Chapter 5: First Meal
Eventide didn’t waste any time in going to his fridge with the bug curled up to his chest while Fluttershy called her parents to tell them where she was. With her soft voice speaking in the background serving as pleasant white noise, he pulled open the fridge and began looking through what he had. “Okay… let’s see here…” he mumbled while glancing at the sharp fangs hanging from the bug’s upper lip. It grinned at him in return, letting out a tiny squeak and revealing its sharp teeth. “Judging by the teeth, I’m gonna guess carnivore,” he decided before reaching into the fridge. He pulled out a circular package filled with slices of lunch meat, which he then brought over to his counter. Setting the bug down next to his microwave, he used his now free hand to open the package and pulled out a single slice of lunch meat.
To his surprise, however, when he set it down by the bug, it merely sniffed the meat, poked it with one of its legs, then looked back up at Eventide with its stomach grumbling again. He blinked. “...Okay, no to lunch meat. Uh…” he turned and went back to his fridge, pulling open the higher of the two doors that led to his freezer. As he had hoped, towards the back was a big bag filled with chicken nuggets. “Maybe chicken?” he thought aloud while pulling the bag out and tearing it open.
The bug watched him curiously while he worked, tilting its head and making inquisitive squeaks. He placed five of the nuggets in a circle on a paper plate, which he then stuck in the microwave and set to cook for about a minute and a half. While the machine was doing its work, Eventide then pulled open one of the cupboards over the counter to see that he still had a banana left. Curious, he pulled the long yellow fruit out of the cupboard, peeled it, procured a knife from a drawer and cut a small slice off the tip. He then showed it to the bug, hoping for a reaction.
But the reaction he got was the same as before. The bug sniffed at the banana slice, poked it, then looked at Eventide with its face scrunching up with impatience. In response to it’s seeming indignation, he could only take a bite out of the rest of the banana and throw his arms wide in exasperation. “Hey, don’t look at me like that! I dunno what you eat, gimme a break!” he complained through the food in his mouth.
The bug’s face scrunched up a little more from his tone of voice and bizarre body language. It then crawled a little closer to the edge of the counter and held its little legs out to him as if it wanted a hug. Eventide sighed, took another bite of banana and went for the microwave. The nuggets were almost done. Just like before, though, when he presented them to the bug, it seemed remarkably disinterested in the food being presented.
“Meh, fine. Your loss,” he grumbled while popping one of the nuggets into his mouth and chewing on it. The bug watched him, tilting its head again. Sensing an opportunity, Eventide began to heavily exaggerate his chewing motions while putting on a giant smile. He then ran a hand over his belly and gave a content hum. “See? Food is good,” he said once he swallowed it down. “Have some. You’ll feel better.”
The bug held its legs out for him again.
It was at about this point that Fluttershy finished her call and came walking over with a bemused expression. “Um… is everything alright here?” she asked, looking back and forth between the two as they stared at each other.
Eventide sighed and shook his head. “Fluttershy, there is a weird bug creature with a horn and glowing blue eyes on my counter refusing to eat anything I give it, the high school across the street exploded in the middle of the night and needs repairs, you had a giant fireball chucked at you and you grew wings that are now conspicuously missing,” he rattled off before giving her a flat look. “What do you think?”
She put a finger to her chin for a second as if she were actually thinking about it, then she smiled warmly at him. “I think that it could be a lot worse. Somebody could have been seriously hurt last night, but everything turned out just fine,” she said optimistically before looking at the bug. Her smile was lost to a frown. “Doesn’t like meat, huh?”
“Or banana,” Eventide noted while finishing off said yellow fruit. Once he swallowed it down, he sighed and threw the peel at his trash can. “I don’t really have a whole lot of food I can freely drop on this thing to try and figure out what it eats.”
Fluttershy gave a slow nod, folding her arms over her chest and thinking the matter over. “Well… I could run over to the animal shelter and pick up some food we have lying around. Maybe he eats insects or worms or something,” she suggested hopefully, drawing a nod from Eventide.
“Hey, if you think it’s worth it, go right ahead,” he said in agreement before heading back over to his fridge. “I’ve got some more stuff I can still work through here. I’ll try all of that while you’re gone, okay?”
“Okay. I’ll be back soon!” Fluttershy called while turning and jogging for the door. She paused next to Buddha, who was still sitting by her food dish and gave the dog a few quick scratches behind the ears. Buddha barked happily at the affection and leaned into her hand before Fluttershy saw herself out. Once the door swung closed, Buddha let out a quiet, pitiful wine before finally deciding she was done standing guard. She stood up and made her way over to Eventide, who was showing a piece of broccoli to the bug with no new results. She sniffed at his leg where the bug had clung to him earlier, then barked up at him with a wag of her tail.
Eventide looked down at her, saw the look on her face and chuckled. “You hungry, girl?” he asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
“Bark!”
“Alright, have something,” Eventide laughed, taking the slice of lunch meat that the bug was still ignoring and loosely tossing it at Buddha, who happily chomped it out of the air. While she was satisfying herself with that, Eventide went back to the fridge and pulled out an apple. Once he had a small slice of it cut away, he presented it to the bug.
Again, it didn’t seem interested. It looked up at Eventide and held its legs out again while its stomach gurgled. Its eyes glistened slightly, and it let out another few tiny squeaks, sounding distinctly uncomfortable. Eventide, groaning with frustration, placed his hands over his face. “Bug, buddy, I don’t know what you eat! I’m trying!” he wined before taking his face out of his hands.
He did so just in time to see Buddha stand up on her hind legs to put her front paws on the edge of the counter. She began to sniff the bug, who in turn sniffed her back, both of them looking rather curious. For a moment, the two just looked at each other before Buddha opened her mouth and gently picked the bug up by the scruff of its neck like it were a puppy. Eventide’s eyes widened in alarm. “Buddha, hey!” he said sharply, moving to stop her. He froze when she growled loudly at him, though, and took a few nervous steps back. “Woah, hey! Buddha, easy… you’re not supposed to be-”
She growled at him again, then continued with what she was doing before. She picked the bug up and carried it over to the chair in the corner of the room. Once there, she hopped up and lay down, curling up and tucking the bug between her front legs. With it now secure, she then began licking the top of its head, cleaning away some of the grime it had accumulated during its adventures in the basement. The look on its face was first one of utter confusion, then delight. It made a little sound that, if Eventide didn’t know any better, he would have sworn was childish laughter. It shifted, probably to make itself a bit more comfortable, before opening and closing its mouth over and over, like it was chewing on the air.
As he watched them, all Eventide could do was laugh under his breath and shake his head. His hands came to a rest on his hips “Well, glad to see you two have hit it off so well,” he remarked in amusement. Buddha just kept licking the bug to clean it off, and the bug just kept chewing the air. “Congrats, bug. Buddha’s adopted you. Now I can’t get rid of you,” he jokingly commented before heading over to his phone on the dining table. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be coming in for work today.
After a few minutes, he had sent a text that he hopes would be believable. With that done, he set his phone down and turned to look at the two creatures on his chair. Watching them like that, he had to begrudgingly acknowledge that the sight was… kind of adorable. With a small smile on his face, he slowly made his way over to them. Buddha’s eyes trained themselves on him once he got close, and he decided that was far enough. Finding that he was next to his coffee table, he sat down on the edge of that and just watched them some more. “Okay… I gotta admit,” he said with a quiet chuckle. “You two are cute.”
The bug perked up when he said that and reached its legs out to him with another needy squeak. Eventide got the message, and slowly lifted a hand towards it, trying not to upset Buddha. She eyed him like a hawk while his hand got closer, but his slow movements made it perfectly clear that he meant no harm. After a few seconds, he finally managed to place the tips of his middle and index finger on the bug’s smooth head. He stroked them past its horn and down the back of its neck, and it leaned into his ministrations while closing its eyes and… purring? It was an extremely high pitched sound, like a cross between a cat purr and a cricket chirp.
After a few minutes of lightly petting it like this, Eventide finally retracted his hand and let Buddha go back to cleaning it with her tongue. After another few minutes, something occurred to him. Squinting, he leaned down slightly to get a better look at the bug’s happily smiling face. “Hey… are you still hungry?” he asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer. Its stomach had not growled pretty much since Buddha picked it up, so it was either very distracted from Buddha’s loving licks, wasn’t hungry to begin with, or it was fed by physical affection.
If he hadn’t seen a raging she-demon the previous night, Eventide would not have hesitated to dismiss that third one as utter gibberish. But he did see that she-demon, he did see it throw a fireball, and he did see Fluttershy sprout wings. So, with all of that in mind, he found the idea not as ridiculous as it might have sounded twenty-four hours ago.
Eventually, Fluttershy came back with several paper bags filled with various small forms of food for various types of animal life. Grubs, worms, tiny spiders, nuts, small fruits, berries, and more. She was greeted by the sight of Eventide still sitting on his coffee table, watching Buddha and the bug cuddled up on his chair with a charmed expression on his face. He caught sight of her, and the two met up in the center of the room to discuss what had happened while she was gone with a bowl of cereal.
“So, his stomach just stopped growling?” she asked in surprise once he finished getting her caught up, taking a bite from her bowl.
Eventide nodded, resting one elbow on the table and setting his chin in his palm. “Yep. I’m guessing he wasn’t actually hungry and it was some other noise. Gas bubble, maybe. I dunno…” he replied with a shrug before shoveling in some cereal of his own.
Fluttershy tapped the tip of her spoon to her chin in thought for a few seconds before swallowing down her mouthful and looking over at Buddha and the bug, who were still on the chair. “And you said he was chomping at the air?”
“Mhmm,” Eventide replied simply, looking in that direction as well. “No idea what that was about…”
The two were quiet for a few seconds before a quiet sigh slipped out of Fluttershy. “I’m just as lost as you are,” she admitted sheepishly, curling a lock of her hair with a finger.
“I bet,” he replied with a small smile. “But if I have to take care of this thing, I guess I have the best person for the job helping me out, eh?”
Fluttershy giggled while bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. “I mean, I guess? Thank you for the compliment,” she said before setting her hand back down and taking another spoon of cereal.
“No problem,” was Eventide’s simple response. After another few minutes of silence, the only sounds being their eating and the occasional quiet squeak from the bug, he finished off his cereal and stood up. “Alright, I’m gonna grab my computer and see what I can figure out about this thing. It’s in my room, come on in when you’re done eating, okay?” he said simply.
Fluttershy, with a mouth filled with milk and cereal, gave him a thumbs up and muffled ‘mhmm’ before he turned and walked off into his bedroom. Once inside, he went straight for his plain wooden computer desk, sat down and turned on his computer’s monitor. Signing in, he pulled up his search engine and set to work typing in his first search. “Alright, you weird basement bug,” he thought before hitting ‘Enter’ and seeing the results.
“Let’s find out just what you are…”
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Gah. Too cute. My heart can't take it.
Either the internet is helpful, shorts out, or comes up with nothing
Who makes nuggets in a microwave? If I were a hungry chaingling grub, I'd still probably turn that down. But boy do I love bananas.
Also according to other fics where changlings can "taste" different emotions, I wonder if he's getting motherly love or just affection from Buddha and if it tested better than what he got from Eventide? I bet dogs love would taste way more sweet and pure than humans love. Dogs are best people.
9106087
I make chicken nuggets in the microwave. Every morning I can. It's the breakfast of champions. Are you dissing the breakfast of champions, good sir?
Also, I like to keep my changeling lore consistent from story to story, and 'love' tends to be a blanket term under my headcanon. It refers to not just love, but a whole range of positive feelings; affection, trust, admiration, companionship, lust, safety, and more. I usually figure that emotions generate energy, and it's the energy generated by those positive emotions that Changelings eat.
Dunno how well that answers your theory about Buddha's affection for our lil buggo, but eh. There it is.
9106176
I would not call it that. But then again, you write amazing fiction and I am as creative as a dust bunny. So maybe you are on to something.
And I'm happy as long as our grub is well fed and happy
I can't wait to see his reaction when that adorable little bug calls him daddy for the first time.
9104480
Makes more sense knowing what grade you have them in.
9105951
I wouldn't be able to tell if you hadn't told me just now.
Just give the love bug a hug already!
Buggo is getting more love than he would have in the hive, that's for sure. Seeing how changelings work and such.
Fluttershy's gonna feel a little dumb that she didn't put 'strange alien baby' and 'portal to another world' together sooner...
Animal or not, I'm slightly mad/(dissapointed?) at the dog for taking the Changeling away.
I hope the dog didn't really adopted the Changeling.
Not sure what I'm supposed to think at the moment but I wanted Eventide to be the main guardian of the bug and not a possesive dog which decited to get angry at her owner because she suddenly wanted to keep the little one. Don't get me wrong, I know how animal can be, but that doesn't means I'm alright with every action from every animal and since this is a story you do have some control over it.
I'm just saying it in chase I get told something like that is just how animals are, I'm pretty sure that would not even count in every situation like that.
I'm just a tiny bit dissapointed because I imaged Eventide as something like his father.
9107291
Oh, yeh, for sure. But Eventide has yet to accept that role. He's still meeting Fluttershy halfway by trying to see if they can learn what the Changeling is before he commits to taking care of it.
If he finds anything on the net I'll be surprised.
9107299
I only kind of hope I will notice later that he takes responsibility without the dog acting possessiv, I just thought that the dog still had to listen instead of growling at him normally, but I chalk it up to some kind of instinct. Maybe you meant for the dog to just feed the little one since she for some reason figured out that it was supposed to get feed this way.
I honestly didn't udnerstood why he didn't took the changeling in his arm, hasn't he done that at least once already? I mean he already knows it thinks of him as a father so I guess he should have been up to do some basic stuff, but not everyone thinks the same i guess (I mean the main char not you).
Well okay I wait for what is going to happen right now, otherwise I say more to the point where I'm missing the main topic again. I can go and make a general topic out of it sometimes. I guess it is enough that I told you my opinion on that situation.
9107430
I've said this to someone else, but the four months thing is because, if you pay attention, the time frames of EQG and the mainline show don't line up at all. As such, a friend of mine and I theorized that when the portal is closed or blocked, time flows at different speeds between the two worlds.
I can't even begin to describe how adorable that was. I had a dumb smile on my face pretty much the entire time after the basement freakout.
Oh, we hope he warms up to the little grub. Puppy love can only go so far!
It's interesting you have it making chomping motions for an energy-based ingestion. One could consider it to handle more akin to liquid or gas and thus merely sucking it in. Chomping is more for breaking physical matter after all...
Keep going! ;)
9107432
Ah yes, we noticed that later.
By the way, if you're replying to a comment from an earlier chapter, try to do so from within the chapter itself. There's a longstanding bug where notifications are only sent if it's the latest chapter (if commenting from the story page) or the chapter's comment box. Thanks!
a vary strong slice of life chapter i love it.
9106435
Feh, I'm waiting for the freakout when the happy little bug turns into a miniature version of him... imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right?
"it’s seeming indignation" -> "its seeming indignation"
"held it’s legs" > "held its legs"
Ditto for "past it’s horn and down the back of it’s neck."
9109495
I would have been fine with it if she was found out sometime after the invasion at check sweeps. Maybe she could have been stationed to gather love or even struggling to gather love as a straggler or a renegade.
9109503
Premature birth due to injury I get it.
9109734
Ah, alright. The story made it seem closer. Yes, the latter half of that might turn a few heads, but probably not enough of them to be too worried. I would still think the whole "Underage" factor would be a bigger deal at this point, though.
Huh. Good point.
"Non-existent"
The pure irony that the changeling insisted on verifying whether or not Eventide's furniture was for eating, and they respect him, but won't even try the food when it's encouraged!
I would think it would still need a certain amount of food. After all changelings are still physical creatures and the matter has to come from somewhere.
-Famous Last Words