It's not that Val can't afford food. Their job, as nontraditional as it may be, pays well-- well enough for them to afford a nice two-bedroom apartment with their sister and a variety of gaming consoles. It's just that the grocery store is always so bright, and crowded, and the buzzing of the florescent lighting makes them want to clap their hands over their ears. And there are no easy exits. They don't like being inside where they can't instantly take to the skies and hightail it out of there at the first sign of danger. And they really don't mind scavenging. Due to their unique physiology, dead rats and half-rotten dumpster food tastes just fine to them.

Also, they think it's really funny.

So it's Sunday afternoon and they're wandering around the city with a backpack, checking in dumpsters mostly, collecting the occasional bit of roadkill. This is their weekly "grocery shop"; their twin sister, Flare, buys them some food (mostly ramen) at the real grocery store, and they shoplift some snacks from the convenience store on the corner, which is just a quick in-and-out, but the bulk of their nutrients comes from their Sunday scavenges. It's actually pretty relaxing, exploring the city on foot, hunting for treasure. They stick to the back alleyways, where there's less people, and they stay invisible, so no one could see them anyways.

As such, it comes as something of a surprise when they round a corner and come face-to-face with a huge fuckoff snake that makes direct eye contact with them.

"AH WHAT THE SHIT" says Val, eloquently.

The snake rears up as if to strike, becoming easily twice as tall as Val. They leap backwards and launch themself into the air, pushing down hard with their wings to try to gain altitude, but they're not fast enough. The massive snake strikes, and Val catches a glimpse of their own face, terrified, in its bizarrely mirrored mouth, before they're swallowed whole.

A second passes, and then they're spat back out again.

It takes them another few seconds to uncurl from the defensive position they instinctively took, and several more before their total panic settles enough for them to think what the FUCK just happened? They take in their surroundings, panting with residual fear. The snake is gone. They seem to be relatively unharmed. They're not in the city anymore-- not even in Michigan, by the looks of it. They're sitting on a dune of uncomfortably hot sand, surrounded by more sand (presumably also uncomfortably hot) as far as the eye can see. The sun is beating down on them; they've been here less than a minute and they're already sweaty. They extend a wing against the sun, hoping to shade themself, and look around.