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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 - Remi - 07-24-2023
[say]"Watch out Sandler."[/say] Remi murmurs, wanting to smile but finding he didn't have the energy. [say]"They did?"[/say] Blinking as if trying to see through his mind's eye, if pressed the wendigo wouldn't have been able to name a single hunter who had been out on the pitch, so intensely focused as he'd been on the ghouls.
Running his fingertips over the towel and noting the sensation of each individual fibre in a way he'd not have been able to detect when he'd been human, Remi considers. [say]"Pop quiz. Isla begins booking sessions with me and at the same time word gets back that the hunter's pet wendigo is surprisingly absent from a good many hunts. What do you think Grimm will make of that?"[/say] Cocking his head to the side, Remi offers the hunter a sly smile. [say]"Besides, I can't just be your eyes and ears out here."[/say] They both knew that as soon as there was even the whisper of blood Remi's senses would override whatever human-like emotions he was feeling.
[say]"It is not that I want any of it to stop-"[/say] And sadly, he really did mean any of it. [say]"-just that...the more all of this blurs together, the harder it is."[/say] He explains before reaching for his clothes and awkwardly trying to shuffle into them while navigating gobs of sticky blood.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
[say]"They did. Ghouls aren't usually difficult to take down, but their numbers could have been a big problem out there."[/say] It absolutely wasn't the sort of thing Ronin really wants to say, given that they're currently talking about how maybe Remi might not want to be the big bad wendigo any more, but it's still true. [say]"Might have been another nuckelavee situation without you there."[/say]
Wincing, because he knows exactly what Grimm would make of it, Ronin nods and concedes the point. [say]"Alright, but you know... if it's just a regular hunt and it's the two of us, you can maybe not, if you feel like it."[/say] He smirks.
As Remi gets to his feet to try and shimmy into his clothes, Ronin takes over towel duty, and while he can't really help much, he does try to wipe off as much blood as possible that will stick to Remi's t-shirt. [say]"I was going to ask what you wanted,"[/say] he admits with a scoff. [say]"But trust you to say all of it. Maybe Isla can arrange some nice therapy for you. Oh, or we could hypnotise you? Are you susceptible to that kind of thing?"[/say]
Moving back towards the corridor to move the smudging stick out of the way, Ronin is on his way back to Remi when he - even with his busted eardrums - hears it. Crying. Real crying, from within another one of the locker rooms across the stadium.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
Nearly the wendigo asks if another nuckelavee situation was one where Remi tricked the hunter into letting him (try) to kill himself, instead, he just runs his tongue along the inside of his teeth and shifts on the cold ground. [say]"The thing is...I don't mind doing it. It makes me feel like I'm actually good for something around here, especially since all your hunter friends aren't being such assholes about it. But then I think of Isla holding my hand and everyone saying how fucking sorry they are for me and that's what makes me feel like a monster. Because I can't do both - can't be both."[/say] It wasn't the sort of thing he was looking for a solution from Ronin about and the tireless way he just shrugged it off after suggested as much.
Giving Ronin a curious look as the hunter tried to towel him off, Remi tugged on his shirt quickly, caring little about the instant blood stains he'd forced into the fabric. [say]'Oh sure, no doubt it'll be easy to find an incredibly trustworthy and capable therapist around here.'[/say] Remi says with a roll of his eyes, before squinting slightly. [say]"Never tried. By all means though, if you can get me to squeak like a chicken when I smell blood instead of, you know, going crazy, let Isla know. She can just do away with the serum altogether.'[/say]
Having already heard it as Ronin returns, the hunter will find the wendigo standing straight with his head cocked. Glancing from the floor where his eyes had drifted, up to Ronin, the wendigo raises his eyebrows.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
It's a good thing he's not looking for a solution from Ronin, because the hunter regrettably doesn't have one, but the least he can do is let his friend bend his ear while he pulls his clothes back on (and covers them in blood). [say]"If I can ever get you to squeak like a chicken fullstop I'll consider it a worthy investment,"[/say] he manages to say about the hypnotism, though the therapy talk will have to wait.
Reaching into the inside of his coat for his silver chain, Ronin offers a quiet nod to Remi as if to say yes, that one definitely sounds like the real deal. Nodding for them to exit the locker room, as they head back onto the (now empty, but for dead bodies) stadium, it's clear that the banshee isn't on the wander, and her echoing cries warble out from the corridor across the diamond like an invitation.
Which is exactly what stops Ronin in his tracks. [say]"This is too convenient, right?"[/say] he mutters to Remi. [say]"It feels like a trap."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
Eyeing the chain for a moment and mistakingly thinking that Ronin meant to tether him with it, the wendigo relaxes as the hunter turns to wander out of the locker room. Padding along behind him, his shoes forgotten, Remi winces as he moves into the open and narrows his eyes. Glaring across the pitch in response to the cries, the wendigo has to resist the urge to cover his hands with his ears and instead opts to grate his teeth together instead.
[say]"I can tell you this definitely sounds different."[/say] He mutters, before glancing over his shoulder at Ronin to make sure he was heard over the wail. [say]"For all that I just said, I am happy to go and check it out ahead of you."[/say] If they stayed out here much longer Remi would carve out his own eardrums to stop that fucking crying, though he'd be much more inclined to just sever the banshee's throat instead.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
[say]"Mm, this isn't a recording."[/say] And it isn't some soldier's girlfriend weeping about whatever has happened, either, but that hardly needs saying. His brows furrowing, Ronin softly shakes his head - if they're going to do this, they should do it as an actual team - and slowly begins to approach the dark square leading into the locker room. [say]"A banshee wouldn't have been able to stay quiet with all that commotion going on, though..."[/say]
And it hits him just as they're about 10ft from the locker room entrance - faint, sweet perfume that smells like petrichor and sun-warmed skin, like laughter in springtime and vanilla soaked kisses. Of course a banshee wouldn't have been able to keep hold of herself this long. A shapeshifter could, though. The fae could.
[say]"Remi,"[/say] Ronin manages, and he's about to finish that sentence with you should go before the weeping warps, by degrees, into the soft sound of a woman's laughter.
[say]"Fine. I suppose you win this round,"[/say] she purrs, and the figure that exits through the darkness and into the stadium makes the likes of Isla Lockwood seem plain. With eyes greener than new leaves and hair a silken river of midnight, she's adorned in pale silks and shimmering amethysts, seeming simultaneously much taller than the two men, but also delicate and dainty.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
Recoiling against the smell as if he'd just been made to breathe in the very essence of spring itself, the wendigo snarls and straightens as the wailing cry turns into a brook of laughter that he finds just as abrasive. Glancing at his partner in time to see everything he expected to see from Ronin simply fade away - the strength, the certainty, the determination - Remi turns his attention back to the rectangle of darkness from which the fae emerges.
Smelling of all things sweet and of nothing dead or bleeding, Remi's senses aren't riled to the point of shifting no matter how hostile his mind tells him this creature is. Had it not been for Ronin's tone, the wendigo might have made some joke about his sexual prowess, given that he could now apparently see Ronin's fuckbuddy demigoddess.
Still, she wasn't made of fire and so it was without any fear that Remi put himself between the fae and her charge with a straightening of his shoulders and upward tilt of his chin.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
[say]"Remi--"[/say] Ronin hisses at his partner as he goes ahead and stands between him and the fae, though a mere look from the midnight lady has the hunter obediently sinking to his knees and awaiting further instruction. Unlike Ronin, though, the wendigo isn't bound to any pact (yet, and oh wouldn't that be something?), and he's currently free to ask for trouble put himself between the two.
[say]"Aren't you a pretty one?"[/say] she croons to Remi, approaching him with all the warmth of a familiar friend, peeping over his shoulder at Ronin before glancing back at the wendigo. [say]"Are you the infamous partner, then? Gosh, but I have been hoping I might meet you for a long time."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
Remi might have glanced over his shoulder as Ronin hissed his name in a voice the wendigo had never heard before, but it was a common enough faux pax among predators not to break eye contact, and so Remi didn't. Instead, he merely regarded the fae with disinterest and a good deal less caution than she rightly deserved, but of course, after the day and week the wendigo had just experienced, he'd thrown caution to the wind and then some.
[say]"Oh?"[/say] Remi wonders, unimpressed by the fae's beauty even if he was thoroughly distracted by the wind song he felt he could hear in the rustle of her dark hair. [say]"And you didn't think to write?"[/say] He tilts his head to the side, before casually shrugging out of one arm of his trench coat and then the other.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
Had Ronin been given permission to speak he'd undoubtedly be telling Remi that this is not the time to sass or backchat, but of course the fae has left him silent precisely to see how far a hole Remi might dig. [say]"I wasn't sure who to address the letter to until now, Remi,"[/say] she replies with a coquettish smile, standing well within the wendigo's personal space by now, even as he starts to shrug out of his coat.
[say]"I suppose it is only fair for you to know my name in return, hm?"[/say] she continues, reaching out to run fingertips painted with pearlescent starlight (or so it seems) over one of many, many scars on the wendigo's arm. [say]"I am Morgan."[/say]
You know, Ronin wants to say, like Morgan LeFay, the Arthurian witch? That Morgan?
[say]"Please don't feel the need to transform on my account,"[/say] she continues. [say]"It's true that your kind are from a rather chillier part of the world, but you are already a special case even without showing me your horns."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
[say]"No?"[/say] The wendigo tuts under his breath as if disappointed by the fae's lack of resourcefulness. There weren't many wendigo around these parts as far as he knew, and far fewer who lived in the undercity. Caring not at all for her name, the wendigo registers only contempt as the witch runs her fingertips across one arm; had Ronin told me his keeper's name prior to this, maybe Remi would have made choices other than those he was about to. Alas.
Having removed his trenchcoat for precisely that reason, Remi should have found it odd how silent Ronin was being but did not. It was rare these days for any to approach him with this level of confidence save for a handful of doctors in the medical wing (chiefly Isla, Grimm, and Hinkystomp), he found himself easily baited by Morgan's presence.
From where he knelt, Ronin would see the seams of Remi's shirt and pants splitting open, parted by sinew-strapped bone and thick fur. Growing and rising, it wasn't until he had fully shifted that the wendigo rolled one shoulder.
[say]ghouls are so utterly tasteless[/say] he says, and where Morgan's voice was like dappled sunlight and rainwater, Remi's was like icy-hardened satin being torn to shreds.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
Ronin continues to say nothing, of course, though Remi (and let's be honest, Morgan) will be able to hear the way his pulse quickens as the wendigo goes ahead and shifts. And while there will be rage in the medical wing at the fact that he's ruined yet another set of clothes - but at least the coat and shoes are still intact, right? - Morgan is practically delighted by the change.
[say]"I'm detecting a hint of hostility,"[/say] she all but purrs, her fingers dancing along sinew and exposed bone and ragged fur alike. [say]"I do hope that Ronin hasn't been spreading any nasty rumours about me."[/say] And though her green gaze remains as soft and alluring as ever as it slips around Remi to the hunter, even the suggestion is enough to caue Ronin's fingers to flinch on his knees.
[say]"Ghouls are brainless pack animals,"[/say] Morgan continues, [say]"not at all like you. Even so, I regret to say that even your sizeable appetite won't be able to handle me. Besides, wonderful as you are, I have come to speak with my godson."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-24-2023
[say]you should clean out your ears, then[/say] The wendigo snarls back, moving with nauseating speed to try and catch the witch's wrist within his bony fingers.
[say]sounds like a challenge[/say] Remi thinks dryly, and though he has no salivatory glands to activate just now, hunger seems to hum out of him, like heat lines across the blacktop. Mention of Ronin has the wendigo's attention falling behind him slightly, where he can hear the hammer-hard thud of the hunter's pulse amidst the sips of air he's pulling in.
[say]we were just on our way back[/say] the wendigo answers after a moment, as if weighing the word grandson and finding it utterly unmotivating. [say]next time, write[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-24-2023
At first it will appear that Remi has indeed, caught Morgan's wrist, though the way she turns her hand is soft and fluid enough that one would not be mistaken for thinking perhaps she's made of fire or water. Grasping one long, bony finger between her own, it's with the mildest twitch of her hand that she bends it directly back with a stark, loud, snap.
[say]"Is this the sort of challenge you would like?"[/say] she asks in a voice like silk over a knife edge. [say]"Poor Remi. No one offers you a kind touch any more, do they? Only pain and sickness, and you're left wanting."[/say] Then, glancing again at the hunter on his knees, Morgan finally raises her eyebrows at him. [say]"Speak."[/say]
Having bitten his tongue hard enough for copper to spike the air, Ronin nonetheless wastes no time. [say]"I'll be fine, Remi. Wait outside the stadium - I'll come and find you. Morgan, please don't--"[/say]
[say]"That's enough."[/say] Smiling up at Remi, the fae tilts her head. [say]"You heard him."[/say]