words of affirmation

Tiso sat and watched Y/N cook. It had gained a new vigor for life after Tiso vaguely supported its endeavors to weave a beautiful web. Tiso regretted it a little because the spider wouldn't shut up about it. It would hold up every piece of weaving and ask him if it was getting closer. Admittedly it was. It figured out how to make the basic structure, but it still got tangled while trying to create the spiral design. Tiso tried telling it that it needed to anchor the threads somehow, but it didn't understand. It was humming as it prepared its new batch of stew. It was a melody Tiso had grown familiar with. He could hum along if he wanted to, but he didn't. His eyes flicked to his corpse, which was still sitting in the webs on the wall. Usually Y/N slept in the messy webbing above it, but occasionally it would crawl into his corpse’s lap and use his legs as a pillow. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, especially considering the fact he was dead, but he didn't care enough to tell it off. He spent the nights Y/N slept through trying to pick up items, half out of desire to improve and half to keep the memories at bay. He could hold lighter ones indefinitely now, but heavier ones still slipped out of his claws. He actually had a bit of chitin in his hands at the moment and was copying the stirring motion Y/N was making. It was good practice, and Y/N always seemed happy to see him doing that. Not that he cared what that pathetic wimp thought, but its cheerful chittering was far less unpleasant than its whimpering sobs or angry growls.

“You’re getting really good at that!”

I am, aren't I? Heheh.

He wasn't fond of Y/N, per say, but he was a sucker for praise. Y/N scooped some of the stew into a bowl. Tiso expected it to sit down and eat, but instead it set the bowl down in front of Tiso’s corpse and then went to make itsef another bowl.

Huh? Hey, idiot, I don't eat! Dead, remember??

“I know you don't eat, but… I’ve always wanted to share a meal with someone… can you just pretend? For me?” Tiso grumbled as the spider sat across from him. It wasn't wearing its broken mask at the moment, so Tiso could see its pleading smile. He sighed in annoyance.

Fine!! Just stop looking at my corpse like that, you freak.

Tiso lifted the tiny fork with a piece of meat on it. Y/N’s eyes locked on it immediately, eager to see what he did with it. He wasn't sure what he was gonna do with it. His corpse was too brittle to put it in his mouth, and he didn't want it rotting in there. His organs had probably decayed into dust, but he had no intention to welcome mold into his exoskeleton. Maybe he should offer the bite to the spider? Before he could decide, the fork slipped through his fingers. Crap! Y/N giggled a little at that.

Don’t laugh at me!!!

Tiso picked up the fork, prepared to throw it full force at Y/N. Before he did, though, he realized that the meat sauce stained the floor a little.

“It’s okay. I can clean that very easily. I just cut off that piece of web. I’ve fallen a bit behind on keeping webs off the floor, but as long as it isn't close to the fire it’s fine.”

That's not my concern.

Tiso put the meat back on the ground, dragging it through the webbing. It was a bit difficult, but he could draw. He could write. Y/N’s eyes widened, seemingly realizing this at the same time Tiso did. It sat up on its knees and leaned forward, eager to see what Tiso would say. He hesitated again, unsure of what to do with this newfound power. Eventually he painted an arrow pointing towards his corpse and wrote in big letters:

TISO

“Tiso? Tiso!!! Hello, Tiso!!” It waved two of its four arms eagerly with a giggle. It was beaming wide enough to split its face in half. Its eyes sparkled. Nobody had ever been that excited about Tiso’s name since his dear friend’s death. “Tiso!! Do you remember my name?”

Y/N

“Is that how it’s spelled?” Tiso tapped on the ground with the fork twice. “I don't know either. I like it, though! That's me! That’s you! That’s us!!” It was pointing excitedly at the names, at Tiso’s corpse, at itself. It was… kind of cute. Tiso had no other word for it. It was so excited to “hear” his words, so happy to know something as basic as his name. He was a corpse, dead and gone, and yet this spider treated him as though he were its only friend in the world. It patted the ground eagerly, calling Tiso’s attention back to the present. “What do you like? What's your favorite color? What's your favorite fruit? What's your favorite—”

SLOW

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just…” It leaned back on its heels. “I want to know more about you.” Tiso sighed. Maybe he was its only friend in the world. The spiders in the Beast’s Den didn't seem to treat it well despite its claim that it saw them as family.

BLUE

“Blue? Blue is a good color. I guess it makes sense. Your hood and your armor are blue. Why blue?”

BLOOD PRETTY

“Blood? Like spider blood? Our blood is blue.” Tiso didn't know that.

Tap. BUG

“Whaaat, really? I never thought of that going well with blue.” Y/N grabbed a limb it had been saving and uncapped it, touching it lightly to get some of the yellow green liquid on its claw tips. It recapped the limb and then leaned forward. It wrote “TISO” on his corpse’s chest. “It does look pretty on blue! Wow!” Tiso sighed. This thing loved to desecrate corpses, even those of its friends. “Tiso, Tiso, Tiso… it’s like music.”

Tap.

“Yes it is! Listen! Ti-so!”

Saying my name in a singsongy voice doesn't make it music. Tap.

“What, have you never heard scales before? Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do~! See? Ti-sooooo~!” It giggled and waved its claws.

Tap.

“Aw, come on. It's real! That’s an actual thing!” Tiso picked up his “pen” again.

WHY HUM?

“Oh. Um…” Y/N wrung its claws together. “It’s all I can remember of my youth, really. I don’t know where I learned it or how. I never met my mother, after all. But it's something I like to think I’m good at…”

Tap tap.

“...A ‘maybe’ is high praise from you, Tiso.” Tiso rolled his eyes at the spider’s sentiment. “You didn't answer my question about your favorite fruit, though!”

TOMATO

“Huh? That's not a fruit.”

IS TOO

“But it's savory! Fruit is sweet!” Tiso just circled the word TOMATO again. “Okay, fine. What's your favorite sweet fruit?” He circled the word TOMATO a third time. “No!!” Despite its words, it was giggling and smiling. “Okay, what’s your second favorite fruit?

CUCUMBER

“Stop!!” The spider was a mess of giggles at this point.

YOU?

“Me? I like… um…” Y/N scrunched its face. “Hmm. I can't decide.”

LOSER

“Huh!?” Tiso snickered at its surprised reaction. “There's just so many good ones!” Tiso circled TOMATO for the fourth time. “Noo!! That's not a fruit!”

Tap tap tap.

“It’s a vegetable. That's how you use it in cooking.”

Tap.

“Would you put tomato and cucumber in a fruit salad? I don't think so.” Y/N giggled. “You have funny ideas, Tiso.” Y/N went back to eating. “I’ll remember that… Tiso likes tomatoes…”

Y/N asked Tiso a million useless questions about himself over the next few days. He only answered them because the precise movements required to write were good practice for holding objects, and the resistance provided by the webbing was strengthening his ability to enact force. He could probably throw something hard enough to cause some real damage now. He couldn't throw with enough force to catch Y/N by surprise, though. Every time he flung a fork or a piece of chitin at it, Y/N snatched it out of the air no matter what it was doing at the time. Cooking? Caught. Weaving? Caught. Sleeping? To Tiso’s surprise, caught and thrown on the floor without even waking up. He had no clue how its reflexes could be so honed and yet it could be so pathetic and weak. If it had even a sliver of confidence it could be a formidable foe. Those kinds of reflexes combined with his shield could fell armies. He begrudgingly found himself admiring this ability that Y/N had.

“Tiso, what do you think?” Y/N held up a tangled web. “Is it getting better?” At least it was circular this time instead of layered on itself. It could be bigger, but Tiso figured that Y/N was trying to conserve nutrients with the smaller size.

Tap tap tap.

“Yay!!” It examined the web with a bright smile. “I think the gaps need to be larger, but… I’m getting there!” It set the web down, using it to add extra padding to the spot where Tiso typically wrote his answers to its questions. “The circular web… I thought that was the web the Deepnest spiders made, but when I remember what they felt like in their nest I don't think that's true…” That made sense. Tiso thought their webs had been more triangular, but he had chalked that up to having so many layers of webbing that they no longer resembled the spiral design.

WHY?

“Why… why what?”

WEAVE? PRETTY?

“Oh! Well, most spiders weave their webs to get prey, but I don't really… I mean, I use my silk to hide my den so I could theoretically surprise bugs that walked over it, but it's so rare for bugs to walk by that I’ve been salvaging corpses that fall from the sky…” The sky? Is that where Y/N believed its prey came from? “So I can see why you’d think it doesn't make sense, but um… well, the circular webs are so thin that they're almost invisible. That's how they work. Prey stumbles into them without ever knowing there's a web. But in the early morning, you can see it.” Y/N smiled. “You can see it because there's droplets of water on it… like beautiful glass beads… invisible silk becomes a thread of jewels… I’ve only ever seen it in pictures.” Tiso thought about that.

Look for the dewdrops in the early morning. It is your responsibility to protect the hive. Getting caught in such a simple trap is unbecoming of a soldier.

Tiso shook his head to clear it again. So many unpleasant memories were being dredged up by this spider. He couldn't decide if they were worse than those of his death or not. He focused on the idea proposed by Y/N. Early morning did feel a bit more moist, but that was typically on the surface. While underground, time blurred together. There would be no water droplets down here.

NEED TO SURFACE

“Surface? Like… up?”

Tap tap tap.

“Why?”

WATER DROPLETS

These were longer phrases than Tiso was used to writing. He was struggling a little with it.

“Do they only appear on the surface?”

Tap tap tap.

Y/N looked crestfallen.

“I… I can't go up there… there are bugs up there. They won't like me.” Tiso couldn’t deny that. “I guess there's no point in trying… I should probably give up on that."

Tap.

“...” The spider smiled. “You’re really sweet, Tiso… but if I can't go up to see the water droplets, there's no point in making the web to catch them.” The smile faded as quickly as it had come. Tiso racked his brain for a solution to that problem. Surely that little town he breezed past wasn't the only opening to the surface? He could hardly remember what it looked like. He hadn't cared that much about it, after all. There was a few shabby buildings, a well, a graveyard, and beyond it…?

MOUNTAIN

“Huh?” Tiso was running out of room to write. Y/N noticed this and peeled off the upper layer of webbing. Every time it did this Tiso was impressed. It always seemed like it would just stick and pull off the entire chunk of web. Tiso drew a rough map of Dirtmouth, which was basically just a flat line with a sudden swipe upward to represent the mountain cliff. He circled the top of this ‘mountain.’ “Oh… a mountain…!” Y/N’s eyes shimmered. “Have you been up there?”

Tap.

“Oh… so it might not open up to the surface?”

Tap tap.

“I guess it doesn't hurt to try. I have to get good at this first, though.

Tap.

“No?”

WATER ANY WEB

“Oh. But my clumsy webs wouldn't look pretty.”

Tap tap. TRY

“Try…” Y/N’s smile returned. He was starting to like that smile. It made the spider’s scary face almost friendly despite the fact it put its sharp fangs on full display. “I’ll… I’ll try. If you think it’s worth it. I don't know where that is, but… I’ll try, if you believe in me!”

Tap tap tap.