A Prey Whos Scared Of Being Devoured But Not As Scared As They Should Be. They Know, Intellectually That

A prey who’s scared of being devoured but not as scared as they should be. They know, intellectually that they should be horrified. Maybe they’re unwilling and should be calling for help more loudly or struggling more earnestly. Maybe they’re willing but know that even if they’ve agreed surely instinct should be making this harder than it is. Instead not only are they less scared that they should be but every consecutive swallow their pred gives is enrapturing. The knowledge that soon only the pred will know who they’ve swallowed, that to the rest of the world they’ll just be an anonymous shape in the Preds stomach. They like it, they like the sordid intimacy of it, the absolute power this other holds over them. But they also don’t know how this came to be. Maybe it’s who they’re being stolen away by or maybe food is just what they were always meant to be. Irregardless they can’t help but like what’s taking place, maybe even in spite of themselves.

I really love when a pred in willing fatal isn’t going to digest the prey just yet for whatever reason, and the prey says something sassy or teasing that makes the pred respond by reminding the prey that they’re in the pred’s stomach. Like the stomach compresses suddenly and roughly or growls ominously. Essentially reminding the prey that it might be safe now but very soon it won’t be.

You know I’m not personally very into feederism as a fetish. But I feel like Bastion would absolutely use Ida agreeing to be eaten as an excuse to get her to finally try his cooking. Because she’s already agreed to be eaten so there’s no reason for him to lace it with any spells to catch her. I feel like he’d absolutely be into getting Ida to enjoy his cooking because it’s a form of subtle preparation yes, but also because her willingness to take the food reiterates that she’s genuinely serious about letting him eat her, combined with the fact that he gets to see her enjoy his cooking.

A big part of getting Bastion’s character right is about juggling sappiness and ghoulishness. Because in addition to being a hungry man-eating monster, Bastion is a hopeless romantic. But he expresses it in the context of a being for whom love is another kind of hunger, an especially complex form of hunger which he doesn’t fully understand and finds difficult. But a form of hunger none the less. Which is why he says predatory things in the same context that others would make heartfelt declarations or flirt. But he’s also sappy so I try to inject a level of earnest polite Victorian era noble man who would make a good male lead in a period drama type vibes. It can be difficulty to write a character who at their heart is very simple, predatory and food motivated but presents themselves as proper and civilised. In a sense despite being a monster Bastion is pretty naive, he loves wholeheartedly and unreservedly because that’s also how he is with hunger and why wouldn’t this be the same? Except he knows it isn’t precisely the same, there are things he would miss about Ida if he caught her, even if he keeps her soul within him. Even if his every instinct screams that this prey in particular should be in his belly. There are things that would change that he doesn’t want to change yet. Bastion doesn’t really know how to handle that, he’s not used to even really comprehending delayed gratification outside of the context of bidding time for the next meal. So the idea that eating someone is a trade off, that he’ll be taking from himself if he takes Ida? It definitely disturbs and confuses his poor little spider heart and brain. It’s not even that he doesn’t want to eat her or wouldn’t eat her in an instant if he caught her. He absolutely would but he’s starting to think that’s part of the problem and he can’t even truly comprehend why or how to change. Luckily for Bastion, Ida doesn’t expect mercy from anyone so him being incapable of it isn’t the obstacle you’ve think it was. Bastion has an inkling this isn’t exactly a health or normal mindset for a human. But he’s also so far from being human that he’s uncertain he should be trying to Faesplain to her or if he even can in a way that makes sense.

I like to imagine that if someone else other than him tries to endanger Ida. Bastion becomes incandescent with rage. The thing is he’s not normally an angry person, or really that sadistic either, ghoulish and predatory sure, he enjoys hunting and eating. Gets excited at the thought of sinking his fangs into something, enjoys the whole process of devouring people etc and sure people can get really distressed and hurt when he’s hunting them, but it’s not really the goal for him so much as the inevitable consequences of a creepy spider monster being hungry and trying to eat you. He’s not a deliberate tormentor unless torment will get you in his jaws and once you’re his he generally doesn’t try to drag things out unnecessarily. But if someone went after Ida? That would be a different story. He would be very pissed and honestly quite scary. I think he’d have that calm rage that isn’t actually remotely calm but appears that way on the surface. Intellectually he’d probably have some inkling that he was being cruel beyond what was usual for him and that maybe torturing someone who’s already going to be his prey is just pouring salt in the wound, but he’d have such little experience with being angry and scared on someone else’s behalf that I don’t think he’d be able to find the breaks and it would be the person who decided to threaten Ida’s problem.

If a pred with anxiety needs to eat a specific prey to calm down is that prey an “emotional support prey”? Or “comfort food”?