cut our teeth and make our bones right here

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

He hates the docks. Always has, even before everything went to hell. Makes sense that something would be lurking out here, just to piss on his cornflakes - and it's not even anywhere near breakfast yet.

The rain falls in black sheets, muting the sound of his footsteps as he sidles between two storage crates; the steel kind, the ones that either hold stacks of newspapers or Lovecraftian nightmares, depending on the day. Ronin stops here between them, hidden from the spotlights that go lazily roaming overhead.

"I don't see any guards." This is murmured into the walkie-talkie fixed towards his right shoulder, wet fingers squeezing the buttons so he might speak. "No sign of our boogieman, either. Don't reckon that's a coincidence."

But of course it's at that moment that something darker than the night ghosts across the dock out of the corner of his eye. "Never mind," he tells the talkie. "South side, near the watch tower. Get yourself ready."

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"Nothing gets passed you." Comes the static response; it's hard to tell which makes the words harder to understand, the crackle of the walkie or the accented voice on the other end. Not that it matters, the sarcasm is clear enough.

"You say that as if I am not always ready." There's a smirk in those words that not even the static can blur, not to mention the kind of abrasive confidence that makes you want to grit your teeth together. It's lucky, then, that the walkie goes silent as the night grows thick with unseen things moving in the dark.

Remi's footsteps are not that of a man, but of some hooved beast that ghosts forward like some low-hanging mist. His clothes have either melted away or been discarded, leaving only the pelt of a predator covering his hulking frame. Moonlight glints across a face that is more bone and teeth than anything else, and yet still somehow it's clear that he's grinning. The Water Hag slinking back towards the water stands little chance of evading the Wendigo now that he's caught her scent, and had Ronin not explicitly said he needed her alive, she'd already be dead.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"Well I do apologise. Some of us need to make do with our human eyes and ears," Ronin drawls into the walkie, before letting it crackle into silence. It's probably for the best - he could do without the sass when he's trying to concentrate.

The sound of hooves on concrete always send the tiny hairs rising on the back of his neck, and he forces out a slow breath and gets himself ready whilst his partner... partners. (If that's what you can call it).

The rain is washing the blood from the docks already, and the Water Hag finished eating one of the guards before the duo even got here. The other she's intending to keep as a snack, dragging the body into the freezing waters when the nightmare beast's scent reaches her nose.

Screeching into the night, she whirls towards Remi - and Ronin will take that as a win, honestly, because it lets him step out from the crates unmolested, where he starts getting to work. "I'm at your six," he murmurs into the talkie. "Fling her my way once you've had your fun."

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Though the hag lashes out with all she has, the utter lack of damage she's able to do is laughable. And laugh Remi does; the sound is a keening sort of wail, if only because as a Wendigo, Remi can't really be said to possess vocal cords or even lips. Some 8ft tall even hunched over as he is, Remi towers over his fellow supernatural kin. How very lucky that a water hag was not properly human lest Ronin's orders be more difficult to carry out. As it was, Remi tears her arms and legs from her body before pivoting on one hoof to regard Ronin with sunken, yellow eyes.

Very nearly he does fling her at Ronin, as requested.

Instead, punishments in the past keep this literal following of orders at bay, such that Remi merely picks up the hag's torso (the head upon which is screaming, of course), and props her against one of the nearby crates.

All yours. He breathes into his ParTnErS thoughts.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

The shudder at having a living nightmare whisper against his thoughts manifests as a small roll of Ronin's shoulders. It's still hideously unsettling, but at least that means the head and torso of the hag is practically business as usual. "Aren't you a peach," he mutters, stepping across what he's made to haul the screeching (and biting, oh, that's nice) hag into a rudimentary circle.

Well, it will be a circle. Right now it's four hunks of crystal set out at the four points of the compass, and a lot of hopes and dreams. "A'right, you can get fucked until later," Ronin informs the hag, because there's no better way to open an ancient binding passed down from a long line of ancestral blah blah blah you get it.

A whisper of willpower and the circle manifests as a soft flickering of light, Ronin reaching into his jacket pocket to produce a hagstone dangling from a leather cord. The hag is still screeching, but it can't be heard any more, for which his growing headache is very grateful.

In the distance, sirens begin to go off.

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Despite the fact that Remi's expressions in this form are limited to the shifting of his mandible bone and the flickering of eyes somehow affixed in his sockets, he is able to look quite smug as Ronin's shoulders roll. Maybe he doesn't look any which way at all. Maybe Ronin's senses are nearly filling in the gaps of what a predatory mistake like a wendigo thinks or feels. Indeed, they're not meant to think anything at all, not human thoughts anyways. But such is the reason this particular one is alive: however unseemly his human side is, that there is a human side at all, is worth learning more about.

Shifting back in a series of clicks and pops, Remi stands with his arms crossed over his chest, completely naked. Though he is a mess of muscle and bone as a wendigo, as a human he's unassuming and rather scrawny. His pale skin is scrawled upon with various scars, but save for the tattooed runes around his throat--compliments of Ronin's pals--Remi is unadorned.

With his chin tilted slightly down and a smirk parting his lips, Remi raises an eyebrow that nearly disappears into his mop of dishevelled blonde curls. "If this were a movie, this part would be over by now." He complains, wanting this bippity boppity bullshit to hurry up.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"If this were a movie you'd have better lines," Ronin quips back, though his voice is distracted and his eyes are fixed on the hag. In his hand he's swinging the hagstone as if it's a sling, and whatever is happening, there's no babe with the power shit going on here - it's a mental battle and it's happening in silence. Eventually, though, something snaps within the circle (perhaps it's the hag?) and she's gone and the stone seems a lot more... er, feisty than it was before.

Hurriedly collecting the crystals and stashing them in the drop-leg bag buckled to his thigh, the glow winks out, leaving them in hammering rain, winking, sweeping spotlights and the moan of sirens. "Fuck," he mutters, already squeezing back between the storage crates. "Couldn't have mentioned them, could you? We get caught up here and you're just as fucked as I am."

He doesn't care how Remi makes his way, naked or clothed or otherwise, because he always ends up at Ronin's elbow somehow anyway, so he focuses on his own journey. Through a steel labyrinth, dipping out of pools of light and ignoring the distant (it's not that distant though, is it Ronin?) squeal of tyres, eventually he finds himself in a skinny alleyway, heading right for the manhole at its dead end.

Levering it up, he drops into the dark as if it's nothing at all, dragging the cover back in place.

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"Yeah, and you'd be a hot girl, but here we are." Remi replies, shrugging his boney shoulders and keeping his eyes fixed hungrily on his ParTnEr.

Looking just as pleased as punch as Ronin notices the spotlights, Remi ruffles a hand through his curls as he rolls his head from one side to the other and back again. "I'd say you're much more fucked. For me, there is just death. For you? I would say...questions, then torture, then more questions...then more torture because they do not believe you...maybe the killing of whatever family you have..." Remi rolls his wrist, not bothering to move as one of the spotlights comes precariously close.

It's only the hiss of a flare that has Remi moving, though before he rejoins Ronin, the wendigo fetches his trenchcoat within which are a pair of sunglasses that he slips on. Though his eyes are a totally human shade of green, they do tend towards gold in ways that make girls swoon and Hunters ask questions.

Somehow as Ronin makes his way into the tunnels, Remi is already there, leaning casually against a wall covered in fluids that are better left undescribed. Tutting under his breath, the wendigo pulls a toothpick from his pocket and pops it into the corner of his mouth. "You're getting slow. They are going to catch you one of these days.."

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"I always love our little chinwags out on a job," Ronin grates, but then he's gone and Remi is wendigoing for a snack, apparently - something the Hunter doesn't notice until he's (would you look at that) right at his elbow as usual. He doesn't knee-jerk react this time; there are no knives to throats or guns to bellies or anything like that, but if Ronin had hackles, they'd be up.

"Ow, my poor feelings. Perhaps I ought to have you carry me everywhere in future, mm?" he mutters, clapping the wendigo on the cheek for good measure as he goes by.

The tunnels are the sort of dark that feels artificial, if only because the promise of light is always so close at hand. But they're warm and dry and soon spider out into a maze that would have the topsiders scratching their heads for hours, and that's good enough for Ronin.

It's a silent trip from his side, though that's admittedly unusual, but whatever has put a bug up Ronin's ass, he's not keen to share it. Luckily, the silence is soon broken by the low hum of people, of generators, of running water.

They enter the Undertown from the 'ceiling', one of the uppermost tunnels to the surface opening out onto a wooden platform and a playhouse of ladders, connecting planks and other methods of getting down to street level. Or, in Ronin's case, getting to the spiderweb of buildings that cling to the side of the city, where all the Hunters live. "They're going to notice the body," he says eventually as they make their way across. He's referring to the body the hag didn't have a chance to take into the depths, of course.

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"Remove these ugly scribbles from my throat and I'll do anything you like." Said the spider to the fly, and so now says Remi to Ronin. Barefoot but unbothered, the nearness of people has Remi drawing up the collar of his trenchcoat so that it covers his throat and just about every other identifying feature he has. The coat, his glasses, and Ronin too, he supposes, are the three things that keep him safe down here. Assumed to be nothing more than Ronin's fuck-up of a trainee given how long he's been "shadowing" the Hunter, this arrangement of cloak and dagger has served the pair well over the years.

Well, enough, anyways. One can only keep a predator caged so long, after all.

"No." Remi chuckles from Ronin's side. "They won't." He runs his tongue across his teeth before making a nnt! sound.

"What's the rush?" Slowing, now nearly a shadows-length away, there's a distinctive look of disdain on Remi's face as they meander towards the Hunter's housing complex. Ronin would get to go to wherever the fuck he spent his nights, whereas Remi would get to go back to the science wing where doctors poked and prodded him and played Nobel Prize with one another about just how he came to be the way he was. "Quick game of pool at the 'sunrise?"

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

It's uncanny, the way Ronin's lip curls at precisely the same time as he looks relieved - and such is the cognitive dissonance that comes hand in hand with working with Remi, he supposes. "Thanks," is what he says instead, despite knowing (probably?) that the only reason the wendigo disposed of the body was for selfish reasons.

He feels the shadow at his elbow slip away to a longer leash, and Ronin's steps slow as he turns towards Remi. He shouldn't enjoy these moments but he does, and not for the reasons Remi probably thinks. Other Hunters might just like to see a wendigo made uncomfortable by a stack of buildings, but Ronin sees a glimpse of the humanity that has everyone jerking off about the whole situation.

"I wouldn't say no," he murmurs about the pool game, "but I gotta drop off, and get a change of clothes. You can come with, or I'll meet you there? Dealer's choice."

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"Aww, you don't have to get changed for little old me." Feeling the chill from rain-soaked clothing is one aspect of his humanity that Remi has lost, or perhaps just has the capacity to ignore these days. Besides, once Ronin returns him he very much doubts if playing pool would be something the Hunter could write on the sign-out sheet.

"I'll meet you." No, Remi technically isn't meant to be out of Ronin's sight, but over the years the pair have worked out a truce of sorts: Ronin lets the leash dangle every now and again, and in return, Remi is a more helpful monster. Ronin gets to claim one of the highest close rates in all of the complex, and Remi gets time away from being poked and prodded.

Disappearing down a ladder without seeming to touch the rungs, when later Ronin finds his way into the Sex and Sunset--a seedy strip joint known for its vitamin D lighting and "girls girls girls!"--he'll find Remi seated at a table opposite a man much larger than he is. With their hands clasped and elbows on the table, Remi is grinning cockily as the other man struggles in vain to try and push the wendigo's hand onto the table.

"You're a goddam lousy motherfuckin' cheat." The big man hisses as Remi slams his hand all the way down. Shoving his chair back and throwing a few crumpled dollar bills down, the man spits at Remi's feet before skulking off to the bar.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"But how else will I keep your attention all night?" Ronin laments, already turning away to head into the complex as Remi confirms they'll meet each other there, casting a wave over his shoulder. It works better for him this way anyway; everyone in the Hunter's complex seem to get real paranoid when his partner is around. Ronin has no idea why.

Having snuck directly in through the window of his rooms (questions will be asked if he goes to sign in without his pet wendigo), it's a quick shower and a change of clothes later that he arrives at the Sunset, because it's always a really nice feeling, not having hag blood under your nails. He tries - and fails - not to smile at the man-hulk storming off in defeat, moving to take his place with a beer for himself and an empty glass for Remi.

"Don't say I never give you anything," he says, slipping a flask out from the drop-leg and setting it down. How does Ronin get hip flasks of blood out of the complex? Shut your mouth, that's how.

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Snorting under his breath, Remi runs his tongue across his teeth as he leans back in his chair. Were it not for the fact he was still without shoes he'd likely have kicked out leg out into the aisle. But just now with all the friends he'd recently made he was asking for a few broken toes by doing so. Or, at least the attempt of such. No one in here save Ronin perhaps had the metal to break anything of his.

Raising a brow at the empty glass, before grinning at the flask, the wendigo reaches out for both before tucking the glass between his legs. Casually unscrewing the top and pouring the blood in, Remi makes a show of yawning only to grab a sprig of whatever the hell fake plant was behind him, to drop into his drink. "Voila. The bloodiest of Marys." He says, raising his glass in a cheers.

"To another successful day of mostly doing as we're told." Behind his sunglasses Remi's eyes narrow in a gesture that the corners of his mouth mirror. A little thanks for the blood and no I won't say anything about that hag you definitely didn't kill.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!