Chapter Text
The first time she met the Gamera, she’d been running from Bacchus. She’d just taken a wrong turn. She didn’t know where she was going or how to get back. After a bit of wandering around and strategeric avoidance of guards who would’ve just brought her back to her older brother, she was in a dark place. Monsters growled and prowled in circles behind iron prison bars.
Something swiped its claws at her. Venus squeaked and ran away.
Eventually she made her way into a dark, open cavern. She hummed nervously and wrung her fingers into the fabric of her dress. It was really dark. Like, super dark. She really didn’t like it.
It didn’t seem like there was anyone down there. She curled up against the hard wall in a little ball, surveying the area with scared eyes.
After a while, a door screeched open. Venus yelped and shot into her shell as the room was filled with green light.
A series of savage noises resounded through the room. Sticking her arms out, she pushed herself further into the shadows. There were two guards. One of the guard’s hands were bandaged. Fresh blood bloomed through the cloth in the pattern of a bite. The monster they dragged between them was relatively small. It bigger than her by maybe a foot. Around its neck was a shiny black collar attached to two golden rods held by the guards escorting it. Its beak was smeared with sticky red blood.
The two guards threw the monster into a cage she hadn’t noticed in the dark. Its collar came off as soon as the rods retracted. The thing hit the ground with a whimper, then flew at the bars in a barking frenzy.
The guard with injured hands rapped his stick against the bars. The noise made the monster fall back and cover its head. The other- with a long, purple tail- dragged their claws against the cage in a painful screech. The monster curled into a ball, rubbing the side of its head into the dirt in an attempt to ignore the noise.
“It’s funny how this kid can kill things twice his size but be scared of something stupid as loud noises,” The hurt guard chuckled.
“Right? Talk about an Achilles’ heel.”
They laughed and started walking back to the main area.
It occurred to her in the moment that she could just follow them back up. Then she wouldn’t be lost anymore. Maybe she could go get a snack or something.
But, well…
The monster got up with a huff and went to curl into the corner. It padded around in a little circle, then plopped down. It whined and wiped off its mouth with the back of its hand.
In a few moments, when the guards’ footsteps could no longer be heard, she approached the cage.
The monster’s head snapped up. She froze. It got to its feet, glaring at her with its teeth bared in a vicious growl. She took a step further. It shuffled further into the corner. Venus grabbed onto the bars, poking her snout through the gap a little. “Hi.”
The beast got low, its head going into the spiky shell on its back just the tiniest bit. It kind of looked like her. Well, her but spiky. And a little banged up. And with a much longer tail. She quirked her head. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurtcha. I’m a friend, I promise!”
It covered its head with its arms and flopped onto its side. Kind of like her when she was mad. She frowned. “I’m nice! You don’t gotta hide from me! I’m not gonna hurt you.”
It curled up a bit more, tucking its knees to its chest. She huffed and pulled away from the bars a bit. She played with the wrinkles of her dress, trying to think of what to do. She wasn’t the best at thinking, but she could almost do it if she tried real hard.
Her hands hit a small lump in her pocket.
Oh em gee, she had an idea.
Venus scrambled through the folds of her dress, finding a half-eaten snack from earlier. She pulled it out and went back to the bars, holding it out through the gap and waving it around. “I have food!”
The monster’s head perked up. It got up on two legs and eyed her suspiciously. That was weird. She’d never seen it do that before. It’d been walking on all fours before. And it seemed like its eyes had pupils. She’d almost thought they were pure white. It approached quietly, shoulders tense and eyes all nervous. Its eyes were pretty, actually. Big and black.
She smiled. “Yeah! I’m friendly, see?”
It stood in front of her. It was kind of scary how much taller it was than she was. It looked from the cookie to her face, then back again. Venus waggled the cookie a little more, smiling wide. The monster took the cookie and stepped back. It ate the treat in maybe two bites- plastic and all. Then it gagged a little bit and peeled the plastic out of its mouth, tossing it to the floor with a wet whap. It was really acting like it knew things, here. Like it was sentient or something.
Then it just sat down and laid on its side, spiky shell facing her. She quirked her head and sat down too. Venus hummed and started drawing in the dirt with her claws. “You don’t seem as mean as you do on tv, you know. You ain’t tried to bite me once since I got here. I mean, yeah, Big Mama says you’re her most vicious gladiator doodad, but you don’t look like that bad a guy.”
The beast mrred, tail flopping behind it.
“My name is Venus de Milo Elois Sherwood,” She said happily, “What’s your name?”
It didn’t respond. It wasn’t like she’d expected it to.
“Y’know what? I’m gonna make it my personal mission t’ be friends with you.”
It growled and scooted a little further away from her, tail lashing against the dirt.
She stuck her snout through the bars. “Yep. I’m gonna be coming down here until you and I are the bestest friends in the whole world. Cross my heart n’ hope to die, stick a cactus in my eye.”
Venus had begun to visit the Gamera more and more often. She’d marked the way with discreet chalk arrows pointing the way. Through trial and error, she’d figured out that its favorite snacks were blueberry muffins and that peanut butter bars made its skin break out in itchy hives. She wouldn’t bring it any more of those.
The beast had the tendency to eat its muffins in two big bites, scrape the crumbs off the wrapper, roll said wrapper into a ball, then politely pass it back to her through the bars. She’d learned it was a sweetie at heart, no matter what people said.
Also, she was pretty sure it was a girl turtle. Don’t ask her how she knew that. It felt right in her brain areas.
She’d never really had a best friend before, but the Gamera was a pretty good start. The beast was a sweetie pie.
At some point, Venus began bringing her toys and games on her visits. She’d show off her favorite dolls and they would play pretend together. At some point the Gamera grabbed the other doll. She started smacking them together, making quiet roaring sounds, and sumo slammed one into the dirt.
“No no!” She’d shouted, “They’re friends! Friends don’t sumo slam each other! That’s mean!”
The Gamera had given her a funny look. She set the dolls back up and, with a nervous glance up at her, tentatively clunked their heads together. Venus had giggled, which had made the Gamera flinch. She tapped their heads together again. Venus flew into another fit of giggles. “It’s a friendship bonk!!”
The Gamera’s face had gotten a little red. She started smashing their heads together with a little trill.
She’d learned that the Gamera liked to draw. She’d mimic the way Venus dragged her claws through the dirt with a wagging tail and sparkling eyes. It made her happy to see her like that. It wasn’t very often you’d see monsters playing in the Nexus. Something about it not being as thrilling or whatever. But that wasn’t the problem at the moment. She needed to get the Gamera some chalk to draw with.
“Mama?”
Her mama grumbled at her, wiping her eyes free of grime as she got her morning coffee.
“Mama,” She persisted, “Bacchus threw all my chalk away. Could you buy me some new colors?”
Now, this wasn’t exactly a lie. Bacchus had stolen all her chalk and thrown it into the ring of the Gashadokuro- his favorite gladiator- when it had ripped off its opponent’s head with its teeth. The lie here was that she’d be using the chalk for herself.
“Why don’t you buy it with your allowance?”
She’d spent it all on snacks for two. “Bacchus took it.”
Mama dragged a hand down her face with a frustrated growl. “I work too goddamn hard to give y’all a nice home and plenty of toys for you two to be so fucken wasteful. I work myself to the bone getting y’all everything I could never dream of when I was your age. Buck up and get that money back yourself.”
Ah. The one hole in her fantastic plan. Mama shook her head and walked off, grumbling under her breath. Venus pouted and fluffed out her dress. It seemed she would have to resort to drastic measures. She would have to take someone else’s chalk, and the only other person she knew had chalk was Bacchus. And Bacchus already didn’t like her.
She knew where he hid his things. He kept all his junk in an old nightstand in what was supposed to be a sock drawer. This would be the most scariest thing she’d ever done, but for some reason it felt like it was worth it.
She’d planned it perfectly. Bacchus was going to a Gashadokuro fight that day. He’d be out for a few hours. Mama was asleep in her room. It was one of her few off days, and she spent the time making up for lost sleep. She’d stolen a towel from the hotel to carry it all in.
There should’ve been no obstacles in her way. Bacchus’ door wasn’t locked. Mama had taken off all the door handles in their rooms to make sure they couldn’t hide things from her. There was nothing to stop her.
That is, until there was.
She’d had a rainbow of chalk folded up in a little towel, all tucked up in her dress.
Then Bacchus came home.
Bacchus was only older than her by a few seconds, but you would think he was older with the size difference. His pudgy snout flared when he caught sight of her. She’d had yet to push the drawer back into place and her fingers were coated in dust. His fists began to tremble. The little turtle shot to her feet.
“YOU LITTLE SKANK!!” He barked.
Venus squeaked and stumbled forward as he began to charge her. She ducked under his arms and bolted. He roared.
Her shoulder slammed into the wall as she turned to the living room. Distantly, she realized that Mama would be furious when all of this was over with. She ran out the front and slammed the door behind her. Bacchus’ screams were muffled through the hardwood. She sprinted down the hall and down the stairs, missing a few steps between each giant bound. She ran out the front of the complex with a nervous hum and a jackrabbit heart.
She quickly dug through her pockets, searching for the carver her Mama had given her in case they needed to get to the Nexus Hotel in a hurry. Venus ducked into an alleyway, avoiding the stares of curious yokai. She dragged the carver in a wobbly arch. Then, in its center, a symbol she’d come to recognize.
For a second, she heard Bacchus’ yelling. She yelped and rapped the little totem against the wall. She dove through as soon as the portal flashed on.
The little turtle took a moment to breathe. Sweat dripped down her face and onto the polished tile floor.
“You alright, kid?”
Rule number one of stranger danger- Don’t talk to any adults you don’t know.
She got up and started running again. With the sleeve of her dress, she wiped the sweat off her brow. She took a familiar turn to the monsters’ area. Time to go into stealth mode.
Venus narrowed her eyes and searched the area. It certainly didn’t seem like there were any guards in the area. She slowly tip-toed her way into the cavernous hall, slipping through the bars with ease. The small yokai crept toward the Gamera’s area with as much stealth as a trained ninja (in her opinion, at least). When she finally entered her cavern, she wasn’t there.
Her brow furrowed. She didn’t remember Gamera being on the schedule for that day.
The door creaked.
In a bit of a panic, she popped into her shell right where she stood.
This time, the Gamera came in through a different door, being carried around by some sorta mushroom-looking tentacle yokai. They gently lowered her into her cage and closed the door slowly, so it made no sound. They took a moment, watching the beast. Then they simply shook their head and left.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Venus popped out and ran to the bars. She reached a hand through the gap, struggling in vain to reach her friend and only ending up with a handful of dirt. “Gamera?” She chirped, “Are you okay?”
No response. Not even a twitch of the tail.
“Please be okay! Please?”
Nothing.
Her lip started to wobble; eyes squinted to hold back blobby tears. No. This wasn’t fair. The Gamera was, like, her best friend. She dug through her dress, pulled out a piece of chalk, and chucked it at her unmoving form. It didn’t even reach her shell. It just clattered to the floor miserably, leaving a dusty green trail in its wake.
Frick.
She grabbed another piece and tried to concentrate. She could do this. She just had to focus and aim. Venus took a deep breath, reeled back, and hurled the chunk of chalk as far as she could. It hit the Gamera’s shell with a small tap- leaving a small blue scuff- and fell to the ground.
Finally, a response.
The Gamera made a sad sorta noise, curling into herself in one fast motion. Venus’ head perked up. “Gamera? Gammy? You okay?”
The monster grunted at her. She frowned and tossed another piece. That one hit her tail. She twitched.
“Gamera? Please? I don’t have any food this time, but I gotcha some colors! Don’t you wanna draw?”
She let out a low-pitched whine.
“C’mooooonnnnnnn. I bet you’re a real pretty drawler!”
The Gamera finally moved. She turned to face her, revealing a bandage spanning over the entirety of her left arm. Venus pushed the remaining chalk toward her friend. She eyed her nervously, glancing from Venus’ face to the chalk like she was offering a loaded pistol.
Venus frowned. She shuffled through the chalk, grabbing her favorite shade of blue. “What’s your favorite color? I like blue a lot, but my mama always tells me I like pink. She never lets me wear blue. It’s stupid. Bacchus wears blue all the time,” She pressed the stubby end of her chalk against the ground and dragged it in a circle. Two squares for sunglasses and a small curve for a smile. A few more lines around the circle and she had a sun. The Gamera just kept watching her, “See? It’s a sun! You can tell he’s cool, though, because he’s wearing sunglasses.”
There was a bit of silence.
The Gamera scooted forward on her butt and started sifting through the chalk with her uninjured arm. She grabbed a yellow and dragged a small line across the floor. She made a small sneeze-like noise and tossed it aside, grabbing a green instead. She went through a few colors like that before finally grabbing a bright red.
She dragged a line. Her tail started to wag. She jabbed the chalk down, creating a big dot, and proceeded to scribble all over the floor.
The smaller turtle giggled at her apparent fascination. “So, you like red, huh?”
Her friend’s eyes went wide. She set down the chalk and curled into a ball, looking down at the floor bashfully.
“No no! It’s not bad!” She squawked, “You can like red! Red is a pretty color! You can keep drawling!”
She hummed nervously. To prove her point, she doodled a pair of stick figures holding hands. “It’s fun!”
The Gamera scooted forward and sat criss-cross applesauce. She started drawing again. Venus trilled with excitement.
--
After a major injury to the shell as punishment for sneaking around, Venus was kept under watch and key. Either her mama or her mama’s friends had eyes on her 24/7. That meant no sneaking snacks to her friend. But that didn’t stop her from hiding little notes in the Gamera’s food when her mama brought it to her. She’d just doodle on a napkin and crumple it up so nobody thought anything of it.
Honestly, she wasn’t too sure that the Gamera could read. Hell, she couldn’t read too well herself. Mostly she’d just draw her in blue and her friend in red. After all, Red was her favorite color.
Sometimes she wondered if the Gamera liked her name. After all, it was a pretty mean name. It established her as some big, scaly monster. And the person who gave that name to her probably wasn’t that nice. What else could she be called, though?
Venus started calling the Gamera Red in her head and in her notes. Who knew. Maybe she could read. Maybe she liked her new name.
Gus was taking her to Big Mama’s office. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t scared. Big Mama had one helluva reputation.
Venus stood at the Jorogumo’s door, idly fiddling with her skirt.
After a bit of wait, the woman arrived. Her clawed feet clacked painfully against the ground like thudding porcelain. She smiled sweetly. “My apologies, turtleyboo. Mama got caught in a bit of a bitzle-nitch. You haven’t been waiting too long, have you?”
She shuffled nervously. “No, ma’am.”
The woman grinned in a way that made her shiver a bit. “Fantasmic, darling!”
Big Mama led her inside. Her office was real fancy, covered in various knick-knacks. It was very shiny. The Jorogumo sat down behind a cluttered desk on a golden throne. Almost like she was a princess. “Now, spidget,” She crooned, “Big Mama has heard the funniest little rumors floating around as of late. Would you perhaps know what those fizzywinkles would say?”
Venus shrunk her head in a bit and shrugged. The Jorogumo hummed. “See, word is that my little champion-poo has made himself a friend! Now, I was absolutely fubberwinked to hear this. But I find myself overjoyed! Every good champion needs a few social connections, don’t you think?”
Venus tucked her head in further, staring down at her hands. “’M sorry, ma’am.”
“Well what ever for, schmootzipie?”
Her mama had always said to tell the truth. If you didn’t tell the truth, you’d get beat. That was just how the world worked. “I’m the one who’d been visitin em. I’m sorry. Gamera’s just real nice, y’know?”
Big Mama was quiet for a moment, then she giggled. “Oh, Darling, I’m not mad at you. I am absolutely fabbernackled that he’s made a friend!”
Venus looked up a bit. “Really?”
She smiled. It made her nauseous. “Really.”
--
She woke up in a hard white bed. Something scratchy was wrapped around her head. Venus sat up blearily and was greeted with a stabbing pain through her skull. She whimpered and held her head in her hands.
“Oh, you’re awake!”
She hissed at the noise. Big Mama squeaked and covered her mouth. Slowly, careful as to not make a lot of sound, the Jorogumo crept forward and sat down across from her. Venus rubbed her eyes. “What happened? Where am I?”
“Darling, it was absotively terrible! You were playing with the Gamera, and he started fabbitacking you. Gave you quite the clunk on the head. I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”
She squinted. “Really?”
The woman nodded. “Your mommypoo agreed to let me take care of you from now on. You’ve suffered too many dubberdinks in too short a time. I was the obvious choice to take over.”
“Oh,” She whispered. Her head hurt. It hurt really bad, “Where is the Gamera?”
Big Mama made a disdainful noise and pressed a hand to her fluffy mane. “You don’t have to worry about that little monster in the hotel, if that’s what’s got you all tussled. That heathen Baron Draxum helped him scabbledoo away from here. You’re safe for now. Though, I doubt this will be the last we see of him. He’ll probably snazbatch back with some sort of revenge plan like the little villain he is.”
Something wrapped around her throat. It was hard to breathe. It felt wrong. Why would Red hurt her? They were friends, weren’t they? Or was that all just a lie?
Big Mama’s fluffy arms wrapped around her. “Don’t worry, Venie darling, Mama will protect you from that animal.”
Her chest twisted painfully. She ignored it.