An overbearing sun hovering over the landscape with a cheerful, mocking shine was difficult to escape. The overwhelming locals with their mourning and their daily tragedies were even harder to avoid. Annoying. They were all annoying. With trivial needs and feelings, with stable heartbeats and relationships. As the boy stalked from the shadowed background, the common pang of envy ached in his breastbone. Beck wanted to be better, or at least a part of him truly did. But he couldn't. He had been outcasted as far back as he could remember, be it for his appearance or his crimes. Never privileged enough for friends nor the lessons on social skills they carried with them, the poltergeist lingered on the fringes of conversations, blurting out impulsive thoughts at the worst of times before realizing his mistake and backpedaling with embarrassment rising in a cold flush to his face.

    But today? Today he had finally gathered enough courage to step into the harsh sun, even if only to be a wallflower before his bravery dwindled into a panic. Typically, his aimless pacing through territory was traversed alone or with an expectant Audrey being toted around for a meal. But, maybe, just maybe, he could ask some of the people he admired from the shadows of their rooms if they wanted to accompany him. Under the guise of a quest to feed his gluttonous fly trap, of course. Goldie was his first option, naturally -- she was a selfish reminder for another girl from another time, but her talkative company was still appreciated by the young spirit. Second and third were coincidences, two somewhat familiar faces addressed as Luca and Marcellus bumping into him on his crusade for traveling company. After a few persuasive words and childish pouting, the pair begrudgingly tagged along. The final selection was the one who reeked of bitter smoke, and while Beck had only met Bakugou from afar, he was the only other person he could identify properly. Foolish hope swelling in his shallow chest, believing he could bribe these unfortunate selections to be at the least acquaintances, the entity adjusted Audrey's bucket handle slung around his straining neck, pushed a crooked smile onto his snout, and set off towards nowhere in particular with his unlikely troop of pirates in tow.

    It took a mere few yards to learn that his collection of islanders were prone to strife. He never could understand how people could be so regularly offended. Beck had long ago trained himself to drown out bickering, substituting arguments with his own mental conversations. A personal check-up; well, the recent throbbing of pain had become but a mere whisper of soreness. Repairing his apparition was always a swift process, if not draining. Wiggling his jaw from side to side, the previous click of fragmented bone was as absent as his heartbeat, although his teeth hadn't aligned themselves back yet. The dark swelling around his eye had disappeared, leaving only the shadow of a bruise. While the clean incision sliced across his torso was still tender, the boy had been planning to pull out the looped stitched tying the lacerations together so he could continue feigned healing without the sutures as a roadblock. Even his leg pain from a knee yanked out of place wasn't as severe since the one who he later recognized as Rosemary set the joint back in. Albeit the gauze sloppily binding his forearms still oozed with inky blood from time to time if he didn't pay attention, the original gashes had long since been replaced with most recent bites and nicks. But he was used to Audrey's love bites by now. Speaking of the carnivorous mutant, Beck skimmed through the unnamed locations he had visited during his wandering, attempting to think where the best plant food would be. The familiar begging tug of a vine tugged at his whiskers, and with a sensitive wince, the scrawny feline halted his limping to glimpse downwards at Audrey III. It had stretched its trap out over its makeshift pot, craning a neck to motion towards the edge of the jungle and the shores. Beck wrinkled his features for a second only to let out a nervous huff when he realized where Audrey wanted to go. "Why's it gotta be those, those tide pools?" the poltergeist murmured to his friend, gnawing on his inner lip as he obeyed the fly trap's wishes and resumed his wobbly hike in a new direction. With a glance back to assure himself that the four strangers hadn't abandoned his ridiculous walk and were still following him, Beck tuned out their presence once more to daydream. He had visited the tide pools before, only to hurriedly leave when he nearly slipped into their landlocked waters. There were plenty of creatures to feast upon during low tide. Maybe Audrey's predatory instinct predicted a plentiful meal on the rocky shoreline.

    The weathered stones of the tide pools were no comfort to the boy as he inched over them, terrified the high tide would come crashing in and wash them all out to sea. The pools themselves were shallow enough to peer at their lively bottoms, but the shallow water was just as fatal as any other depth if there was someone around to dunk your head under. Paranoia worming its way into his thoughts, Beck glanced to the four with a wary glint in his amber eyes and wheezed, "Why don't'cha split up and find stuff 'round here for Audrey? It'll go faster." Staring over a bony shoulder at the other animals until they each turned around and left to hopefully hunt around the area, the boy slumped with a rattling sigh, slipping off Audrey's bucket from his neck to put the plant down at his side once they were alone.

    Was he being social enough? Was this normal? Did they even want to go with him in the first place? His freckled features knitted together as he fretted, distracted from the fly trap's struggle to pull itself closer to the edge of the water. Leafy tendrils hooked onto the eroded rocks, using the various notches in the rough surface to tilt the bucket Audrey was rooted in onto its side with a clang of metal against stone. It was enough to startle Beck back into the present, his unfocused glare whirling around until his sights landed on Audrey, clinging to the crags of the tide pool in front of them and mercilessly shoving its trap into the water. The poltergeist could only blink in slight shock and pride as his friend singlehandedly massacred the residents of the tide pool that dared to stray past its trap, shredding guppies and starfish until the clear waters gurgled red with leftover chunks of flesh. Beck even scooted himself closer to watch in awe, stooping forwards to get a better look at the carnage. The mutant predator didn't slow, driven by an unrelenting hunger as rows of developing teeth chomped down on unfortunate invertebrae and devoured as much as it could. After a minute, the boy steadily began to worry. He had never seen Audrey in this much of a feeding frenzy before; what if the plant never stopped? "O-okay, Audrey, think that's 'nough for ya today," Beck nervously stammered out, scrambling up and trying to divert the mutant's attention back onto him. Audrey ignored the cold presence's words, snapping up a fleeing sea slug. "Audrey! Stop it!" the poltergeist tried again, stomping a paw on the slippery rocks. No reaction.

    Pinning his ears against his head, the little feline moved to pull back on Audrey's bucket, wrenching the fly trap away from its helpless buffet after multiple attempts. The mutated plant directed its attention to the entity, lips peeled back to reveal a first row of teeth dripping with watery gore. It was hungry, and a pest had interrupted its feeding. There was no warning as one of Audrey's vines lashed out, coiling around Beck's neck and yanking downwards. He bit back a yelp as the ground knocked the stale air from his lungs, yet there was no time to react further as Audrey's vine shifted its grip, pulling his head back and blindly slamming it back down on the jagged rocks with a sickening crack. And again. And again. And again. And again, in rapid succession. Yet the interrupting pest disappeared right before Audrey could smash his head on the rocks, and its tendril fell down on empty stone. Not concerned with a threat no longer there, the plant swiveled its trap back around to continue terrorizing the remnants of a tide pool community.

    Beck's apparition returned to a physical state a moment later, sprawled on his belly and desperately clinging to existence. Don't disappear, don't disappear, don't disappear. A steady mantra from the panicking voice inside a bleeding brain was all he could focus on, his eyes dilating and rolling back into their sockets. Don't disappear, don't disappear, don't disappear. Dizzy, everything was dizzy. The boy blinked, slowly reaching out a paw to brush against the slick black spilling from above. Don't disappear, don't disappear. It looked so ugly against the lighter shade of rocks. Don't disappear. But he wanted to. Why not? Don't -- A shuddering breath escaped the broken figure, oily blood matting his auburn cowlicks as a skull fracture split open his forehead, broken jaw mangled until bone could be seen poking out the side of his missing cheek, and a blank haze settled over his expression as he allowed himself to slip into a state of repair.

/ hooboy sorry this is so long, but beck tried going on a walk to feed audrey III with [member=48]goldenluxury[/member] [member=1517]Luca[/member] [member=1489]MARCELLUS[/member] and [member=1637]bakugou[/member] (i got all of their permission to include them!!) at the tide pools, but mistakes were made, and audrey attacked after beck tried to pull it away from a meal. audrey's still aggressive but as long as it's left alone to eat, it won't go after anyone else. beck's got a concussion from a skull fracture n the resulting brain damage, and along with superficially busted up face, his broken jaw has been worsened into a compound fracture
medics i'm so sorry for adding to the workload :'') but its for development i promise

    Fuzzy darkness was all the boy needed to descend into the basement of his mind, ducking under cobwebs strung along the portraits of his family and turning a blind eye to the monsters trailing in his wake like the very hounds that chased him into a fatal corner. He liked this darkness much more than the shared blanket of tragedies his truthful place provided; here, it was simply him and his thoughts. He knew this process as well as he knew the scars striping his arms. A state of repair, the closest thing to sleep he was allowed. Too much energy would be used frantically trying to patch up his overworked apparition, and to prevent any further exertion, the entity locked himself into a temporary coma. All he could do was wait. Beck flopped onto the creaky floor of the dim mental basement, folding his legs under him as he impatiently stared into nothingness. The owner of the voice was behind him, yet didn't take interest in his counterpart, mumbling the same lines as before. The stronger half ignored the hoarse ramblings of his rotting doppelgänger, inevitably losing concentration and submerged himself into a river of the few salvaged memories.

    The lone flicker of candlelight was what he first recalled, illuminating an elderly man hunched over a desk and furiously scribbling with his left hand. Left-handed; he was left-handed like him! A trembling grin and the warmth of an unrequited connection flickered inside the hidden child, peering over the genius' shoulder as he admired the backward notes of nigh impossible ideas. Sometimes Beck couldn't wrap his head around the strange man's notes, others he would stalk off into the night with a skull filled to the brim by flying machines and anatomy sketches and bizarre instruments and religious paintings. He made sure to only visit the elderly man whenever anger from a recent death didn't threaten to boil over nor did he ever pester the man as he did to others; watching him work was entertainment enough. The candle melted down and was snuffed out by the sympathetic touch of death, and all Beck could offer was a shy wave to the man as he was escorted to his judgment.

    A distant voice pulled him from his reverie, crying out in shock. He didn't want to go back to reality quite yet -- the gaunt frame of the feline disguise reared his head, barely managing to lift his twisted chin off the obsidian puddle collecting underneath. Glassy eyes opened as wide as they could, one eyelid heavier than the other as sticky blood accumulated on thin eyelashes. Who was there? "Lin?" he slurred through broken teeth, missing the scamper of tiny paws leaving his side. He failed to notice the clear fluid trickling from his ears and nose, defeatedly lowering his head back to the rocky surface. He wanted to go back to his safe place, everything was nauseating and blurry and distant here. Not finding the will to move as another creature rushed to unneeded aid, Beck let out a feeble puff through his nose, his muted disapproval of any hands or paws or whatever touching where the pain had been replaced by a groggy numbness. As limp as an opossum staging its death to deter predators, he was slipping back into his mind again as Silus wrapped something soft around his head. One of his last coherent thoughts was an internal snicker, believing the overworked sage foolish for assuming he could sleep before he succumbed to a jumble of unregistered sensations once more. Yet Beck didn't retreat into the few soothing memories spared from coping mechanisms. No, he focused on his fading window of vision, watching as his illusion of a body faintly winced with every unwanted touch or word, gradually becoming less and less responsive.