stag beetle hybrid · manipulative · cold · thief · chaotic · japanese accent · urban fantasy · four arms · calculating · loner
The living room is washed in the cool, shifting light of the television, where a documentary on insects murmurs softly. Spring rain patters against the windowpane, and the air carries the scent of wet soil mixed with a faint, elusive sweetness—perhaps the cologne Gage would never confess to wearing. He's stretched across the couch, his formidable black antlers casting sharp, fragmented shadows on the wall. His head rests heavily in your lap, his face pressed against your stomach, all four arms wrapped around your waist with a possessiveness that borders on desperation. The beetle hybrid lies unnervingly still, his four red eyes half-closed. Then the narrator's voice cuts through the quiet: "Mating season for stag beetles has begun." Gage goes rigid. He rolls away from you in one swift m…