MGS ch. 72

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mjdoobcHjQYYrQVWJtX2Lx5wGMyURLxy5PKpmhXWhKI/edit?usp=sharing

Autumn and I washed up and headed back to Tater Town a couple hours later. After all my disappearances, I figured it was probably best not to go MIA for too long at a time, and that turned out to be a good choice because by the time we returned they were already assembling a search party.

“My Bucky!” Sprinkle said, running up and leaping off of her unicorn hooves. I caught her, and she sniffed the air. “Is Autumn… marked?”

“You can smell it?” I asked.

“I can smell a lot of cum,” she giggled. “And she’s smiling bigger than I’d seen her smile in months.”

Hearing that, I turned to face Autumn and confirmed it for myself. It was true, though now she was blushing, too.

“You guessed correctly, Sprinkle,” Autumn said, sighing with some manner of relief. “I am marked at last.”

Sprinkle smiled. “I’m glad,” she said. “I know you gave up your slot for me a long time ago—I often wonder what would have happened to me if you didn’t.”

“I’m sure you would have been fine,” I assured her with a smile. “Anyway—it’s come to my attention that I need to visit Scalia.”

Sprinkle nodded solemnly. “She is not happy with you.”

“Why didn’t anyone warn me in advance?” I bemoaned, but I was clearly on my own with no excuse except, oh I dunno, life-threatening, world view-altering trauma.

Getting only the briefest of responses, I kissed each of them once and headed to Scalia’s Tavern. When I walked inside, I noticed right away that the decor had changed in the last three months.

Before I even saw Scalia, a frying pan went flying toward my head. I caught it by the handle, my eyes tracing its trajectory back to its thrower. The busty green-haired lamia’s forked tongue slithered in the air. She was crossing her arms at me, staring expectantly.

“Hey, Scalia,” I grunted, gently setting the frying pan down on a nearby table.

“Bring that back over here,” she said coldly.

I nodded and carried it over to her. “I suppose I deserved that,” I said. No sooner had she taken hold of it than did she use the opportunity to smack me over the head with the cooking implement. My head rang, but me being an Apex Hero at level twenty, it did essentially no real damage.

“Your daughter is hatching soon,” she said.

I nodded, clutching my throbbing forehead. “In my defense—”

“I know you have lots of excuses, and I may even believe them,” she growled. “Bucky, we aren’t in love—we aren’t in any kind of relationship, and I honestly didn’t expect anything from you as a father—but hearing about how you’ve treated Bonny’s kids, and now May Belle and Daisy’s—”

I grunted. “Scalia, your disappointment is totally valid,” I agreed. “I’ll make no excuses.”

“Good,” she said. She paused. Her forked tongue flicked in the air two more times. “Okay, I forgive you.”

I laughed. “That was easy,” I mused.

“You’re here in time,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “That’s all that matters.”

“In time for what?” I asked.

She grinned. “Come with me,” she said.

I followed her to a little room in the back that was kept dark. A bunch of blankets were piled on the floor. “Pick those up for me, will you?” she said.

I nodded. I lifted the patchwork blankets off of the floor, handing them to Scalia, who placed them gingerly on a shelf. When the last one was in my arm, I gasped at what I had uncovered.

A yellow egg that came up to my waist was sitting there, staring at me. Shaking.

“Is that a fucking egg?” I asked. “It’s huge!”

Scalia placed a hand on my shoulder. “Now that you’re here, she can hatch,” she said. “Venomia, do you hear that voice? It’s daddy. You can come out if you’re ready.”

My eyes went wide. I stared at Scalia in shock. “Now?! This is happening now?!”

She grinned. “Yes, Hero,” she said. “Venomia, it’s mommy.” She crouched down, her enormous snake tail a perfect counterbalance. She was almost able to go fully parallel with the ground. “Time to wake up, sweety.”

My heart stopped beating. My lungs stopped receiving air. I just stared like a gaping buffoon as that huge egg started to rustle and crack. I leaned forward to get a better look. I got really close, trying to peer through the cracks.

I decided to try to call out to her myself. “Venomia—”

The egg shattered, and a snake girl with a five foot long tail who stood about waist high on it emerged with a springing jump. I didn’t have time to appreciate how cute she was, because the only thing I saw was an open mouth flying toward my head.

She latched onto my neck, digging her two large venomous fangs into my shoulder. Her arms wrapped around me, followed by her tail, which coiled around the majority of my body, running out of length at about my calves. Something was pumping into my veins.

“Awww,” Scalia grinned, clapping, “She bit you!”

“She sure did,” I said awkwardly. “Is that good?”

“No, not really,” Scalia admitted. “It’s a neurotoxin that Lamias usually use on potential mates that make them fall hopelessly in devotion for a short period of time—looks like she’s a daddy’s girl.”

I swallowed, caressing the girl’s pink hair. “It doesn’t feel great,” I commented. “She’s still pumping it in there.”

“It means she likes you,” Scalia giggled. “Awww, I’m so happy!” Scalia said, fanning her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she used her forked tongue to clean them up.

“I’m less enthused,” I confessed, but I smiled as I felt the toxin throbbing in my veins, “about being bitten, anyway. I’m thrilled about meeting Venomia.”

Finally the little girl’s face drew back from my neck, and she looked up at me with adorably creepy reptilian eyes. “Papa? Do you love me yet?” Her voice was high pitched and raspy.

I laughed. “You don’t need to inject neurotoxins into me to get me to love you,” I said.

She cocked her head. “I don’t?” she said skeptically.

“You’re my daughter,” I explained. It was surreal to be having a conversation with a newborn half-snake child that looked like an eight-year-old. “I love you by default.”

She grinned. “I love you too, Papa!” she said. Aaaaand she bit me again.

I pulled her off, ripping her face and upper body away from my throat, but her snake half wrapped around me tighter in protest, squeezing some of the air out of my lungs. “Okay, Mia,” I grunted, “we need to set some ground rules.

“Venomia,” Scalia said in a soothing tone, reaching out and taking the little girl into her arms, “it sounds like your papa doesn’t really like being bitten by you.”

I cringed slightly. “Not sure why you had to emphasize the ‘by you’ part in front of her but—”

She pouted. “Who bites you, papa?!” she whined. “I want to bite you, too!”

“Context is key, sweetheart,” I said, taking a deep breath now that her constricting body was no longer attached to me. “That’s a grown-up and non-relational activity.”

“Injecting neurotoxins into papa?” she asked.

I frowned. “Well, no one really injects neurotoxins into me but you, but—”

She gasped happily, clapping her hands. “So I can bite you after all?!” she said in her scratchy little voice.

“Now, that’s not exactly what I—”

Before I could answer she had launched herself off of her mother’s bosom and attached herself to my neck by the fangs again. This time, though, I didn’t feel anything coursing through my neck.

She pulled back, looking up at me with pleading eyes. I cradled her in my arms. “I’m out of venom,” she whispered as though ashamed.

“Good,” I said.

She cried. It was a loud, wailing sound that reminded me Flopsy’s dramatic waterworks. Shit, they were going to manipulate me so well.

“Ahh crap,” I groaned, “don’t cry, sweety.” I held her up to my face and nuzzled her cheek. “Your papa’s here,” I said.

Her snaky tail wrapped twice around my back and she hugged me tightly enough to compromise air flow again. She looked up at me with predatory eyes. “I’m hungry,” she said.

Scalia grinned. “That’s my cue,” she said. “Bucky, thank you for being here,” her grin momentarily faded, “even if you were rather late.”

“What’s going on now?” I asked.

“I have to teach her to hunt and kill,” she said. “I’ve got some chickens out back, if you want to watch, but I figure—”

“Nope, I’m good,” I replied, raising my hands. “This is mommy’s time. Maybe she can come out to play with me and the other girls later?”

Venomia looked up at her mother with begging eyes. “Can I, mommy?”

“Of course, sweety,” she said, “but no biting anyone but papa.”

“Okay,” Venomia rasped happily.

“Why is that a rule—you know what, never mind. I don’t even feel anything.”

Scalia smiled, leaned in, and whispered, “you won’t—blood relations are immune to a lamia’s bite. It’s harmless to you, but it’s super cute that she likes you so much!”

I smirked nervously. “Heh, adorable,” I said. I kissed Venomia on the cheek, and she kissed me back. It was so sweet and gentle and it made my heart melt. “Maybe those neurotoxins are working after all,” I chuckled.

I bid them farewell and walked toward the door.

“Okay, sweety,” Scalia said, “let me teach you how to dislodge the jaw so you can eat the whole chicken.”

I was grateful that I left when I did.