Perspective (Arc 1)

Willow's Perspective

The moon blossoms were so pretty, and they seemed to be doing well. Willow smiled at their progress and moved to look at other places in her garden. It wasn't a large garden, as it hadn't been her main focus. Since being transferred into this world Willow had been focused on building her own little cottage and staying the frick away from everyone else.

"Attention. You twelve have been selected, by the creator of this universe, to participate in a new type of experiment.-"

Willow shivered and pulled her cardigan further up her shoulders. She frowned when she remembered the lack of effect temperature had on her now. Placebo effect.

The sickening realization of what she was now.

Pushing forward she reached the other portion of her garden. However, her motivation to fix up her garden wilted.

The smell which filled the air around her, and the realization that she needed to leave.

Willow sighed and turned to head back inside instead. Before she reached her door, however, she heard a rustling come from the woods behind her. Spinning around she squinted into the night, the action of focusing her eyes was a habit, despite her newly enhanced vision. The bushes were... glowing?

Taking a few steps forward Willow wondered whether she should grab a weapon or not. After all, she of all people was very aware of the dangers in this tiny world.

She didn't need a weapon to be dangerous.

Nervously clinking her claws together, Willow straightened her spine, and called out, "Who's there?"

Rather than giving an answer the orange glow stumbled from the woods, revealing itself to be a person. They were very androgynous with short brown hair and a small curvy body. The glowing wings gave them a stark contrast to the dark forest. Before Willow could defensively interrogate this intruder, she noticed their face.

Blood flowed freely over their lips and down their chin. Drips rained down on their shirt, and they were limping slightly.

The smell...

Sighing heavily, Willow made her decision. "Come on inside, and I'll see what I can do to fix you up." Willow turned back to her cottage and walked inside without looking back. She kind of hoped they would choose to leave instead of following her.

Hearing the door close behind her, she sighed. Making her way to the kitchen, she grabbed some homemade bandages, and also wet down a cloth. She returned to the entrance to see the butterfly standing there awkwardly, and Willow gestured for them to take a seat at the dining table. Willow cleaned their face without any questions and examined the wound a bit closer. Luckily it seemed to still be lined up. Either the impact hadn't been enough to break the nose, or they had corrected it so it wasn't crooked.

After taping some bandage on the nose to stop the bleeding, Willow returned to the kitchen. She dropped the bloody rag in the sink. Her eyes drifted back to it as she filled up two cups with water.

Returning to the dining room she placed a cup in front of the butterfly, and took a seat opposite to him at the table. She was glad she had felt compelled to add a second seat to her dining table for symmetry. They sat in relative silence for a few moments, as the butterfly took a couple of drinks and Willow looked closer at her guest.

Their short hair was a wrecked mess filled with dirt, leaves, and even a twig or two. Their face was very pale aside from the few creases which still had flecks of blood within them. They seemed disgruntled, which was unsurprising of course considering they had clearly been in an altercation. The silence was beginning to pull slightly at Willow's nerves, but she was used to being on edge. An awkward silence would not be the thing to break her composure.

Butterfly lasted longer than one might expect before breaking the silence. "You should see the other guy." He declared with a small humorous smirk.

Willow let out a tiny chuckle at that. "He got a bruised fist?" She asked with a teeny smirk.

They both laughed, and Butterfly finally introduced themselves. "Everette, They/Them. Thanks for cleaning me up."

Willow had figured on the pronouns, but it was nice to get an actual name. "Willow, and I use She/Her. No problem." Willow was cis, but it only felt polite to share her pronouns since Everette had shared their's. Willow had known a non-binary friend in her previous life, and while it had taken getting used to, she had always respected and treasured her friends. She would never disrespect a person's gender identification, whether she understood or not. "Do you need a place to stay for tonight?"

Everette's eyes widened slightly, and they raised an eyebrow. "You aren't gonna ask what happened?"

Willow paused to consider why she hadn't asked. "Well, I guess if you want to tell me about it you can, but if you don't want to tell me, I get it."

There was another small pause before Everette sighed and began their story.

"I was in a therapy appointment before we got summoned here. It was just a casual check-in, 'cause I'd been doing really really well. Suddenly I woke up in this place and everything about me is... ugh! Different!"

Willow nodded her head, and her fingers gripped the skirt of her dress.

"It was like, all of the progress I'd made was gone! And that frustrated me, but it wasn't the main issue. The main issue is the new... urges."

Willow swallowed the rising lump in her throat.

"Everything just felt so gray, and plain. I felt this itch around certain people, and it didn't take long to figure out why." Everette scoffed. "So, I decided I'd do something about it. This isn't Earth. We don't have any stupid social constructs or laws. Nobody knows how this world really works, except that robot, and Nature knows she's not going to tell us shit."

Everette was gesturing wildly at this point, clearly forgetting Willow was even in the room with him. "I made sure to choose one of the worst of them. This guy's a closeted asshole without a doubt. I'd have to blind not to see the way he looks at us hybrids, with something between fear and disgust. On top of that he's in the hunter group, and for some reason killing him sounded so much better than letting him go on killing the animals of the forest."

Willow's gasp was quiet, but it was enough to snap Everette out of their ravings.

"Uh, so yeah... I tried to strangle him. He's fine! Don't worry. Scarlette punched me in the face to get me off of him. And that's how I got here."

Willow needed a second to process that. Sooo, this guy had, what? Tried to kill a guy, because they were uncomfortable with him? As much as Willow wanted to say that was ridiculously absurd, she knew exactly what they were talking about. Licking her dried-out lip, Willow nodded.

"So, they kicked you out?"

Everett shrugged. "It was that robot's suggestion, she said that rather than resorting to violence they should just banish me or something. I didn't really know where to go, and I stumbled into this place." They gestured to the house around them.

"Do you know what you're going to do now?"

They huffed out a long breath of air and shrugged.

"Not really? I mean, Now that I'm not around them the urge has calmed down quite a bit, so I can see why they kicked me out. I mean it's not like I was acting very rationally."

Willow nodded her head. "It might be a good idea to get away. I know this world isn't that big, but if you go to one corner it should be far enough away for you to just live your life for a bit. Maybe you can go back once you're more sure of how to control your instincts."

Everette took in her words with a concentrated look on their face. Nodding slowly they stood up from their chair. "Thanks, I think I'll do that."

Willow panicked. "Wait! It's still late. Why don't you stay the night?"

Everette turned around and made eye contact with Willow.