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+---- Thread: cut our teeth and make our bones right here (/showthread.php?tid=7764)
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-24-2023
[say]"Mm, I suppose it is. Hair grows, at least. And it's not too long any more, as per a certain hunter's complaint,"[/say] Isla says dryly, sighing and resisting for a second time to reach out for him and check whether there's anything she can do for the untidy job Grimm has managed.
Now it's Isla's turn for intensity, and while she can't manage anything like the wendigo look, she listens raptly enough that she'd likely be able to repeat Remi's words back to him verbatim. [say]"I would never slice my palm,"[/say] she murmurs, nonetheless thankful for the heads up. Instead, Isla reaches for the medical bag and draws out a small lancet to prick her finger, rising to her feet.
[say]"I'll take one of these too,"[/say] she murmurs, grabbing a sedative from the bag. [say]"I know it won't stop you, but if I can use it and set off an alarm, it might buy time."[/say] But they won't need any of these precautions, will they? Right?
Crossing the room, Isla offers Remi the closest thing she can to an encouraging smile, waits for his signal, and presses the lancet to her fingertip where it draws a drop of blood with an audible click.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-24-2023
[say]'You know, with certain dogs once it is cut too short it doesn't grow back.'[/say] The wendigo murmurs, and though he isn't sure where wendigos fall in terms of taxonomy, he does think he's perhaps slightly closer to some sort of canine or vulpine these days than he'd previously been.
The shine of the knife catches the predator's attention almost instantly, and though the only blood he can smell is that which is slowly being transferred into his veins via the IV, he can feel things stirring in the back of his mind.
Silent, if only because he'd not downplay the seriousness of the moment with small talk, the wendigo watches Isla out of the corner of his eye before turning his head straight forward. There's no point in telling Isla that he could kill her before the sedative took hold. No point in telling her that there was a good chance he could make it to her before she could even pull the alarm, either.
Nodding, the wendigo closes his eyes. He can practically hear the sigh as several layers of thin skin part beneath the sharp point of the lancet. The smell of blood is immediate, and though Remi had every intention of remaining motionless, he shifts on the bed. One arm tenses as his chin juts out slightly. Opening his eyes, Remi pulls the IV from his arm and lets it drop onto the bed before
Slowly, and without actually looking at Isla, the wendigo reaches out for her hand. [say]"Do you trust me?"[/say] He asks again, voice low and rough.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-24-2023
Whilst it remains to be seen whether Remi is like certain dogs, that will undoubtedly form part of Isla's future observations. And she'd have likely commented on the fact, were it not for the new experiment they're currently performing. For her part, the doctor is externally as calm as expected, but things like that matter little to a creature like a wendigo. Because the flash of pain from the lancet, the increase in her pulse, the hitch of her breath, all of these things will matter more to Remi than her straight posture or relaxed shoulders.
And honestly, she'd expected to glance up to see him right before her, as fast and silent as any monster in a children's book. That he isn't - that he takes the time (and it must feel so slow to him) to cross the room before her is a balm she can't express in words. And is it wrong, too, to want to record all of this information - the ink black almost swallowing his irises, the tension held in his muscles, the shift in his demeanour? And why is it hot, tho?
[say]"You know I do,"[/say] she says softly, not foolish enough to move her bloodied hand, but he'll find it warm and pliant as he reaches for it.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-24-2023
It doesn't feel slow to Remi, because every step is an exercise in self-control. His muscles beg to be unshackled that he might indeed seem to appear before the doctor, to mentally stand aside that his bones might shed his useless skin in order to open her up and let her glisten like so many rubies on the floor before devouring her.
Not able to meet her eyes for so very many reasons that perhaps she can ask him about later if she thinks of it, Remi reaches out a hand somewhat stiffly, his fingers encircling Isla's wrist and raising it. The bead of blood has already begun to clot over, though as the wendig's fingers slide up the doctor's skin and apply pressure, the faint maroon seal breaks and the bead becomes a small trickle over her fingertip and down the side of her finger.
Remi's nostrils twitch and though he stops it, the tip of his tongue pokes snakelike against the back of his teeth. He thinks of all the times he'd been smeared with Ronin's blood while they were hunting topside, about the bar fight and the flecks of blood that had made their way onto his tongue. He thinks of how it had taken all the sedative they had to keep him restrained, and had the sound of Isla's pulse not been like the crash of a waterfall, he might have thought further about how absolutely stupid this was.
He didn't, though, couldn't perhaps.
Raising her finger, Remi paints a line across his lower lip, willing his fingers not to flinch and inadvertently snap the doctor's wrist. Do you trust me? he might have asked again if he thought he had control enough; instead, he lifts his golden eyes to Isla's and pushes the tip of her finger over his tongue.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-24-2023
Isla doesn't realise she's biting the inside of her cheek until it occurs to her that she might draw yet more blood, the doctor forcing her jaw to relax and her face to soften. She can hear her own pulse in her ears as his fingers encircle her wrist, and whilst she has no idea what it is that has her heart hammering out of her chest, she knows it isn't fear. Having meant what she said - that she trusts Remi, that she really does feel safe with him - it's an exercise in control that she knows he'll come through.
She's not sure about herself, though.
Inhaling sharply as his eyes suddenly lift to meet her own - right as he presses her finger to his waiting tongue - Isla might have snarked something about Remi's sudden ability to flirt with the best of them, were it not for the very, very present danger. [say]"The difficult part is stopping,"[/say] she says quietly, as if to remind him that this is actually the good part in this whole test.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-24-2023
It's for the best that Isla parts her teeth before they part her cheek; it might not be a good story to tell later if the first time they kissed it was simply because Remi couldn't help himself from lapping at yet more of her blood.
No, it isn't, he might have corrected, had he not already locked his jaw against the sudden urge to snap his teeth down around her finger. The difficult part is remembering that you're someone I care about. Indeed, already his senses were reducing Isla down to clusters of muscle, heartrate, and an average body temperature. He'd already inadvertently thought of the easiest way to kill her in order to keep adrenaline from flooding her body and ruining the taste of her, or how to keep her blood pumping the longest.
A better monster than he, a Beauty and the Beast type, might have pressed a kiss against the tip of her finger, curling their hands together and offering her a sunny and triumphant smile. Sadly, because Disney has not yet bought the rights to Remi's story, the wendigo instead maintains a fierce level of eye contact, forcing himself to see Isla in the blue of her eyes and instead not imagine how easily he could curl his tongue behind her eyes and remove them from her skull.
Swirling his tongue around her finger and feeling the copper bite of feral desire threaten to change him, Remi pulled her hand away slowly, the tip of his tongue following the pad of her finger relentlessly until it could no longer reach. Inhaling sharply, the wendigo gives his head a single, slow shake.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-24-2023
Forcing out a shuddering breath that she's been holding, Isla is caught in the wendigo's gold-ringed stare, trying to distance herself both from everything she's dying to ask, to record, to test, and also from the unbridled intimacy of such a moment. Only when Remi successfully withdraws the tip of her finger from his waiting tongue and teeth does she dare to speak again, and even then it's a quiet, measured sound she barely recognises.
[say]"I trust you,"[/say] she says, as if to reiterate the fact. [say]"There's a small first aid kit in my bag. Is it safe for me to go and get it?"[/say] If it safe for her to even still be in the room, given that she's literally fed a wendigo's bloodlust - and he's not even been able to top up properly with the IV first, either.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-24-2023
[say]"..just wait.."[/say] Remi says in a voice that more properly sounds like the sort of thing Ronin would have been used to hearing in his head when the wendigo was shifted. If this was an experiment, better that they do it right. If Isla were the one to move herself from danger, Remi couldn't be entirely sure that he'd really had the restraint to see it all the way through.
Still very much torn between thinking of Isla as Isla and thinking of her as something he wanted to tear into, the wendigo blinked a few times as if he might muddle the prey-like shimmer her blood had coated her in. By degrees, the gold in his eyes begins to blur away the black and though he wants to stay near enough to her in order to trick himself into thinking that, if he wanted, he could just reach out for her finger again, instead he turns and retreats to the other side of the room.
Resting his hands on the metal footboard of his bed, the wendigo leans forward, crushing the metal beneath his fingers while rolling his head restlessly back and forth. [say]"Okay."[/say] Remi murmurs after a moment, feeling cagey and unsatisfied, but more or less sure that this hunger would pass, before glancing over his shoulder toward the doctor. He should have felt shame for what he'd just put her through, but of course he couldn't just now. [say]"Sorry."[/say] He murmurs, as gently as he was able. [say]"I...I needed to know."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-25-2023
Having never heard the wendigo in Remi's bones so clearly before, Isla is understandably stunned into compliance more than anything, and even though her finger still stings and her pulse flutters in her throat and belly, she waits, as instructed. Exhaling a shivering stream of air when he finally does step away from her, the medic can practically see sense return as he wrestles back the inhuman hunger and becomes himself again - or as close to it as he can.
His okay is finally the permission she needs to move, Isla stepping quietly across the room to her medical bag to lean down and delve into the first aid kit. [say]"There's no need to apologise,"[/say] she assures him gently. [say]"You did nothing wrong."[/say] And there's an unmistakeable pride in her voice as she said it (though some would argue that he didn't need to go as far as sucking on her finger, probably).
Usually she'd not worry about something like a finger stick, but given the situation, she's careful to clean and cover the tiny wound, just in case it does decide to keep bleeding for whatever reason. [say]"How are you feeling?"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-25-2023
Though Remi might not have done anything wrong, those same metaphorical people might also argue that he hadn't done anything right, either.
Releasing his hold on the bedframe and only giving the clear imprints of his fingers in the metal a cursory look, the wendigo straightens, considers, and then moves to sit back down on the bed where he'd been. [say]'That was much more difficult than I had thought it would be.'[/say] He answers honestly, his voice more or less shaved of the wendigo's coldness now. [say]"But it never felt impossible, only..."[/say] Enticing. Shaking his head slightly, Remi exhales and holds out his left hand palm up for the IV to be reinserted.
[say]"I had just thought...if you and I were...I mean, if you still wanted to go out,"[/say] Remi drops his voice if only because he still isn't sure that there aren't new cameras in the room Isla isn't aware of. [say]"-and if anything were to go wrong, I just.."[/say] Lifting his eyes, still ringed with gold but looking far less on the verge of needing to know how Isla tasted from the inside out, Remi smiles slowly. [say]"..I needed to know I could be safe around you."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-25-2023
One might think Isla would reconsider her definition of feeling safe at seeing the clear fingermarks indented in the bedframe. Alas, the doctor comes with her own fair share of problems; boundless curiosity being one and not knowing when to quit while she's ahead being another. [say]"I thought you were incredible,"[/say] she admits freely, stepping back to give Remi space to sit back down on the bed. [say]"As difficult as it was, you kept your nerve."[/say]
Blushing and moving forward to replace the IV so at least Remi can be sort of sated, if not in the way his instincts would like, Isla nods to him. [say]"Yes, I still wanted to,"[/say] she murmurs. [say]"As long as you're feeling alright, after two days with Grimm."[/say] She doesn't know, of course, that he's been (mostly) faking, or about his afternoon with Ronin.
[say]"I feel even safer around you than I did before, if it helps."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-25-2023
Raising an eyebrow, though Remi isn't entirely capable of the emotion behind it, for the moment he looks naively stunned to hear the doctor say so. If anything he was quite certain that how he'd actually looked had been monstrous. Smiling softly before relaxing as Isla reinserted the IV, the wendigo rubbed a hand up the side of his cheek, not bothering to hide the way his smile was widening.
[say]"Well, I can tell you that being alone after my time with Grimm certainly won't make anything better. Besides,"[/say] Smirking a touch, the wendigo shrugs. [say]"I ended up napping almost half the time I was out with Ronin today, so.."[/say] Twisting the implications of his words was much easier when you didn't have any real emotions to remind you that lying was wrong. [say]"Do you know if she..."[/say] Not needing to finish, Remi's eyebrows flinch toward each other as he looks soberly at Isla. [say]"..do we have any more sessions planned?"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-25-2023
Returning to her original place in the chair before Remi, Isla can't help but laugh softly to hear how he'd spent his freedom that afternoon (because she isn't to know any better, obviously). [say]"Well, that explains why you were almost late,"[/say] she says. [say]"I wasn't concerned, especially given that you were with Ronin, but you ought to have seen Heimerdinger having kittens over it."[/say] She's sad, of course, because of the treatment it meant Remi would have had to endure when he did get back, but the fact that he'd been able to nap at all is a positive sign, she feels.
Wincing at his next question, Isla can only offer an apologetic nod. [say]"One more, tomorrow morning,"[/say] she says. [say]"But none after that - she couldn't justify it to the panel. And we can go out straight after if you like, to take your mind off it?"[/say] Unbeknownst to Isla, perhaps Remi will be having a double date tomorrow. Providing Ronin can get hunting arranged for the evening, of course.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-25-2023
[say]"Having kittens?"[/say] Remi repeats, thickening his accent slightly if only to indicate that this wasn't an expression he'd heard before. [say]"But yes, the snooze button was hit a few more times than I should have been. I admit I haven't slept like that in.."[/say] Looking down at his palm, the wendigo just shakes his head and huffs out dry laughter.
[say]'Ah.'[/say] Remi presses his teeth together hard enough that even Isla will probably be able to hear the cliK! of enamel as he grinds his canines together. As a wendigo he isn't prone to fidgeting, so it's as understandable as it is bizarre that he internalizes this news with hardly any movement at all (save for the predatory grinding of his teeth). [say]"If she gets wind that we have anything planned after, I am sure she'll make it so that not even you can take my mind off of it."[/say] Remi says softly, golden eyes flicking up to the closed blinds before returning back to Isla's face.
[say]"So she can't know."[/say] He murmurs. [say]"Which means no date outfit for you. No flowers for me."[/say]