# Someone You Can Build a Nest In  Author:: John Wiswell  ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > It was some sort of love. Not the kind of love that made you plant your eggs in someone and turn them into a parent, but a kind of love. ([Location 357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=357)) > Now the town hall was less populated, couples trickling off from the dance to more private activities. Two violinists kept circling each other and performing, though, in their own shameless form of musical copulation. That permitted the spriest of the townsfolk to keep gyrating together, arms draped over shoulders, hands adjusting on hips, noses in necks. It really would have been more practical for them to eat each other. No one offered Homily such pseudo-cannibalistic harmony. Not until Shesheshen approached her. ([Location 1016](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1016)) > She wanted to wrap more of herself around Homily. To grow large enough that this kindly fat woman could be protected inside her. To consume her, without the harm, until all their motions were complementary. Homily held onto her both like she was fragile and like she would slip away into the sea if she released her grip. She wanted to tell her it was all right to hold on. That she was monstrously durable. Anything to keep her near. Their dance was like consensual hatching. That was when she realized. It felt so obvious now. Why did she feel so strongly for Homily? Her generosity. Her medical knowledge. She even came with a pair of oxen that their young would love devouring. It all made so much sudden sense. Homily would make a beautiful nest. ([Location 1061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1061)) > How was she supposed to do this? For years she’d fantasized about prying a limb or two into the perfect mate’s flank and shapeshifting parts of herself into slimy eggs. But would it work? Would she naturally produce the eggs the way they were supposed to? What if she made them wrong? She’d never actually created an egg, since she’d never had anyone who felt like a true parent worthy of them. Instantly her abstinence felt like a mistake. ([Location 1096](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1096)) > And if her biting off a bunch of people’s heads was how Homily learned her identity, it would probably stifle their relationship. Romance was awful. She couldn’t even do something as simple as murdering rude people anymore. ([Location 1168](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1168)) > “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Homily said, hand going to her throat through the scarf. “I get self-conscious.” “If you weren’t conscious of yourself, who would you be conscious of?” This time when Homily laughed, all the ripples in her large body resonated against Shesheshen. It was better than warmth. It was hypnotic. It was a generosity of skin, like all of Homily was consensually shapeshifting for her, taking the form of shelter. Together, they were like the waves on the seashore. ([Location 1312](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1312)) > All of it stank wholly of deliberate smoke—the thing humans called incense. A syrup and cinnamon blend overpowered any other scent profile that dared raise its head. Shesheshen never trusted deliberate smoke. Humans were seldom up to anything good when they burned things on purpose. ([Location 1702](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=1702)) > All Shesheshen could do for Homily was be patient with her, and make space for her, and eventually, one day behind her back, eat her mother. ([Location 2818](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=2818)) > This was not like those descriptions. It was another moist orifice pressing into her. A sort of mutually failed cannibalism. She fought the urge to bite into Homily’s sumptuous flesh, and Homily suckled on her for a moment without ingesting much. The human tasted like humans always tasted: like permeable skin, and thin juices, and the promise of meat. ([Location 2834](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=2834)) > As she coiled upon herself, she told Homily, “I will not do anything to you. You are not a nest. You are more.” ([Location 3877](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=3877)) > “Asexual reproduction? I didn’t know wyrms could . . .” Homily stopped herself. More resolutely, she said, “I didn’t know you could do that.” “I did not know, either. I did it when I was full of meat, and thinking about you.” Homily tilted her head and squinted skeptically. “Were you trying to be sweet just then?” ([Location 3891](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=3891)) > “This camp wasn’t safe.” “If something got to you, or told you before I did, or hurt you, I would have been no better than dead myself. I needed to save it.” Homily wetted her upper lip. “Save what?” Here came her worthless words. “I do not know what you call it. The thing that is not flesh or bone or organs. In the panic, I needed to make sure the greater thing was safe. The demonic laughs you make at things that are not jokes. The way you ask to touch me without words. The pleasure I get from riding next to you. The talking that I mind less than talking to others. The willingness to be harmed myself before letting you be harmed. You feeding me soup by the spoonful because I cannot raise a hand. What do you call that thing that I had to save? I had to save it. I had to save us. You are my safety.” ([Location 3959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=3959)) > Her fists rested against Shesheshen’s sides as she said so many nothings. ([Location 4001](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C9ZF3T8B&location=4001))