Author's Note: This was written because I was looking at the DS fanfictions with Webber (There are only six for some reason) and in the fics I checked out the characters didn't seem to be phased by Webber looking like the spider monsters. This didn't make sense to me, so I decided to write something in which Webber has a misunderstanding with one of the other heroes.
I picked Wendy because she and Abigail have relatively low attack stats and wouldn't utterly destroy poor Webber if they picked a fight with him.
Also, the title. Flowers - Wendy and Abigail, Skulls - Webber. I used flowers for the twins because flowers are literally their signature item and I used a skull for Webber because that relates to how you have to unlock him. I drew a complete blank on naming this, in case you couldn't tell lol.
I don't own Don't Starve, but you all probably could have guessed that.
-Midnathething
Webber slipped through the woods silently, monster meat tucked carefully into their backpack. There was a spider nest nearby and they were going to get one of the Spider Warriors to help them hunt for food. Absentmindedly, they took a bite out of the piece of monster meat that they'd brought for themselves. In this world hunger was unforgiving, something he'd learned before the spider ate him, and they didn't want to chance being weakened by hunger and starving.
The spider child paused, frowning. They should have reached the spider nest by now, but they hadn't seen so much as a sign of it. They knew that the nest wasn't big enough for the queen to have decided to relocate, so where were the spiders? The sound of a twig snapping tore them from their thoughts and they growled in the direction of the sound. Nothing revealed itself, so it couldn't be a one of the pig men... Suddenly, a pale figure launched itself at them with a ghostly battle cry.
Webber felt a flash of pain and stumbled away from the ghost with a pained hiss. In their peripheral vision they saw a blonde running at them with a spear, barely giving them enough time to dodge the jab that she aimed at their side. The monster meat he'd been nibbling abandoned, Webber turned to face the girl while edging away from the ghost. Whatever it had done had hurt and they didn't want to be hit again. The child suspected he now knew what had happened to the spiders...
The girl moved to attempt to stab them again, but paused when the hovering ghost whispered something Webber couldn't make out. Webber watched her uneasily, ready to dodge and counter-attack if she tried to stab them again.
But she didn't. Instead, she cautiously lowered her spear. "Abigail said... That you're a human?" Her tone was cautious and questioning, like she wasn't sure she believed whoever Abigail was.
Webber blinked. "I, we, uh... Sort of." Their voice was rough from lack of use, and he wasn't entirely sure how to explain the situation to the girl.
She seemed to take the fact that he could speak as a sign that he was human, or at the very least, sentient. "Sort of?" She deadpanned, before continuing, "So, why are you out here?"
Briefly, Webber considered making some sort of sarcastic comment, but he suspected the girl wouldn't appreciate it. "The spiders were here." They answered with a shrug.
The girl glanced at the monster meat they'd been eating and frowned. "I think that's poisonous, every time I've had to resort to eating it I gotten sick."
Webber frowned, although they weren't sure the girl would be able to tell. "We've never had any problems eating it, neither have the spiders..." He trailed off, concluding that the food probably reacted poorly to humans.
Seeming to reach the same conclusion, the girl shrugged. "Food's food, I guess. So, what's your name?"
The spider child's frown deepened. He... Didn't actually remember his name, he'd been Webber ever since the spider ate him. 'Then give the human that name.' The spider hissed from the back of their head. "Webber."
"Wendy," She pointed to the ghost, "and Abigail." The ghost, Abigail, whispered something that might have been a greeting.
Fidgeting a little, Webber glanced around before letting his gaze drift back to the blondes. "So, uh, what are you two doing out here?"
The living blonde considered the question, eyeing Webber wearily, before sighing. The ghost whispered something and Wendy reluctantly tugged the edge of her skirt up to reveal a somewhat swollen spider bite. Webber winced.
"Spiders have been attacking our camp, so we decided to clear out some of the nests."
Webber gave the duo a nervous smile. "We can, uh, ask the spiders to leave you two alone, if you'd like. Much easier than killing them all."
The ghost whispered something, floating in an enthusiastic circle around Wendy, and the blonde seemed to perk at the suggestion. "Could you?"
The spider child nodded before pausing. "Erm, it'd help if we knew where your camp was though." They gave a somewhat awkward laugh.
Wendy lightly slapped her forehead, muttering a quick 'of course'. "Yeah, that probably would help. Follow us."
Slipping through the woods with the confidence of someone who had been trapped on the hellish island for a while, Wendy and Abigail led Webber in the direction of their base. Occasionally, Webber caught bits of conversation from the two girls in the form of stray words and ghostly whispers. He felt bad for eavesdropping - even if it was accidental - but the spider declared that it was the girls' own fault for being so loud.
After having walked for a while, Webber began to wonder how Wendy and Abigail had ended up on the hellish island. 'Ask them then.' The spider idly murmured.
"How did you two wind up here?"
'Nailed it!'
Wendy and Abigail's conversation abruptly stopped and the two turned to face them. Abigail whispered something and Wendy frowned. "Why do you care?" She asked Webber instead of answering or translating for the ghost.
Webber considered the question. "Mostly because I'm curious, but also..." He trailed off, clacking his teeth thoughtfully.
The living blonde frowned. "Also what?"
"I ended up here because a tall jerk tricked me." Webber said instead of answering the blonde's question.
Abigail whispered something to her sister, who blinked. "You were wondering if the same thing happened to us." She answered for them.
Webber nodded.
She sighed. "We're here because Abigail died and I... Took it poorly, to say the least." The ghostly blonde whispered something in a comforting tone. "He showed up and told me he could reunite Abigail and I."
And he clearly had, because the ghost was floating along side them as they walked. Webber could understand why someone would want to be reunited with their sibling, but still, "That... Was kind of awful of him." Webber murmured, shaking his head.
Because, while he hadn't tricked Wendy, he'd still lured her into this nightmare world. And with the offer of reuniting her with her dead sibling no less... They felt their disdain for the tall man grow.
"He did hold up his end of the deal." Wendy pointed out, though she didn't argue with Webber's statement.
"So, how did you end up here?" She asked after a somewhat awkward pause.
Webber looked away, suddenly wishing that he hadn't asked the girl, because now he owed her an explanation. "Like I said, he tricked me." Webber took a deep breath. "He offered to get me away from where I was before," Webber sighed, "And I thought it was hell there." The spider child laughed bitterly.
"We won't be tricked again." They both said. And it was more comforting than he had expected, knowing that the spider agreed with him on this matter.
'I can see into your mind and if you tried you could see into mine. I have seen where you were before, how that man tricked you, the suffering you've faced in this world... I hate him as much as you do, young one.'
Abigail whispered something, suddenly, and Webber was snapped from their thoughts.
"Um, what? I'm sorry, I didn't catch what she said." Webber told Wendy with an apologetic wince.
The spider child glanced at Wendy, hoping to read her expression, and was surprised to see that she was staring at them. Their eyes briefly met and Webber looked away, slightly uncomfortable under the girl's intense gaze. "She asked why you do that." The blond answered simply.
"Do what?"
The ghost whispered and Wendy nodded. "That thing with the pronouns, sometimes you say 'I' or 'Me' and sometimes you say 'Us' or 'We'."
Webber blinked. "Oh, that. I, uh, we, well..." He trailed off, unsure of how to explain themselves to the blondes. "There are two of us." The spider explained simply when Webber couldn't find a better explanation.
Abigail whispered something, seeming to be surprised, and Wendy blinked. "I see... You know you hiss more, when you talk, right?"
Wendy was, Webber realized, addressing the spider. Did she hiss more when she spoke than he did? "We had not realized that." The spider responded. "We never really noticed." Webber added with a shrug.
Floating in a curious loop around them, Abigail whispered something again, and while Webber couldn't understand the ghost, they knew what she had asked.
"The spider ate me." Webber explained, attempting to follow Abigail's loops and making themselves dizzy. 'Stop that!' "I could not digest him and soon grew ill. As far as we can tell, we both died." The spider added. "Then we were alive again, like this." They both admitted with a shrug.
Abigail whispered something that Webber couldn't quite understand and the group fell into a thoughtful silence.
. . .
Eventually, they reached Wendy's camp. Webber could sense the spiders nesting nearby and gave Wendy a small smile.
"Could you stay here? We'll deal with the spiders."
The blonde nodded, and the ghost bobbed to mimic the movement.
Webber gave the spider control of their legs, allowing her to move them towards the spiders nesting nearby while he ate the unfinished piece of monster meat he'd brought for themselves. He realized that they'd reached the nest when the spider began communicating with the other monsters, politely explaining to them that the human nearby wasn't aware that they had intruded in spider territory. The spider went on to explain that the human had built their own nest in the area and had only attacked because the spiders attacked first.
"Do you think you could move just a bit further away from here?" Webber asked carefully, "The territory will still be yours, but you'll be less likely to run into the human."
The spiders clacked a confirmation and began scuttling to and fro, making preparations to move their nest. With a small smile, Webber turned and left.
'I don't trust them, they agreed too easily.' The spider hissed, making Webber pause.
'What do you mean?'
'They probably intend to double cross us, agree to leave and send a different nest of spiders to cause the human and ghost problems. It's something I would have done.'
Webber clacked their teeth in irritation, frowning a little. 'Well, what do we do then?'
The spider didn't have an answer for him and grew quiet. Webber walked towards Wendy's camp, deep in thought. He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize it was growing dark until the spider pointed it out. 'There's no way we'll be able to reach our camp before dark! What do we do?' He fretted with a nervous glance towards the sky.
The spider hummed, thinking. 'We'll need to ask the human and ghost if we can stay in their camp for the night. Perhaps longer, if my suspicions about the other spiders are accurate.'
Webber promised to ask Wendy and returned his focus to where they were walking only to jump with a yelp. Wendy, who they had just been discussing , was right in front of them, Abigail floating a short distance behind her.
"It's almost night, are you going to be able to make it back to your camp in time?" She asked, her eyes shining with something that might have been concern. Abigail whispered something that sounded like a similar question.
The spider child shook his head. "No, we don't think so... We'd only been expecting to go as far as the spider nest in the woods." They hadn't even brought the resources they'd need to make a torch...
Abigail bobbed a few times and floated in a quick circle, whispering something to Wendy while she did so. The blonde nodded. "You can stay in our camp for the night, tell us what you did about the spiders."
Webber nodded and followed the girl and ghost to their camp.
. . .
Webber looked around Wendy's camp, oddly fascinated by how it was set up. Her science machine puffed quietly near where she'd set up a fire pit and a straw roll sat nearby, carefully placed just close enough to the fire to be warmed but too far from the flames to be set ablaze. Two logs sat near the fire, arranged in a way that suggested they were more for sitting then burning. The camp felt warmer, more like a home than his camp had. It was... Nice.
Settling lightly on one of the logs near the fire, Abigail whispered something to Webber. To their surprise, he was actually able to catch most of what the ghost had said this time. She had asked him about the spiders.
After shaking off their surprise over being able to understand most of what the ghost had said, Webber let the spider explain the situation to the blondes.
Wendy frowned after having heard the spider's explanation. "Is there anything we can do about them, then?"
"You could try killing them all, which is what you were trying before, but..." Webber trailed off. 'But it would be easier for us to just stay here and ask the spiders to back off ourselves' was what he wanted to say, but they had just met the blondes... Could he really ask them to let him stay with them in their camp?
Wendy seemed to sense what he hadn't said, but she still asked, "But what?"
Realizing that Webber was unsure about asking himself, the spider elaborated."If we stayed in the area we could simply ask the spiders to not bother you two."
Abigail seemed somewhat surprised by this suggestion, jumping and floating for a few seconds before settling on her log again. The ghost whispered something to Wendy and the living girl nodded.
"If you're willing to help us gather resources," Wendy paused to glance at her sister, double checking that Abigail was truly alright with the idea. When the ghost nodded, she continued, "You could stay with us in our camp."
Webber blinked, then smiled. "That... Sounds nice, actually. We'll get our things from our camp tomorrow."
Wendy offered a small smile in return. "Abigail and I can help you move your things, if you'd like."
Webber nodded, feeling his smile grow.
Abigail whispered something, and the three turned to watch the sky. The sun had begun to rise, bathing the world in light once more. For once, Webber actually found themselves looking forward to a new day.
Webber has weird pronouns. He is a young boy, but he's also the spider that ate him, which is most likely female. The shared mind between the two only further complicates things.