pinch {Oriel}

[Erik Stewart]

DJ sure wasn’t making him popular with his cabin-mates. Not that he gave a shit. If they couldn’t handle snakes then maybe they had no business outside buildings in the first place.

To be fair, the snake was intimidating to people unfamiliar with them. He was almost two feet, black, with unblinking eyes and coils that seemed constantly to be in motion. Erik had no tank with him, too, so that meant DJ was free to slither about the cabin…probably terrorizing anyone who happened on a large dark rat snake while on a midnight bathroom trip. Otherwise, DJ was wrapped around Erik’s neck. He stayed there indoors, outdoors, and all hours in between: while he ate or drank or fished or whatever. Erik was generally pleased to find this was a strong deterrent (even among the teachers).
Little did they know that DJ was not to be feared. On the whole, Dead John had much more of an even temperament than Erik did – probably wouldn’t bite even if someone stepped on him - and he wasn’t packing a mouthful of venom. Erik, on the other hand, was. It depends.

But Erik could occasionally be found feeding him stray frogs he’d caught or small fish, and DJ would eat it, alive and wriggling, and that was rather off-putting. Even he understood that.

Anyway, it was a warm afternoon day that found the boy on the edge of the lake. He’d his feet put in the cool water, swishing it around his ankles. There was a fishing pole and a bucket next to him. The ever-present DJ lounged nearby, soaking in the rays of the sun. Erik was fighting with a worm; it squirmed and twisted to get away from his pinching fingers, as if it knew it was about to get impaled on a hook.

He’d managed to get it on there, but all that fighting had made him clumsy. He came back with a hard poke to his thumb, the tear quickly filling with red blood. Erik started at the sudden pain, uttering a mumbled ‘shit’, and immediately stuck it in his mouth.

[Deleted]

Honestly, Oriel thought that this camping trip was going to suck balls. He was from the city - polluted air, cars screeching by at high speeds, gunshots in the distance, high rise building - that was the world where Oriel grew up and it was the world he was used to. It had taken him two years almost to get completely comfortable with Hammel, though he never really put it together just how much time he spent outside once he got used to it....nor how much of that time he spent in trees.

Oh, so many trees to climb, Oriel was in paradise!

He never realized before how much of an outdoor person he was. But, oh, he could get used to this. He would be the Tarzan of his own jungle, swinging from branch to branch, from tree to tree like a little monkey. This was way better than the shit he used to scale back in NYC. And what's more? No dirty coppers to chase him down and make him stop for his own "safety". As if Oriel would be so stupid as to let himself fall(completely ignoring the fact that he'd already done so twice this summer).

So of course while he's hopping along playing monkey-business all by himself, what is it he should come across, but a lake! And who should he find at said lake, but the temperamental snake-dude with his less than temperamental snake that he'd been carting around the whole trip. He looked to be concentrating pretty hard on something....not that Oriel cared what he was doing out here all by himself, nope, not him.

"Oy!" he called out before his brain told him otherwise. Damn, why did he do that? The kid didn't want anything to do with Oriel, wasn't that made clear last time? Oriel stared down at the skinny shifter from atop a branch, laying across it like a curious kitty. "The hell you doing? Fishing? Boooring!" Yep, that was definitely the best way to start a conversation. Then again, Oriel was also completely unaware that he was still smiling like a goof from all his tree-climbing shenanigans.

[Erik Stewart]

It wasn’t as if Erik hadn’t noticed him before – though he hadn’t really known it to be Oriel. He wasn’t deaf; he could hear someone rattling around in the tree, shaking branches, causing sticks and various other debris to knock against the port. Erik only glanced around when he heard a voice. To his horror, a familiar face clinging to a tree branch above him. Erik grimaced.

“Shut the fuck up,” he called, then stuck his finger back in his mouth to suck away at the excess blood.

The fishing pole streamed out across the water with a whrrr, until it cleared the surface and sank. There was nothing really in here but small minnows and maybe some carps, though he didn’t think he’d be lucky enough to catch the latter. Erik didn’t mind, though. It wasn’t like he was looking for anything to eat…he hadn’t fished for that purpose in a long time. Now he was just doing it for the sake of it. If he caught a real small one, he might tempt DJ with it, but the snake preferred frogs and certain insects.

As a water moccasin, though, Erik would have found a minnow appetizing. He often wondered about that, at the edge of the lake, here on his lonesome…

"The hell you doing? Fishing? Boooring!"

He glared. Oriel was stretched out on the branch like a cat. “Well I don’t see you doin’ anythin’ spectacular. ‘Sides,” he said, turning back to the water, “you’re probably gonna break your neck or sommin’.”

Oriel was the kind of excited that city folk got when they went outside. They couldn’t fish or hunt or gut things for the life of ‘em, as his daddy used to say.

[Deleted]

"Well I don’t see you doin’ anythin’ spectacular. ‘Sides, you’re probably gonna break your neck or sommin’.”

Oriel flashed a smart grin, fully confident in his ability to climb and romp around like a kid on the monkey bars at the playground. "Ha! You underestimate my superior skills! Not once have I fallen from a tree to result in breaking my neck!" Kind of true, though the last time he fell from a tree, he ended up in bed with a pixie. If you ignore the fact that the damned fairy practically drugged him at the end, it was actually a pretty decent find.

Iiiin any case, Oriel wasn't about to fall from any tree this day, no matter how much Erik wished it upon him!

Oriel scooted closer on the branch, totally not interested in knowing what the skinny kid was doing. Erik's daddy was probably right about Oriel, the boy had never fished in his life. Or hunted. Or anything else of that nature. No, Oriel was a scavenger and, when times called for it, a thief, though he only ever did that out of necessity. Though Oriel did have the magnificent ability to throw random things in a pot and make it palatable. Oriel scooted closer again.

It was a noticeable while before the boy spoke again, having been lost in childish wonder as he watched Erik sit and do.....absolutely nothing. Oriel was kind of hoping that something would happen quickly, that maybe he'd catch a trout, or a catfish, or the loch-ness monster or something, but this whole fishing activity was getting very boring very quickly.

Oriel scooted closer. "So, uh.....how long 'til something happens, anyway?" Not that Oriel was interested or nothing.

Oriel scooted closer....

[Erik Stewart]

Oriel declared he’d never broken his neck. “That’s a fuckin’ shame,” he muttered, though that wasn’t necessarily for the other boy to hear.

He thought he’d ignore him from then on. Erik sat on the wooden port, his toes engulfed in the lake’s watery caress, his ankles hanging just above the surface. The sun felt nice on his skin. He wondered if he could store energy this way, too, just like a snake did…but, it didn’t seem to work that way. A mosquito whined near his ear; he brought a hand up to slap it.
Then he heard the branches shuffle. It went on in increments, and he could discern just from the sound that Oriel was coming closer.

Picture him inching closer, sliding on his stomach, on the branch just three feet over his left shoulder. Picture Erik, too, facing away from him, rolling his eyes sky-high, his mouth set in a tight line and despairing in silence.

When Oriel spoke again, which he was expecting, Erik just gave a sigh of defeat. “I don’t know,” he drawled. “Could be ten minutes, could be an hour. They bite when they wanna bite.”

Erik looked up; the particular branch he’d chosen was hanging just to the left of the dock, right over the water. He could see some of the leaves he’d shaken loose drift down to settle on the surface. Then he smiled a little, and wedged his pole between one wooden plank and the other, just so a stray yank wouldn’t pull it out in the lake. “So how good’re you at swimmin’, Oriel?”

[Deleted]

Nope, Oriel had never broken his neck, though he was pretty sure that there were more than a few people who wish he had, like Erik here. Not that Oriel felt the need to further comment on it.

There was no particular reason for why Oriel continued to literally hang around Erik when the other boy so obviously didn't want Oriel there. It could be that Oriel couldn't really tell if Erik was interesting and wanted to reconfirm that, it could be that he felt some sort of attraction that he would never openly admit, it could be just that he liked to bother the kid, or it could simply be that Oriel was in such a good mood that even the grumpiness of the snake-shifter couldn't bring him down. After all, Oriel had a whole playground to cheer him up and keep him occupied and he was obviously 5 years old.

"Why's it take so long? I mean, they're just a bunch of dumb fish, right?" They'd have to be if they could be caught by such a simple contraption. Oriel peered down into the water below, wondering if he could catch a glimpse of the giant fish that Erik was supposedly going to catch. Really, Oriel couldn't understand why anyone would want to spend so much time sitting around trying to catch a fish that they didn't even know when was coming. Oriel liked lazing about doing nothing about as much as the next person(probably more so even), but doing nothing and waiting were two completely different things in Oriel's book.

"So how good're you at swimmin', Oriel?"

Oriel perked his head up, caught completely by surprise at the sudden question from this guy who always seemed pretty hostile(not that Oriel hadn't given him perfectly good reason to be), and he grinned, completely pleased with himself. "I once tried to swim across the Hudson from New York to Jersey," he boasted. "Got about 500 yards out before the coast guard picked me up off a buoy."

Oriel smirked. He could see where Erik was was going with this.....or at least he thought he did.

[Erik Stewart]

Erik just shrugged a little in response. He didn’t feel much like replying to that. Oriel was like a nine year old and there were just some things you couldn’t explain to a nine year old, like how come fish didn’t bite quick.

He looked up at the other boy, whose belly was draped over the sturdy branch, dribbling dead leaves onto the surface of the water. He really couldn’t say why they kept running into each other, or why they even exchanged words when they did. But Erik didn’t know many people – he supposed a few heated exchanges were better than nothing at all. A whole bunch of silence and casual sex got boring after a while.

Erik drew his knees up towards his chest. His wet feet rested on the edge of the dock. “Good, I don’t want you t’drown if I push you off.”

That’d be the end of fishing, though; something with that big of a splash would scare them off for an hour at least. “You shoulda never put yourself above water like that with me around, asshole. But…I’m open to compromise.”

[Deleted]

Oriel was quickly becoming bored, which sucked because he was so totally not interested in seeing something actually happen with this waiting game that Erik seemed to be so fond of. And of course he wasn't in complete agreement with Erik about how any interaction was better than no interaction at all. I mean, why did you think he was such a dick-bag to people, aside from the obvious reasons of Oriel just plain being a dick-bag.

“Good, I don’t want you t’drown if I push you off.”

Oriel's smirk just got wider, practically daring Erik to try it. Water was nothing, after all, it was just a little water and water didn't never hurt nobody. Unless they were lead-weights like certain Princesses he knew. "Compromise," he said incredulously, "Now that's working under the assumption that I'm a reasonable individual. Whatever the hell coulda possibly gave you that idea?" He sneered a sneer as pleasant as a sneer could be. "But, alrighty, snake-boy. I'll hear ya out, at least."

[Erik Stewart]

Erik wasn’t thinking too hard about it; he even smiled a little, then lifted one shoulder. “Dunno,” he said. “How much you hate bein’ dunked?”

No, he didn’t expect the other boy to agree to any compromise, or if he did, there wouldn’t be any way he’d stick to it. He wasn’t even sure if he’d really shake him off that branch – might, if Oriel insisted on goading him again. What a sight that’d be: that gangly lil’ shit flailing his arms and landing in the brown-green lake-water, spittin’ some of it out as he surfaced. He’d add it to his growing collection of memories, right next to the one where he screamed like a little girl, or the one ‘bout his bitch-and-asshole spiel. He would’ve taken a picture of it if he had the camera.

But he did not, and the promise of a bite was keeping him from it. “You could shut up for one,” he suggested. “Or you could come down here an’ give DJ a hug.”

Erik, of course, suspected that the other boy was terrified of snakes, given his reaction to his transformation…though anyone would’ve been a bit edgy when confronted with a pit viper.

[Deleted]

"Been there, done that, don't know why you think that'll phase me." Seriously, it was just a little water and a little water never hurt nobody, not unless you were the Princess. Hell, the rivers and beaches he used to swim in in NYC were a hella lot dirtier than this crystal clear looking lake, so whatever.

But then he remembered the last time he got dunked in the water while trying to save a certain lead-weight from drowning and he'd nearly lost his precious item.

Thinking this over, Oriel figured it probably wasn't a good idea to get dunked in the lake. "Fine, I'll shut up," he growled, not wanting to admit the real reason he was being so agreeable. "You just keep your slithery friend to yourself, got it?" He figured it was less embarrassing to admit he was freaked out by snakes than it was to admit he had a stupid sentimental locket hanging around his neck that he didn't want to risk losing.

Still, he felt a flush in his neck as he looked away from Erik with a scowl. Seriously, this guy was way to uptight, why the hell did Oriel even bother trying to talk to him?

[Erik Stewart]

“He ain’t hurtin’ anyone,” he said. “He’s nice.”

Erik let his feet dangle off the edge of the dock again, and shrugged. He honestly hadn’t expected Oriel to be so accommodating, given their past experiences. Maybe he shouldn’t question it, but a quiet Oriel was one he couldn’t imagine, and somehow he doubted he wouldn’t be quiet for very long.

But, for the most part, he was surprised. For the next ten minutes or so, Oriel mostly kept to his promise. Erik heard him rustling about on the branch above him, and he wondered if he’d wander off, or go find a taller tree to climb, or leave to join the shouts and laughter of the crowd somewhere far away from here, near the shore. It didn’t matter, though. Some people hated silence, but Erik was comfortable in it…he wouldn’t have known what to say, anyways. He sucked on his finger as he waited, the one he’d recently cut open.

If Oriel chose to stick around, he’d get to witness the fishing rod snap and the windings buzz. Soon enough Erik pulled out a writhing, medium-sized minnow, a glassy brown-green in color with a stripe running through the middle. DJ perked his head to glance around, flickering his tongue at the hapless creature as it choked to death on the wooden dock.

[Deleted]

Oriel scowled. There was no such thing as a nice snake in his book. Nope. Erik didn't count because he wasn't a real snake and wasn't one all the time....then again, Erik wasn't all that nice either.

It was quiet for a loooooooooooooooong time. Not that Oriel minded, quiet was something he could deal with. It was the not impulsively bugging the nearest person that was the challenge. He switched positions a few times on the branch. Crawled up it, then back down. Watched a katydid crawl across the leaves.....at some point he caught himself humming his favorite song and stopped himself before too long.

He was booooooorrrred.

Oriel had laid his head in his hands, still sprawled across the length of the branch, and closed his eyes was he waited for something, anything to happen. His eyes snapped open the instant the fishing rod cracked and wizzed, and he watched like as Erik brought in the small minnow. "That's it!?" All that waiting for that measly little thing? Again, Oriel didn't understand what was so exciting about fishing.

Oriel dropped off the side of the branch and swung himself onto the dock, landing lightly on his feet. Crouching down on his haunches, he crept closer to the minnow which was gasping like a dying fish and about to become lunch for the snake. "Is he gonna eat that?" Oriel asked, looking up at Erik really quick then back down at the fish. And he continued to watch with a morbid curiosity.

[Erik Stewart]

His pocket knife was positioned over the fish’s gills. He started to cut; there was the squelch of wet gristle; blood collapsed out of the open wounds of its gills. Erik sawed carelessly at it until its head dropped off. It was a habit collected from his time living at home – sometimes he went and fished for himself, for something to eat, when his mother didn’t get out of bed. The other reason was purely out of function. He didn’t want DJ eating the hook embedded in its mouth and the snake was too impatient to wait.

As Oriel got down from the tree, Erik scraped it across the wooden port. It plopped and sank into the water, the gleam of wide-open yellow fish eye sinking into the green. After that, Erik considered his fingers for a moment, bright red with fish blood. He bent down and dipped them under the surface.

“Maybe,” he muttered. It was hard figuring out what DJ would do; he’d been eating a lot this past week, probably more than he should. Probably why he was shittin’ a lot more too.

He could tell DJ was thinking about it, because he was ‘telling’ him so, but even then, it would have been obvious. His black scales curled up, and he eyed the headless fish (its body still flopping) as his tongue shot out once, then twice. The actual strike was done in a blink.

“Ain’t you ever seen a snake eat somethin’ before?” he asked Oriel, frowning, while the fish disappeared slowly down DJ’s throat.

[Deleted]

The child-like Oriel watched silently and with wide eyes as Erik cleaned the fish with a practiced hand. He'd never seen anyone do something like this before. Is that what they did to all fish?

That was kinda cool…

"So…he don't like the head or something?" Oriel had no idea what he was talking about, that much was obvious.

But Oriel kinda, really liked watching what Erik was doing, scraping the little fish and then chopping it up while it was still technically alive. Probably most people would consider it creepy but…well, now Oriel wanted a fish of his own to do that to. But would that mean he had to learn how to do the boring thing?

Oriel kept watching closely, wondering what the snake was going to do next to the little headless fishy. He jumped a little, startled when the snake struck down the minnow. That was really cool. "No….they don't got a lot of snakes just running 'round Manhattan." He was sure they existed somewhere in NYC, like as somebody's pet or something or maybe in the park, but Oriel had never seen them except when they were behind glass(and Oriel was a good 10 feet away). "Actually, I never been this close before." Not without freaking the fuck out.

Oriel leaned in just a little closer. This wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be.

[Erik Stewart]

When he was a child, he’d thought nothing of it. His mother was mentally invalid and she would often stay in her bedroom all day, and his father came home maybe ten, or eleven o’clock, and if Erik wanted to eat then he’d have to dig something up from the reserves or catch himself a fish. He had learned a long time ago how to cut off its head. He knew how to slit its belly open and empty it of those little pink fish guts. He knew, too, how to peel its scales off and take off its fins and clean it good. Minnows never really had a taste, but it was meat…and there was something fulfilling about making your own meal from scratch.

But the other children at the school had been un-sympathetic. They had sandwiches made of Wonder Bread and Swiss cheese, while Erik came to school every day with an ugly lump of fried minnow, the fish skin still clinging to it, curdling brown. His teacher suggested he ask his mother for something proper to eat. He knew she knew the impossibility of that; everyone knew about his mother, and they knew about him, too.

After that Erik knew how ‘weird’ it was, and he wondered how he hadn’t noticed before: after all, there were the drops of blood on his small boyish fingernails, the severed staring heads, the tail-fins he tore. But he never really stopped doing it. He needed it and he liked it.

Erik figured the kids here at Hammel would be much the same way; Oriel was the last person he’d expect to think it was ‘cool’.

“No, he’ll eat th’ head alright, but I just don’t want ‘im to swallow the hook…sometimes he don’t wait ‘til I get it out.” He shrugged, looking down, then glancing again at DJ. The rat snake was taking it slowly down his gullet. Once it got past its mouth, it made a distinct lump behind its head. He didn’t seem to mind Oriel leaning over him.

Erik peered at him, noting his rapt attention, his (unwarranted, at least to him) fascination…he knew a lot of kids here came from the city and probably never fished themselves, but Oriel hadn’t even known that fish took a while to bite. “Where’re you from?”