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Wayne's head whipped around at the noise, and he watched as the Bracken skittered away, carrying one of his friends.
Welp. Even knowing that Cal would get revived later, that still was not great because his bud had been carrying a decent amount of scrap. That one neck snap was probably going to extend this trip by at least an hour or two if they wanted to stay on track for quota. That sucked.
---
"An hour or two" turned into three, because Wayne was pretty sure that everyone else had died. And they definitely didn't have enough scrap to stay on pace for quota.
He was contemplating taking another trip back to the ship when he saw it out of the corner of his eye. There was that Bracken again, peeking from around a corner. He had to hurry.
---
Wayne was not perfect at looting. So it was only inevitable that he was distracted enough to forget about it.
When the hand wrapped around him, he was immediately prepared for death. But it didn't come. Instead, he was pulled off his feet and carried by the monster in one hand as it skittered off. That was weird- as far as he knew, all Brackens instantly killed their prey.
Maybe it thought he was already dead? But he's been standing upright, so that didn't make sense...
When it finally dropped him, he looked around the room they had arrived in. It was dim, but he could make out the general rectangular shape of it. Wayne also noticed the single shoe on the floor that looked like it had once belonged to an employee.
His gaze cautiously turned to the Bracken itself. He kept his eyes down to avoid provoking it and- oh. That. Definitely wasn't normal.
Rather than the usual gaunt stomach Brackens had, this one was much larger. It pushed out quite a ways from the rest of its body, and it looked full. Engorged. Like the Bracken had had a very filling meal recently. Now that he was actually paying attention, it was making little gurgling sounds.
...The Bracken totally ate his team, didn't it? Wayne tried not to dwell on his particular feelings about that because this was still a very dangerous monster that could...
Sniff him? With the way it was circling and getting its face close to his body, that was what it seemed like. It was even making little chitters every so often, which was also new, he didn't know Brackens actually made noise. This whole thing was really confusing, but he wasn't exactly complaining about the very full stomach that was pressing lightly against him when the Bracken got too close.
"Um."
The word slipped out of him almost instinctually in response to whatever all this was. The Bracken stopped. Tilted its head.
"Er, can you... understand me?"
It tilted its head from side to side a couple more times.
"Is that a 'sort of'?"
A nod. Wayne blinked. That. Was definitely not normal. He was pretty sure "Brackens can understand humans" would be common knowledge if it was, well, common.
"Uh. Why did you not kill me?"
The rapidity with which it buried its face in his chest nearly knocked him over. Wayne was... kind of getting it? It liked the way he smelled for some reason? Or it liked something else about him?
That was all well and good- he did appreciate not dying- but he also had a ship to get back to.
"Did you... eat the others?"
It nodded vigorously, head still awkwardly nestled into him. Welp. Okay, so he definitely had a ship to get back to if they didn't want to lose all their scrap.
Wayne just wasn't sure how to get out of this situation. The Bracken was interested in him to an unnerving degree, so it wasn't like he could just sneak off. (He tried to ignore the part of him that kinda wanted to stay.)
He went for the only strategy he could think of.
"What's that over there?!" He pointed at a random corner of the room. The Bracken's head turned and he sprinted for it.
He made it three whole steps before the monster tackled him down to the ground. It practically wrapped itself around Wayne, arms and legs both encircling his body completely. He could barely breathe with how tightly he was being held.
...Wayne was really trying to ignore the fact that it was the Bracken's full belly that was doing most of the crushing work on his lungs. And he was really, really trying to ignore that fact that it was making him hard. There had to be at least two of his friends in there. He should not have been getting off on it.
But he was. And honestly? If he was going to die here and get revived later, he might as well enjoy it.
His hands didn't have much range of movement in this position, but he was able to turn them jussst so that a couple of his fingers could make contact with the groaning stomach. He could barely rub tiny circles in it. There was almost no give. It was completely full of... people.
The Bracken let out a noise that Wayne could have sworn was a purr. Maybe he was hallucinating from oxygen deprivation, he didn't know for sure. Either way, it adjusted its arms so that it was only encompassing his torso and legs, leaving Wayne's hands free to roam.
This was weird. This was so weird. Wayne never really thought of himself as a monsterfucker, just a guy who loved bellies. But this was... he squirmed a little bit. There was no way he was gonna be able to get himself off in this state, was there. He tried to shift his hips a little, but barely got any real motion or friction out of it.
Well, he supposed he would just have to be content with giving belly rubs to a big purring monster that was capable of killing him in an instant. That wasn't so bad, he supposed as his hands covered as much territory as they possibly could.
Impulsively, Wayne pulled off his gloves. Fuck it, if he was going to get this chance, he was going to make good use of it.
The feel of the Bracken's skin... was it even skin? He wasn't a biologist, he didn't know the right word. But anyway, it was strange. It felt kinda like... Leaves? Not exactly, but the texture was kinda plant-like. Whatever, it didn't matter. He kept his hands moving on their wide, exploratory circles, occasionally squeezing a little bit. Every time he squeezed or dug them in just a little harder, he was rewarded with a gurgle from the creature's belly or what he assumed was a pleased chitter from the Bracken itself.
It was still nuzzling its head into him. Like a huge cat or something.
...Okay, he had to try. Wayne brought one hand to the top of its head and scritched like one would a cat. It paused. Looked at him.
"Uh. Is that-"
It squeezed him even tighter, knocking the wind out of him. It seemed even more eager now, its sort-of purring louder than before. Its gut squished against him, an immovable object that crushed his own torso against the hard floor.
Okay, he could definitely get used to thi-
---
Every employee of The Company had a little chip implanted that could kill them instantly. In practice, that happened when the ship took off without them. Supposedly, it was to avoid errors when reviving people. There were issues with the revival process when the person was still alive, or something.
All that was to say that one second, Wayne was having what felt like a fever dream with a Bracken, and the next second, he was awake in the ship.
"How did all of you die? There was hardly anything there!" The unofficial 'leader,' Axel, was pacing around. "It was like. One slime and a couple of hoarding bugs!"
"There was a Bracken, too." Bailey pointed out. "You didn't see it? I'm pretty sure that was what got me."
"Uh, same." Calvin agreed. "One second, I was with Wayne, then..."
"Guess the explains why the radar showed all of you in the same place." Axel sighed. "Lucky for us, I got just enough scrap, we're still fine for quota."
"Well, that's good." Wayne wasn't exactly trusting his voice to not waver, but it was fine.
As the quartet milled about in the ship to prepare for sleep, Wayne might have noted down the coordinates for the specific spot on Vow that they'd landed at. Just in case they ever wanted to be back in that spot. For no particular reason.
---
It was eight days later that they returned to Vow. And Wayne, the very trustworthy Console Guy, was definitely not doing anything suspicious. He definitely was not putting in coordinates for a place they had been to before.
He just wanted to see. It probably wouldn't still be there, right?
The trip went mostly normally until he heard Axel shout "Bracken!" from a few rooms away. That set Wayne's heart pounding, and not for the usual reasons.
Surely not...
Wayne didn't actually see it for a while. He did notice that none of the other crew members seemed to be around, either. That was a little concerning if they were going to repeat what happened last time.
This time, when it grabbed him, it only grabbed his arm. And it didn't immediately run off either, it waited until Wayne looked and processed the situation. The Bracken tilted its head. It would have been sort of cute if it wasn't for the gurgling belly that was right in Wayne's face. Again. That first time really wasn't a dream, huh?
"Hey, big... guy?" Wayne didn't know if Brackens had genders. "Uh. Miss me?" It felt silly flirting like this with a monster that could kill him with one hand, buuut that wasn't going to stop him.
It nodded rapidly and pulled at his arm, hard enough to knock him off balance. He was practically dragged to the room they'd been it before. It was all the same, except there was no shoe on the ground.
The Bracken seemed even more eager this time, because it almost immediately pushed him into a wall and started rubbing its face into him.
God, was its belly bigger than last time? Did it really get the entire team? He swallowed uneasily at the thought. He still couldn't get over the fact that he was getting off on a monster eating the rest of the crew, but... it was hot. It was making itself huge just for him and letting him be as touchy as he wanted.
He couldn't get enough of it, really. It was so full and tight. Though he couldn't see the underside of its belly, he could feel how it barely drooped at all, instead sticking far out into his own torso. He tried to grab it, but it was full enough that there wasn't really an easy way to get a good grasp of it.
He jumped a little when he felt the Bracken... nip at him? Somehow, that actually wasn't that surprising, considering how cat-like it had been acting with him. Still, he was curious...
"Um, can you show me your mouth?" This was silly. It pulled back and cocked its head. "The thing you eat with."
It clearly understood that, because he saw a little dark opening appear on its face. It was barely even visible- if he hadn't asked for it, Wayne wouldn't have known its mouth was open.
Still, that didn't make sense. That hole wasn't big enough to eat people. "Er... can you make it as big as you can?"
The circular mouth slowly widened in all directions until the entire face below its eyes was a big black hole.
Okay. That explained that.
With the query answered, it lunged back into him. It was so heavy. And it was... tugging at his suit.
"You want this off." That made sense. If it liked the way he smelled...
It nodded its agreement. He had to think about it for a second. But realistically, this was a monster with very strong arms. If he didn't, it would probably pull the suit off him anyway.
Carefully, he undid the zipper, exposing his back, arms, chest... and waist. All things considered, Wayne was pretty slim. Constantly dying and being revived wasn't conducive to building muscle or fat, so he just looked untoned. If he was frank, Wayne wasn't a huge fan of his body. But the way the Bracken practically dove into him made him feel a little better about it.
Weirdly, this was feeling like a really good stress reliever. The Bracken was, admittedly, hot like this, and it clearly appreciated his body- or at the very least his scent- too.
The pair kept that up for what felt like a long time- the Bracken chittering and nuzzling into him while he groped the belly that was slowly digesting Wayne's crewmates.
It wasn't until his HUD beeped a 9:00 PM warning that he remembered he actually had something to do.
"Shoot. I need to leave."
The Bracken possessively grabbed his waist, stared him down.
"I promise I'll be back. I came back once already, didn't I?" He didn't know how much it actually understood of what he was saying. "If you keep me here, I won't ever be able to come back." That was a real threat, because if he died and they lost all their scrap, they were just fucked for this quota.
The Bracken chittered and made a couple of clicking sounds. It didn't sound like a happy noise.
"I want to come back, but you have to let me leave first." A stupid song lyric drifted through his head. But the Bracken finally seemed convinced, because it slowly released its grip on him.
It simply stared as Wayne left, getting his suit back on. He was luckily not attacked on his way back to the ship. Another successful trip.
---
He made a habit of it. Every time the crew agreed on going to Vow- once every week or two- he would put those magic coordinates in. The facility had new scrap every time they visited, so it wasn't like he was sabotaging quota or anything.
It seemed like this Bracken was really effective, because it was consistently catching two or three of the crew members every visit.
Eventually, it would come for him, and they would... enjoy each other's company. Wayne wasn't sure exactly how much the Bracken was getting out of it, but he was definitely having a good time. He never really got tired of its sheer size or the sounds that its body made when it was stuffed full.
It took a few trips before Wayne noticed that his efforts were sticking. Well, besides the occasional bruise he would get from the Bracken nipping at his exposed skin.
The Bracken had put on weight. Wayne had absolutely no clue how its biology worked, but the Bracken's body was definitely bigger. Its arms and legs were thicker, its chest had more of a presence... even the leafy looking things on its back seemed more prominent.
And of course, its belly... well, it was hard to notice much of a difference, since the Bracken was stuffed every time he saw it. But even then, there was a little more squish for Wayne to grab onto. That kind of blue screened his brain when he realized it.
It was so weird, the way it felt. The skin was rough, but squishy. He pressed into it, relishing in the way his hands sunk in just a bit before hitting the solid core that was its full gut.
It was hard to feel bad about feeding the other members of the crew to the Bracken when they came back to life and he was getting rewarded like this. Working for the Company did not give him many chances to indulge. Being able to play with a fat belly like this was something he hadn't experienced in so long.
"Lookin' good, big guy." He muttered as he ran a couple of fingers down the back of its head, drawing out another purr. "And looking better every day."
---
Now that he knew it was capable of gaining weight, Wayne kept a close eye out every time. Of course, its belly was the priority on every visit, but the fact that it was growing bigger in other places spiked his arousal. There was also the fact that even its stuffed gut was starting to droop, pounds of fat unable to fight the force of gravity.
He nearly choked when another member of the crew mentioned it.
"Hey, uh, Wayne. Did you notice anything... weird on that trip?" Calvin asked once after a Vow expedition.
"No?" Wayne responded cautiously. "Like what?"
"The Bracken there. It. Uh." Cal gestured uselessly. "It looked different from other Brackens."
"How's that?" Wayne knew exactly what Cal was talking about. He was glad that the helmet hid his expression, because he was definitely blushing a little.
"It was fat." Calvin said bluntly. "Like, I looked at it for too long and it came after me and I swear to God it was fucking jiggling."
Wayne had to take a second to calm himself before saying anything to that. He should've known that the rest of the crew would notice it eventually. The thought of the (his?) Bracken rushing someone down, gut heaving and lurching with every step, knowing it was only going to fill itself more... Fuck, Wayne was exploding internally.
"That is weird." He said, struggling to maintain an even tone. "Are you sure you saw it right?"
"Yeah. Well-lit and everything. What do those things even eat?" Calvin grumbled. "Never seen any other Bracken that looked like that."
Wayne had to desperately avoid saying "you." Instead, "Maybe it sustains itself on a diet of hoarding bugs." That could have been true. If it ate people, then those assholes were fair game too.
"Dude, I wish." The conversation turned to Calvin complaining about a hoarding bug that had gotten 3 pieces of scrap off him. Wayne breathed an internal sigh of relief at not having to contain himself on that topic anymore.
---
It was beautiful. That was really the only word he could use to describe it, these days. The Bracken was so much bigger than it was initially, so well-fed and treated compared to the skinny body it had once sported.
It was all Wayne's fault, and he loved it. They would get to its room and he would spend what must have been hours playing with, groping, rubbing at the expansive fat that covered its once-lithe body. There was a desperation in the way his hands roamed, trying to cover as much ground as possible.
The Bracken, for its part, was still just as enthusiastic. Despite all the weight, it was still capable of devouring at least two Wayne's crewmates every visit. Sometimes, Wayne suspected that the Bracken was also enjoying all the weight. He would see it grabbing at its own belly and jiggling it hard. It was also making great use of its size to tease Wayne. The number of times his entire range of vision had been covered by the massive belly as it was smushed against his head... fuck.
Right now, though? He was the one on top of it. It was too bad the texture of its skin wasn't a little smoother, because it would have been a perfect bed otherwise. That wasn't to say he wasn't enjoying it, though. His body sunk an inch into the excess fat, and he had free roam to put his hands wherever he wanted.
And there weren't any bad choices. The belly, the arms, the chest, the thighs... Everything was consumed by softness, it seemed. The foliage on its back had also grown, though in a different way. There were more "leaves," they were all even larger, and what looked kind of like a flower had started to appear. Not that that was very visible in the Bracken's current state.
The sounds coming out of its stomach alone were enough to send his heart pounding, really. Its digestive system let out a constant stream of gurgles and groans, and it was even more active when Wayne was pushing and kneading at the Bracken's belly. Every so often, he would hit just the right spot to make the Bracken let out a noise that resembled a whine, and that made his pulse spike every time.
It was just... so big. The word "huge" wasn't quite accurate. It was still able to walk, after all. But Wayne was still in heaven with his big, fat Bracken.
He couldn't wait to make it even bigger.