C,” he complained, “A stupid moth keeps trying to- oh.”
Mae decided that now was a perfectly good time to shuffle off of him, allowing him to finally sit up and grab the ferns he had been previously holding, the beetle now gone. Probably scared the hell out of it by accident. The slime coughed awkwardly a bit, brushing the dirt off of himself before turning to Nom.
“You were saying?”
“Oh, right,” the dragon said. “Theres this moth and it won't get off of me.”
4C shrugged, recognising it as the same peppered moth that had landed on his nose a bit ago. “Well, its yours now.”
“What.” The dragon deadpanned. Mae giggled slightly at his expression, a mix of confusion and annoyance.
“Wait wait wait. I don't want to look after a moth?”
“You’re gonna have to learn.” 4C sang. The knight sighed, muttering something under his breath.
“I’ll get you back for this..” he mumbled.
Nom ended up cherishing the peppered moth like a daughter and naming it Felis.
~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~
4C has assumed every place had some sort of arthropods. Everywhere he had been too, whether it be a cell, an abandoned house or the middle of nowhere, had some sort of insect or arachnid he could find. Apparently, he was mistaken. Though to be fair to him, he hadn't assumed hell was real either. The absence of them, when he properly thought about it, terrified him a little.
The insects were not on his mind while he was there. He was focused on climbing, on healing the cuts the bedrock he was clawing onto gave him in return for a rest. 4C missed his friends, missed Blue, missed farkle friday and missed having his soul.
The climb out was long. He never told anyone that, though. He claimed it was short, that the rogue god had simply done a little messing with time. But he was hyper aware of how long he was in there, of the heat threatening to end him, of the nearly 3 weeks of pure perseverance.
But he made it, and that is what mattered. It was only after that he noticed the absence of life altogether in Hell. He wasn't really surprised, though. A personal prison made for him wouldn't have the benefits of company, no matter how small.
~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~
4C obviously knew some people didn't like insects and arachnids. That much was obvious. What he didn’t know, up until very recently, was that Katie was one of those people. And he was definitely going to abuse that power, seeming as every single critter here actively searched for his company.
The two of them - plus Nom 4C supposed - had been chilling out in the flower field behind Red. He didn't know why Katie assumed there wouldn't be insects there, it was literally the place half of them ate food. His brother had taken to ranting to the knight about the new pet he had, and the slime watched with a smirk as the dragon told Katie Felis was a moth.
“A moth.” She deadpanned. The knight tilted her head towards 4C, smirking. “Are you hearing this dude?”
“Yes, actually. I'm the one who told him to keep it as a pet.”
“Told ya Nom- wait, what? You traitor!”
“How am I a traitor?!” 4C gasped, placing a hand over his chest. “You wound me!”
“Coward..” she muttered. He laughed, and threw a rock at her. She gasped in disbelief and threw it back at him, then he threw it back, then she threw it back, then he threw it back- you get the picture, ok? The bickering stopped when Katie suddenly shrieked and aggressively hit her arm.
“THERES A BEEE!” She yelled. Nom helped her get out of the way of the bee while 4C tried to cover his laughs with poorly timed coughs.
“How are you not afraid of it.” Katie asked, staring at the insect like it murdered her mother.
“Because it doesn't bite.”
“YES IT DOES!”
“No it doesn't!" The slime said. “Look!”
He held out his palm to the fuzzy creature, who was exploring the grass they were sitting on. It bumped its nose against his fingers curiously, and eventually crawled onto his hand, sitting contently.
“What.” Katie said, voice a mix between disbelief and shock. “How- what?!”
“He has some sort of powers, I'm telling you!” Nom huffed, eyeing the bee. “Like every critter willingly climbs into his palm. I have literally seen a butterfly fly onto his nose while walking.”
4C sheepishly shrugged, petting the bee slightly.
“Skill issue.”
“That is not a skill issue, that is clearly witchcraft.” Katie defended. “If anyone but you tried to pet that bee I'm sure it would sting them.”
“Noms pretty good with Felis!” The slime pointed out.
“Ok but Felis is awesome! She has cool patterned wings, and she's really fast, and she hides in my hair! She's also really cute when she's feeding, she has- like a ‘mrep’ face!”
4C and Katie exchanged a glance with raised eyebrows.
“I think Nom likes his moth,” The knight stage-whispered, leaning over. The rogue nodded seriously.
“Just a hunch though!” He whispered back. Nom huffed.
“Im right here.”
~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~-~=~
4C walked up to a small tree growing near the edge of the cliff. It had been around a year since Nom died it was planted, and it was growing shockingly well. Despite most of the soil being dry and unfertilised for the better part of the year, it was a good couple centimetres taller than himself. Then again, that wasn't a hard margin to beat.
Grabbing one of his bundles, he laid down the flowers and ferns he had picked to put on the marker. Despite the writing being hidden between roots and grass, it was still there. Still a reminder of who he couldn't save.
Placing down the plants, he looked up slightly as he felt something brush up against his nose. Looking, he nearly cried as he saw a familiar black and white pattern on the wings of a moth. It fluttered away and back onto the tree, where it camouflaged into the bark. If he looked hard enough, he could see a few other smaller moths akin to Felis.
He laughed quietly. Of course Felis managed to find a way to stay with Nom. The silly moth had such an attachment issue. 4C looked at the critter fondly as it flew around the tree, landing on leaves as they bobbed up and down with the wind.
The slime rubbed a few small tears from his eye, covering his choked sob.
“I promised I wouldn't cry this time..” he whispered quietly, kneeling in front of the grass. He felt so alone. Despite still having Katie and Mae and Scott and everyone else, he still felt like his heart had been ripped out. Felis fluttered down again, brushing against his hand as a small act of comfort. This wasn't the first time he had seen Felis here, and certainly wasn’t the first time he had unconsciously looked for company.
“I miss you..” The rogue mumbled quietly. Somewhere, the wind whispered back. I miss you too.