Days of Angst

Like, the pain has stopped yet Howard hasn't caught up with the present yet. Perhaps he thinks he's finally died, and there's only one he knows waiting for him in death who would hold him like this. It plays off the idea of Phillip having inadvertently filled the role of Howard's mother all those years. Also another "M" word to add to the mix.

Rhyming Anon

Oooohhhhh very interesting idea Rhyming Anon 🤔 personally I don't think it's overkill and could be an interesting thing to explore. Plus it also adds to the parallel between this and when Morose had to treat the brand infection, when Howard was so feverish from the infection that he starts believing that he's going to die.

And when he gives up struggling, the last glitch-switch ended on Morose.

Rhyming Anon

👀👀👀👀 Rhyming Anon this is such a good idea and I absolutely love it >:D the 'M' symbolism going back and forth between Morose and Maude as Howard desperately tries to tell the difference between the two, plus the little detail about the names appearing in computer fonts and glitching to switch is such a good detail, like it's lingering side effects from being forced into becoming a CPU or lingering memories from that time >:D

Oooohhh interesting question 🤔

I can see Thomas only doing the bare minimum for Howard when he gets sick, only bothering to figure out what is plaguing him and then getting the right medicine and just saying 'take this and shut up and suck it up'. Basically he's the parent that's like 'stop whining and take this medicine it will make you feel better so you can stop bothering me'.

Meanwhile with Samantha, she's a lot more meticulous and caring with Howard. She takes the time to comfort him when his illnesses flare up, giving him warm food to help him recover and make sure he's comfortable and resting somewhere soft and cozy. She also tries to get Thomas to be more caring when Howard gets sick, and to try to strengthen Howard's immune system so he doesn't get sick often.

Thomas continues to only do the bare minimum for Howard when he gets sick after Samantha dies though, only going beyond that when it's clear that Howard would die without extra care. I can imagine the brand on Howard's chest gets infected a few days after it's applied, and it gets so bad that Thomas had to care for him properly. He spent so much effort in correcting him and applying his mark on him, would be a shame if it all went to waste now.

The key thing was he got used to Thomas and Samantha's footsteps, the way they carried themselves. So he was able to tell who it was when they came up to the door and let him out.

If it was Thomas, Howard would find himself pressing his back to the wall out of terror before trying to scramble out when the door was fully open, stumbling on his feet while trying not to make eye contact with Thomas.

If it was Samantha, Howard would find himself inching just a little bit closer to the door- not fully committing in case she just walked by without opening. But if she did open the door, he would be a lot more visibly relieved when stumbling out, maybe offering her a quiet thanks.

I can see one time, though, when the memory of his mother becomes too much after he spends too long in the dark, he starts pounding on the door and begging to be let out, feeling as though he cant breathe. He hears rushed stomping, and crawls away backwards a bit, thinking it's Thomas. But when the door slams open and light pours in, and he sees it's Samantha who heard him-

He doesn't remember what happened in-between, but he finds himself on the ground, clutching her like a child as he sobs and hyperventilates, struggling to take any air in between choking out his cries while she tries to soothe him, ruffling his hair like his mother would. She's not his mother, he tells himself. He already has one, and no one could ever fill that same role.

(He's a bit embarassed by it later and tries not to dwell on it.)

Ooohhh I like this I like this a lot 👀 >:) I love the distinct reactions you detailed, fitting for both Thomas and Samantha and showing how both of them affected Howard.

I can see the few times Howard accidentally made eye contact with Thomas while getting out of the dark room was a cold, hard gaze that says 'you better be willing to cooperate this time boy or you're going back in there', and he resolves to never want to see it again.

I can see Samantha genuinely being surprised when Howard thanks her when she lets him out, not knowing how to respond but feeling happy regardless, in both a 'awwww' way and a 'he's starting to get compliant' way.

Why do I feel like those moments where Howard ends up in a panic and begging tonbe let out the dark room, almost every other time it was Thomas who heard him and he would either enter the room with a sneer, telling Howard that he can either finally talk or keep his mouth shut and suck it up, or he makes a loud sound from outside in some way to get Howard to back off on pounding on the door, which only makes him panic more until he passes out from sheer fear or until the fear leaves him exhausted enough to just sit there crying silently. And he eventually got used to Thomas being the one to shut him up only for one time it was Samantha who opened the door, and he's never felt so relieved before to see her.

(Samantha probably felt her motherly instincts with Howard come to life when she heard his cries, and despite it being far too early to let him out, say it was like an hour left for him to be let out, she couldn't help but open the door regardless, knowing that she and Thomas are going fight about this later, especially when she learns about Howard's mother)

I can see the one time the memory of his mother getting too painful to bear being the catalyst to Howard revealing that his mother died in the dark to Samantha after she calms him down, maybe bringing him to a much more comfortable place than the floor like a chair or a couch. Samantha gently coaxes it out of him, mostly out of concern for how distressed he sounded, maybe a tiiiinnnnnyyyy bit of her wanting to get information out from him but mostly out of concern.

Howard manages to catch her before she hits the ground, and she's completely unresponsive.

And Howard, he-

He knows he could maybe escape now. He could check if she has the keys to the manor on her person, maybe check if she's got anything on her that he could use to get out of here in general. And then he can run away and forget this all happened.

But he can't do it. He can't possibly check her pockets, because he's too busy making sure her head doesn't hit the ground and that she's still breathing, because she's been so nice to him, and yes, she's half of the party responsible for keeping him here but the thought of her dying has his heart in a vice grip and he finds his hands shaking and his breath quivering as he wishes she would just wake up, "please, Sam, you can't leave me here alone!"

It's one of the few times he's called Thomas by his first name when he starts screaming for help.

Even in recovery, Howard's not sure if that was the right call. Yet, he feels like to do anything else would have been unthinkable. It complicates his feelings because of what came after.

Ooohhh I love this idea 👀 😈

Choosing to see if Samantha had the keys and escaping may not have changed anything, but regardless Howard still chose to throw away that chance to get her to wake up, to want her to live in spite of her also keeping him prisoner. Maybe it was at this moment that Howard realizes just how much Samantha affected him whether he wants to admit it or not, and realizing that he did find comfort with her and cares enough about her to call for Thomas, ruining his chance of escaping undetected. I can see this happening in October or November, or a bit earlier even.

To care for someone who still is responsible for the cruel circumstances you were placed in, to not want that person to die, is it simply because it would be cruel to let them or is it because you really did become attached? Would anything about your choice have changed had she been less kind to you? Or would you have tried to save her anyway regardless because just letting anyone die is unthinkable to you in general?

Howard definitely thinks about these questions over and over again during recovery. Maybe even wondering what things could've been better in an ideal world, where Samantha and Thomas weren't conducting unethical and inhumane experiments and were good people. But this is not that world, nor does he ask Phillip if such a world existed when he had universal knowledge in his brain. One it's not worth letting Phillip relive all of the what ifs and the excruciating extent of universal knowledge and two his feelings would just get even more complicated if such a world did exist.

I'm kidding, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

Awww that's a sweet image. I can see Phillip offering her a fish as a peace offering during his apology and her doing the nuzzling his face before taking the fish. Maybe he even falls asleep on her snout during a late night at the lab, while she has it settled on the rim of her pool, having fallen asleep too. (Angelique finds them the next morning and snaps a photo of this too haha)

Oh, that makes sense as the catalyst for his panic attack! The little things that push a guy over the edge. He probably tries to clean up the glass himself before breaking down when he realizes it'll just injure his hands for nothing. And yeah! I can see that being exactly why he's apologizing! For both that and for not being fully "better" yet after the island.

(You have to wonder if Nessie considered grabbing Phillip away from Howard when she saw him running towards him, only to stop when she noticed how gentle he was being. It definitely softens the bitterness, knowing that Phillip isn't always unrestrained violence.)

And thank you! I tried to personalize their comfort based on their own abilities, personalities, and specific relation to Howard. I really like that idea too, of Howard nearly falling into the water before Nessie grabs him and he tucks hinself into her fur. It could have happened while they were alone one late lab night, and Howard may have passed out while leaned on her snout after she tried to place him back on solid ground. Much like someone with a cat on their lap, Nessie couldn't do much but keep her head still, lest he fall over. She did notice him unconsciously leaning into her fur, though, and thus made the connection.

(And yes, exactly! It disproves his preconceived notions about her, and he calms down seeing how gently she's treating Howard. It also helps hammer in to Phil that him and Nessie have that same common goal of helping Howard. Maybe Nessie can even act as his service animal while he works in the lab! If he has a migraine coming out and might faint, she wedges her head in front of his chair so that he can flop over her.)

And yesss I can see that too! It makes Howard feel better to look at the next time he grabs his lunch.

No problem :D hooray for analysis and words fr :)

Awwww yessss I can see that :) bonus points if maybe the one Phillip got was from fishing. And awwww the image is so sweet i can just imagine them both leaning against each other sleeping peacefully and for once not giving each other apprehensive or hostile looks or fighting again, just the two of them relaxing and sleeping the night away (awwww and then she puts it next to the photo of Howard and Nessie in the kitchen fridge, also when Howard arrives in the lab Angelique shows it to him and he just probably tears up a bit from how adorable it was and also how he's glad that the two of them patched things up)

Yessss, it's the smallest things that often break the camel's back. For extra extra sadness maybe when Howard stops trying to clean up the glass, he doesn't just stop because he realizes he'll be injuring himself (and creating more work for the others to take care of like the burden he thinks he is) but also because in that moment he hears Morose's voice as an auditory hallucination, causing him to freeze up and start panicking. How could he be here? He's dead, he saw Nessie eat him! He can't be alive can he? When he barely makes out the sight of Phillip, he immediately clings onto him, hoping that, in his panicked mind, that none of this wasn't a dream and that he's actually still trapped on the island. I can see it too and it makes a lot of sense, and also Phillip is devastated to hear that Howard doesn't think he's getting any better, putting unreasonable expectations on himself when he went through so much already.

(Honestly yes I can definitely see that. I can see that Nessie was just about to attack Phillip when Howard clings onto him instinctively in his panic attack, and Nessie stops thinking that this was another one of Howard's frequent attempts to stop her and Phillip from fighting, which frustrates her, but then seeing Phillip being gentle and patient and caring with Howard somewhat tempers her feelings. Maybe this kind of gets her to reflect on Phillip's behaviour when encountering her on the island, and how more times out of ten aside from their first encounter, he was trying to get away from her rather than seek out to hurt her)

No problem, I think you did a great job with that :D glad you like the idea, and awwww the image of Howard leaning on Nessie's snout like a cat laying in the lap of someone is too cute 🥺 Nessie also definitely falls asleep providing if Phillip or Angelique didn't come back to check on Howard and see him leaning against Nessie. Angelique is probably the one who discovers this and she just gets the 'awwwww' in her but she needs to escort Howard home (she takes a sneaky photo first and foremost though).

(Yesss :D it also adds another reason for Phillip to hate Morose when he reflects on Nessie trying to eat him back on the island, he still hated it of course but now that his bitterness has died down, he realizes that it's not exactly fair to criticise Nessie for just trying to survive even if he did not appreciate being the target. Phillip also wishes he was awake to see Morose getting eaten by Nessie, a bit more so than usual lol)

Phillip's comfort that Nessie witnesses could be a tight hug on the floor. Howard, already having some awful day, has a moment in the lab where something accidentally triggers his memory of being back on the island and has a terrible panic attack. Nessie doesn't know what she can do, she hardly knows what's happening to him! She damn near panics herself, splashing the water in her enclosure while she fusses over what to do. Until she sees Phillip rush to Howard, and watches Howard cling onto to Phillip as tight as possible and bury his face in Phillip's shoulder as Phillip kneels down on the floor so that Howard doesn't keel over. He whispers reassurances into Howard's ear and rubs the small of his back in circles, and they stay like that for a long time until Howard finally breathes normally again. Howard promptly sobs messily into Phillip's shoulder, mumbling apologies, while Phillip reassures him that it's okay. It's okay, Howard. One day at a time.

Nessie softens her view on Phil. Just a bit.

On what Phillip could witness-

I'm sure Howard has some lingering chronic pains after everything- like chronic migraines after having endured the CPU treatment, where every noise is too loud and every light is too bright and its like a cold burn immediately beneath the skin. It necessitates a good liedown.

This, Nessie does know how to help with, when she sees the pained look in Howard's face and the way he seems to writhe a bit. It reminds her of when she was a chick (pup? Nessie reads as vaguely mammalian to me.), and her and her siblings would be tucked into their mother's fur if they were in distress. And so she softly coos, gently nudging Howard with her head. He rubs his face back against her's, taking in how soft her fur is. And then, to Phillip's horror, he just- he just lets her pick him up! With her mouth!

At first, Phillip panics, thinking that this is truly it. That she's finally had enough and- and- and she's going to eat him! Howard's going to die! He has to stop her! He has to-

Nessie gently lowers Howard onto her back, and he lies on his side on the soft fur before curling up slightly. To give him more comfort, Nessie tucks her head into her fur nearby like a bird, and Howard seems to shift himself closer against it befor he closes his eyes and breathes a bit easier.

.... Phillip lets out a breath he doesn't realize he had been holding.

Maybe Nessie isn't so bad, then.

First of all the little scenes you detailed of how Phillip and Nessie would give their comfort to Howard is genuinely so sweet I love it 🥺 I'll list my commentary on them in a bit, prepare for a lot of analysis and words lol 😈

Anyways yessss it would be very sweet :) knowing that the other does care for Howard would lead to less animosity, at first begrudging respect before it leads to perhaps a bit of a genuine connection forming later down the line (I imagine their eventual apology to each other for what they did to each other happens around or even at the start of them forming a genuine connection, with Nessie communicating her apology to Phillip by nuzzling her face against his with some apologetic noises)

Awww Phillip's comfort is quite big on the hurt of the hurt/comfort and I love it and makes a lot of sense. Honesty for extra sadness, I can imagine what causes Howard to have a panic attack that day is something really minor, like dropping a test tube on the floor or something. Something that should be easy to resolve, but the thing is (something I imagine might take place), Morose expects no failures, no mistakes, from the very, very few times Howard has to have had worked with him (particularly when Samantha fell deathly ill), and any mistakes no matter how minute is seen as him purposely messing up, him being 'selfish' again, that he's a failure for someone of his intelligence. With how bad Howard's day was already, and with the memory of Morose berating him for a small mistake, it all just becomes too much to handle. Makes for when Howard apologizes to Phillip a lot more saddening since despite the bad day he had he managed to keep himself together for the most part, and dropping a test tube was what led to him breaking down like this?

(Also this is such an important moment for Nessie to see too, because she sees firsthand that Phillip is not like Morose at all from her assumptions from how he smacked her away with the branding iron. Morose stopped, or perhaps never, gave such tender comfort to her or anyone else on the island after Samantha passed, and for all she knew of Phillip from their first meeting, all he did was hurt her and didn't apologize for it leading to the more negative views she has on him until this moment, of course she's still bitter but it's not as strong as before, slightly though)

Howard definitely has chronic pain from his experiences on the island including but not limited to: the brand on his chest still aching and burning since it was pressed a lot deeper into the skin, his mouth regarding the stitches being sewn in and cut out and Phillip's accidental cuts, his head of course from the CPU treatment and with it chronic migraines, the occasional dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, etc (there are even some days where even the act of thinking is painful for Howard, information getting dragged out of your brain and information going into your brain and processed against your will would do that) his body from not being able to have any physical activity for about a week or two because of said CPU treatment and from other minor things Morose did and from his countless failed escape attempts, etc etc.

Anyways Nessie's comfort is a lot more emphasised on comfort and I quite like it :) I like to imagine that Nessie's fur is extraordinarily soft like a fluffy pillow times a hundred. Since it seems like in the scene you wrote, it seems like this has occurred enough times for Nessie to know what to do when she sees Howard like that, I imagine the first time he suffers a migraine while in the lab, he was in Nessie's enclosure, but almost fell into the water in the enclosure because of said migraine until Nessie caught him, and Howard leans into her soft fur and Nessie kind of makes the connection that she can help make him feel better when he's in pain.

(And like with Nessie witnessing Phillip helping Howard, this is also an important moment for Phillip to witness, even if his first impressions were 'oh my god she's going to eat my friend HELL NO-' all he knew from Nessie is that she kept trying to eat him, even after knowing why he's still not really over almost getting eaten alive multiple times. He knows that Howard is fond of Nessie though, and up until that moment Phillip thinks it's not reciprocated as he keeps thinking she wanted to eat him too, and his fears were almost proven right before it died down somewhat when Nessie just wanted to comfort Howard from the migraine he has, something that medication and Phillip himself can't always help with. Makes him less angry and tense around Nessie, tolerating her a bit more after that if only so Howard won't have to worry too much about migraines while at work)

That also gives me the image of Howard shushing Nessie like a horse haha

He probably has to shield Phil from Nessie in the true ending after Nessie eats Morose! If Phil was conscious, he would probably scream! And then try to scramble off of Howard's back and shield Howard before falling flat on his face because of his concussion.

They do and honestly I can see it being both funny and sad, with perhaps a sweet and nice resolution to their conflict later down the line in the true ending, though it won't be quick (i can imagine a few gags regarding Howard and Angelique having to stop Phillip and Nessie from fighting and maybe them making a pact to not let them be in the same room for a while) Maybe it's their mutual care for Howard that gets them to stop and try to make things up with each other, though it's going to take a while for them to realize this because Phillip still thinks Nessie wants to eat him and Nessie thinks Phillip is like Morose.

Wait why is that kinda funny though- XD

Thank you! :] Action scenes are fun to write! Theyre a good challenge to do write, very different than calmer character introspection scenes.

And thank you! (Although I didn't consider that the tear got him caught too! I moreso meant that the tear stood out to him because he could see the bright color of the flower through the gap.) When it came to the tear, I thought it would flesh out the scene more to describe the motion of Howard sticking his thumbs in and wrenching his hands apart. It's that kind of descriptive character writing that I have fun with. And with the rock, you're correct! It was a mix of that, but also the idea that small problems can be the straw that broke the camel's back, and the stone really just made it worse.

(The shoe thing was twofold! Firstly that I thought Howard might have lost them during an escape attempt, and Morose never bothered to replace them - the notion that the loss of those shoes was punishment itself. Secondly, it adds to Howard's vulnerability in his situation to remove that protective layer between him and things on the ground.)

I like that idea about their bonding! I wrote Nessie in this one as a bit of a desperate animal. She probably does recall Howard from the few times they've seen each other, but has no strong feelings for him beyond "That guy looks like food. I'm starving."

Part of things here is also that Nessie probably gets... well, a bit attached, in her own way. She appreciates Howard not doing anything more to her after the fight. He isn't Morose. Not awful and vindictive. Hence why she eats Morose in the true ending rather than Howard.

While I haven't written (and won't for a while! I tend to write things more sequentially these days.) it yet, I can see Howard, after Nessie eats Morose, cautiously reaching a scarred hand out for Nessie to sniff (sort of like horses, I suppose!), and Nessie nuzzling it with her cheek.

He gently rubs it back, and it comforts the both of them.

My intention with that ending interaction between them as well, was that Howard has gone through his development as a person in the au of an au, and as an expression of that empathy when he sees himself in Nessie. I wanted to add more weight to when Nessie saves Howard and Phillip at the end, as though she really is returning the favor of Howard being better than Morose and promising that he won't leave her behind here.

Don't worry it's fine lol, character limits on comments >:(

Anyways no problem :D and yessss they are, though for me I have a lot of trouble imagining and writing action scenes, my brain just does not brain when it comes to them lol TwT

No problem :D (oooohhh I see 👀 a happy accident then :) ) yeahhh that's fair and also a mood because I love descriptive writing myself >:) oooohhh I see and yeah makes sense, though now that I'm reading that I can imagine Knowhere popping up and being like 'hey it's just a tear calm down' but in his own way and maybe in a slightly comforting way because Howard needs it

(Ahhh I see, and honestly that makes a bit more sense lol. I can see Howard maybe losing them in the garage chute somehow or just losing them from a place that's really high up with no way to get them back. Also Howard's feet in the au of the au must hurt really badly walking around with only socks-)

"That guy looks like food I'm starving" I'M CRYING 😂 but yeah that makes sense especially in this context, I just like the idea of them bonding (which also makes me think of an idea I had a while back where, before she died, Samantha would sometimes take Howard out of his room not to help him escape but to let him stretch his legs and walk around that isn't too far into the manor. Samantha is like the good cop to Morose's bad cop essentially, still wanting information and knowledge from Howard but Samantha just knows better than to use negative reinforcement all the time (something Morose swiftly forgets about when she dies, and also that she gets attached and sees Howard as a son rather than a prisoner (Howard doesn't really reciprocate though) )and sometimes on their walks maybe they see Nessie and Samantha lets Howard interact with her for a short while, figuring that no harm can be done with this)

Makes sense, and also Nessie definitely understands that Howard only hurt her out of necessity and did not enjoy it :)

Anyway, Howard should encounter Nessie!

____

I had a few ideas for some key character acting moments, and they expanded into this!

Howard has been in the Greenhouse a few times, but not enough to map it out, given that Morose usually recaptures him quite shortly afterwards.

After entering a new area in the Greenhouse and grabbing the key he needs from a shallow pond after having waded in ( - two feet deep! What is such a shallow pond meant to keep, he thinks? - ), he realizes, squinting at the plaque on a pool lit by the large overheard light shining over...

This is where Nessie is kept.

Howard hears her footsteps approaching from the overgrown foliage, and knowing he's too far from the exit, impulsively hides from Nessie by jumping into her pool and holding his breath. He waits silently, squinting up through the surface to see the splotchy yellow of her hide before her head dips in to take a drink a few feet away. He holds his hands over his mouth to stop himself from inhaling any water while still holding his breath, and keeps still as he can while Nessie takes in a very long drink of water.

Unfortunately, he hiccups once as his body involuntarily tries to catch a breath, and he quickly clamps his hands back over his mouth as he watches a few bubbles rise up to the surface of his water and pop at the surface.

Nessie goes still, and Howard thinks she's heard him somehow or felt the the change in the water's surface. Miraculously, though, she simply raises her head out of the water and...

Nothing happens. She doesn't dunk her head back into the water to search for him. There's no sudden pluck out of the water. All that happens is that he sees the blurred yellow above the water walk away. After a few moments to be safe and his lungs unable to take anymore, he surfaces with a small splash, gasping for air. That was close. So, so, close.

But it seems to have worked out. Because Nessie is nowhere to be seen. So slowly, Howard clambers out of the pool, looking around to make sure Nessie isn't about. He wrings his coat out between his hands as he does one final sweep around him (- and also trying to ignore the awful squelching feeling of his wet socks on the dirt. God, he misses his shoes, worn out as they were. The thought of missing such a small thing compared to what he's currently dealing with would make him snort if he weren't so focused -) on the matter at hand.

She really is gone, it seems. Best he not stick around, then. Maybe he can find another way to get where he needs to go? Well, he better-

Howard registers the large red flower by the foliage of the exit just a second too late.

Some fact or other about ambush predators and biomimicry comes to mind just as he realizes his feet no longer touch the ground and the sound of screaming is his own. Nessie herself sticks out like a sore thumb from how high up her tail grabs him by the end of his coat, and Howard screams. His brain drifts to the wonder of he could be heard up from the atrium, maybe so that it can shield him from the idea of being eaten alive.

Because Nessie, clearly starving, licks her lips as she twists her body to hold up Howard above her mouth.

Howard, acting faster than he can think, tries to slip out of his coat, but gets himself stuck further as his too-small coat's sleeves scrunch up at his wrists, and he dangles with his wrists held above his head. No, no, no. Howard think, think! It can't end like this! There must be something that- There! That tear!

Howard sees it - the red of the flower through a hole in the back of his coat.

He remembers one night in his room, lit by the light of that rock, where he had wailed over the small tear he had found in his coat. An inconsequential casualty of another escape attempt, not worth the despair, and yet, it still had felt like the worst problem there. He couldn't mend it, and that rock had magnified that upset.

Howard could almost cry again as he wedges both of his thumbs into the hole, the cloth so threadbare that it's nearly sharp on the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers, and wrenches his hands apart.

RIIIIP!

The motion cleaves the coat in two, and Howard screams again as he falls, Nessie barely missing him with the snap of her jaws. He clings onto her neck, face practically buried in it with how thick her fur is. It's so soft, like a cushion, and Howard has to wrench his face away to pant, lest he choke on that fur.

Meanwhile, Nessie coughs on the bottom half of his coat, almost choking on it before she spits it out.

She wrenches her head at an angle to glare at him, and Howard stares back anxiously. He gasps, nearly caught offguard as her flower tail snaps at him before he manages to dodge it by swinging to the other side of her neck, fingers dug into her thick fur. Nessie growls again, snapping her tail at him again. Again, Howard dodges it, swinging his body while grasping with one hand. The ground below makes him nauseous, but he can't think of that! He'll die by that flower if he thinks too long about going splat!

He has to get back on the ground somehow! He can't climb down, Nessie could stomp him if her tail doesn't get him! So if he can't get down to the ground....

..... maybe he can bring Nessie down with him.

Determined, Howard digs his fingers into her fur again with both hands. Digging his feet in as well, he begins to climb, managing to avoid that flower with carefully timed swings of his body while still hanging onto her with one hand, and then swinging back to continue climbing. The longer he climbs, the more agitated Nessie gets. Until finally-

Howard pants for breath as he clings onto Nessie's snout from below.

Swinging himself to the side of her bottom jaw, he glares her in the eyes that glare back.

"Come on, Ness!" taunts Howard. "Is that really your best?! Come and get me, you overgrown-!"

Howard screams as he lunges towards her neck, just as the flower digs into her snout with its sharp teeth. Her fur protects Howard's ears as she screeches in pain and stumbles over her own feet in the shock of it mixed with having had to twist her her body for her tail to reach. Howard can feel the wind in his hair as he holds on tight, trying not to hurl as the world around his drops down what feels like a thousand miles a moment until the impact of Nessie's body against the ground.

He tumbles off of Nessie a few feet away, bouncing off the ground a few moments before landing face-first in the dirt. He props himself up by the elbows while panting, and thankful that it's soil and not stone.

Howard turns his body over, still breathing hard as his head turns to Nessie to make sure she isn't still chasing him. Instinctively, he crawls a foot or so back at the sight of her.

She's still alive, but her snout bleeds hard, and she whines pitifully when she tries to sit up, only to collapse back down on the ground - not even out of pain, it seems. Out of having given up.

The gesture reminds him of a man in a room with no respite, who nearly laid there and died if not for the goading and prodding and poking of a cat who simply wouldn't give it up.

Would Nessie have had a Knowhere? Howard finds himself wondering, considering how shallow her pool was and how he could feel the solid bone beneath her fur.

He's not stupid. He's not going to approach, lest he get eaten. But he does apologize.

"I'm sorry," calls out Howard from his spot of the floor. He doesn't know if she understands. "But it would have been you or me. And... if I don't get back to Phil, then... you won't even have this den." He pauses. "I see you, Nessie, Morose has... Morose has hurt us both."

He doesn't miss Nessie's flinch at the name.

"And... I'm sorry for adding to that load. When me and Phil get back to the mainland, we'll come back for you. We'll find someone who can take care of you who isn't cruel. That's a promise, Ness. We won't just leave you to starve in this mess."

He props himself up properly, stumbling to his feet. Nothing broken, thankfully. Nessie doesn't try and make a reach for him. He gives her a smile, not that it'll do much.

"Goodbye, Nessie. We'll come back, you'll see."

And so, Howard leaves with the key.

Nessie watches him go quietly.

Even if this is just a scene pitch and not fully written and fleshed out this is still peak right here like 👀 I love the way it's all structured and the little action scenes and the character moments I loveeee it you have written peak once again even if it's not fully written >:)

I love the creativity in having the little tear in Howard's coat being what simultaneously gets him caught and avoiding getting eaten. Also the part where the rock was making the tear a much bigger deal, makes me think that Howard could've been sent spiraling back to the days of poverty and having to fend for himself, and not having fully mended clothes was a big threat he wanted to avoid at all costs (also the part about him not having his shoes, that is definitely a Morose thing to do to take his shoes away so he has less mobility, also the wet socks part made me cringe at the thought of wet socks so XD)

Also Howard calling Nessie 'Ness' is honestly so cute even in the context of them fighting. Makes me think that they could have seen each other a few times and maybe subconsciously bond over being mistreated by Morose, but Nessie was just so hungry that she was willing to eat just about anything and anyone (and also maybe not recognizing Howard until the last moment)

The little interaction and comfort Howard gives to Nessie makes it when they next meet (which is when Morose gets eaten by her) a whole lot sweeter, in a kinda 'well that was a kind of traumatizing thing to see even if it was to the person who hurt us both so much but thanks anyway' way. Plus it's a really sweet moment between them, Howard gets to bring Nessie back to the mainland after promising her to take her there and Nessie gets a free meal :) (and new besties too)

Also off topic, but now I just imagine that in the og roleswap au, Phillip and Nessie have a bit of beef with each other. Mainly because of what exactly Phillip does (by accident and on instinct) when they first kind of met. Unlike in the canon game where Nessie just kind of stares at Howard until you use the slingshot to deter her, in the og roleswap au she just goes for the bite because she is starving, probably a bit more in the au, and Phillip, startled by the action and not wanting to get eaten, swings the branding iron in her face. It doesn't burn her, but it does drive her off and since he used a bit more force in the swing than a slingshot would (and also maybe Nessie recognizes it and it was not a pleasant experience), this causes Nessie to get a whole lot more aggressive towards Phillip in her little section of the greenhouse. Since Phillip does not have the knowledge of what Nessie went through, he doesn't know the deeper reason behind Nessie's attacks on him until after Howard has to basically mediate between the two in the true ending (or maybe not, if Nessie can look past that incident when she gets a meal at last). Phillip feels pretty bad about it, but he still doesn't appreciate being almost eaten alive multiple times.

Potential spoilers and a lengthy read alert: