Closed RP On The Trail

This RP is currently closed.


Adelyn frowns when the stranger blocks her hand with his own, but sits back anyways. Then she startles, reaching behind herself and tugging her tail out from under her. She had almost sat right on it.

Lacking anything better to do, she runs her fingers over the soft fur, her attention back on the strange man. “Hmm.”

Her fur prickles at the description of how they’d found him, and she casts a worried glance over her shoulder at her friend. He doesn’t look all that beat up, just kind of sickly and pale, but then again it has been a while since whatever happened …happened.

Running her fingers and the back of her paw through her tail to smooth it back down, she chews her lip, glancing over the plastic tubing and the quietly whirring machine and silently estimating how difficult it would be to detach him from all of it. She doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but if Todd is sick then he should be with his family. Not under the thumb of whoever-this-is, in a place that Sam didn’t even know to find him in.

Tearing her eyes from their increasingly useless examination takes more effort than it should, but she looks at Sam next. The woman has drifted closer to her, but she looks like she might be sick, herself. She isn’t looking at Adelyn - her eyes are on Todd, and then on the stranger, tracking his movements with no small amount of fear.

Sam is afraid of the man. Well, that makes things simpler. Silently, Adelyn slides off the bed, padding forward to put herself between her friend and the stranger.

“No.” She says simply. “I’m not leaving without him. Thank you for taking care of him, sir, but he needs to go home now.”

 

Obsidian dropped his gaze from Samantha to Adelyn, examining her. There was a severity and confidence about her that almost threw him. Certainly, then, she knew. She knew him well enough to have been able to hunt him down alongside Sam. That meant something for people like them. Finally, he scratched the back of his neck and cracked it both ways. He decided not to sugar coat anything as he gestured with one hand toward both of them, his fingers twirling.

"Right. I'm keeping him here because it's fun. What do you think he would do if he woke up in the Huntsong and consumed his pregnant girlfriend, miss? Because I think he might kill himself, personally. That's why he needs to stay right here. I can control him and keep him from going on a frenzy if he wakes up in the Huntsong, and unless either of you have a way to..."

He stopped, trailing off. Sam froze across the room from him. Horror crept up her face, a horror he could read from even there, and she simply looked at him and whispered, "What?"

Shit.

Shit, she didn't know then. That was one misstep. He watched as the hands fisted in her hoodie slowly lowered to her stomach, her eyes unfocused and distant. He cleared his throat, then waved his hand in her direction. “... Ah. You were unaware. You’re pregnant, Samantha. Congratulations.” ​
 

Sam looked down at her stomach. That was impossible. She had been told in no uncertain terms that her body burned too hot for her to get pregnant, let alone carry to term. She had never been able to feel the vibrations of her own body, so she was unsure if anything had changed. She knew she had started to put on some of the weight she’d been desperate to put on, but if he was right–

“How… sure are you?” She could feel heat creeping up her body, edging it's way to her skin. It flushed across her face as her hands started to shake. It filled her in a way she had never experienced. It didn't just seek an exit, it pounded against her skin with a pressure that she could barely stand. It pulsed with a life all its own.

“Very. The energy signature difference is strong. You’re going to have a child. I’d put you at about a month, maybe. Again, for the safety of you and your child, I absolutely cannot let you take him–”

“No, no, I– please. Please. I can’t– I can’t–” Her breathing picked up, erratic and uneven as she held her stomach tighter. Her hands fisted in her hoodie, wrinkling the soft material. Her vision started to tunnel, the edges going dark as everything seemed to spin. She wasn’t getting enough air. She wasn’t getting enough air. She wasn’t getting enough–

She could see it from the edges of her dimming vision.

There were flames on her hands.​
 


Adelyn’s hand balls into a fist, her claws sliding out and tearing long scratches into the floor when she shifts her weight. The longer that the two adults talk, the angrier she gets, because as happy as she is for Sam, she’s also kind of really mad that they’re both talking like she’s not here. Finally, she can’t take it any longer, bursting out with - “You don’t know anything! I wouldn’t let that happen! I wouldn’t let him hurt her, or himself, or anything like that! We are taking him. He needs to be with his family.”

She’s aware on some level that she’s all puffed up, her fur standing on end and her hair fuzzing around her head, but she doesn’t even care. How dare he try to talk around her! As though if he uses enough big words she’ll just smile and nod and agree to whatever?? No way!!

Baring her teeth, she props herself up even higher, until she’s practically on her claw-tips, and does her best to glare down at the man.

Then she hears a soft sound from behind her, and, pulling her lips back over her teeth, she glances back to make sure that Sam is alright.

…She doesn’t look alright. The realization makes Adelyn deflate a little, her worry overtaking her anger. With one last glare for the stranger, she turns and goes to her friend’s side, putting a hand out to touch her arm. “Sam?”

Or, she would’ve, if the air around her wasn’t scalding. As it is, she has to whip her hand back before she comes anywhere close, clutching it against her own chest as she backpedals a couple paces. “Sam!”

The woman is crying, now, and she can only watch helplessly as the heat grows so intense that the bottom of her hoodie catches fire.

The bottom. Over her stomach. Oh no! Will the fire hurt the baby? Panicking a little herself, Adelyn reaches out again, trying to grab Sam’s wrist and draw her hand away from her belly. She doesn’t care if she gets burned. She needs to do something! “What’s wrong?? Sam??”

 

The moment that Adelyn touched her, Sam jerked her hands up and away from her stomach, pulling them up high. The fire on her hoodie smoldered and went out, but the fire on her hands, which she held up close to her face, did not go out quite so easily. Her breathing hitched, skipped, and stuck in her throat as she looked at it. She turned to Adelyn, her eyes wild and unsteady. Tears were trailing down her face, but when she checked her stomach where the hoodie has burned through, the skin was unburned. She sank her teeth into her lower lip, then opened her mouth to try and speak. Nothing came out.

A gloved hand reached out and caught her face, tilting it up. She could see the outline of eyes, the outline of his eyes. The very same man who had once tried to kill her was now looking at her with a softness that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but empathy. His other hand came up and cupped her other cheek, pushing her hair back. His gloves were leather, smooth and soft, well-worn until they were the texture of butter. She focused on the sensation.

“Breathe, Samantha. Breathe. You need to breathe, or you’re going to pass out.”

She kept his eyes, examining their shape. There was something familiar about them. She timed her breaths to his, matching his easy pace. The flames on her hands started to die down, and she reached out for Adelyn, her rapidly cooling hand looking for her friend. He was relaxed. He was calm. He was in control. And that certainty about him helped to ground her. It grounded her enough that she realized– he was touching her. She swallowed hard and tensed up. Slowly, he withdrew his hands as her breathing started to even out.

The familiar eyes looked down and away from her, then he abruptly turned his back on her. Despite that, he started to talk to Adelyn, and she could see him fidgeting with his hands. "I understand, alright? If I felt like either of you were able to pull him out of the Huntsong, I would send him home with you in a heartbeat. I have a fault proof method of pulling him out of it. Can you prove to me that you can handle it? That you can stop him? Otherwise, he stays here."​
 

What was he doing. First, he touched Samantha, risking burning himself and the entire place down. Now he was issuing a challenge to the girl? What was he thinking. There was no way that she would be able to fight off the Huntsong. If Todd woke up and went for one of their throats, they were dead on the spot. And if Todd killed either of them, he was as likely to kill himself afterward as anything else.

He turned back around to face the teen girl. The entire time she'd been there, he could sense it. She was capable of being like them, like him and Todd. That wild energy, those claws, the look in those fierce eyes– she had the capacity to be a predator. Why Todd had hidden her from him, he didn't know. And whether she had recognized Obsidian for what he was, he had no idea. If she had, she had said nothing of the sort.

His eyes flickered between the two of them. Then, he looked at Adelyn and cocked his head to the side. "Show me."​
 


Touching Sam’s wrist is like touching a hot stove, and Adelyn tries not to let her relief show when the woman jerks her hands away from her stomach without Adelyn having to drag them off. She draws back with her fingertips smarting, twinging with a lingering heat even from that brief touch, but she doesn’t go far, staying by Sam’s side even as the stranger closes in on her left.

She has to be strong. Her friend needs her. She may not know what exactly is going on, but that much is clear to see.

Sick with worry and rendered silent by her utter confusion over the scene playing out before her, she watches their interaction with wide eyes, relaxing only once her friend starts to breathe normally again. She’s there when Sam reaches for her, hand and paw closing around her friend’s palm and rubbing soothingly up and down her arm. “It’ll all be okay, Sam. Don’t worry.”

Her voice is soft, consoling, the tone an odd mirror to the one the stranger had used. She keeps her attention on him even as she presses closer to her friend’s side, pulling her into a sideways hug.

“...Okay,” she tells him, squinting briefly at the smoky cloud that obscures his face. She doesn’t know why he’s still doing that, what with how she’s already seen what he looks like behind it. Maybe it’s supposed to be intimidating? Squinting harder, she gives him a Look to let him know that it absolutely isn’t working even a little bit, and continues, “But first you have to answer my questions. Like, what the heck is a Hunt-song?”

All she can think of are the campfire songs that her poppa taught her, the ones that sometimes got stuck in her head when she spent too long sitting in a tree and watching for rabbits. But that… doesn’t make sense, in context.

…Or maybe it does. Maybe the stranger just wants her to prove that she can… um. Play a different song? Or… does he want her to sing? Sing a… a song? For him?

…No. That can’t be it.

 

Obsidian stood, still in a way only he and Todd could, as Sam returned Adelyn's hug and seemed to soften. Something in her eyes was faraway, and he was just fine letting her be gone for a few minutes while he talked to the girl. He tilted his head slightly down to let the girl know she had his full attention before he began to speak.

"He never told you? The Huntsong is what he calls what happens when the predator inside him takes over. I have seen it in action. It seems like parts of his brain rewire themselves temporarily in order for him to hunt without remorse in the moment. After all, what's raised as a human that wants to eat other humans? For monsters like us, it can be… difficult to force ourselves to eat. So our brains do funny things to force it. The Huntsong is his."

Reaffirmed that Todd ate people, explained that he did too, and explained what the Huntsong was in one fell swoop. He examined the leather of his gloves as he finished speaking, the barrier that kept him from feeling the pulsing of other people's energy constantly against the most sensitive part of his body. It was a mechanism to keep him from falling into his own high, the high that made hunting so enjoyable for him.

"When Todd goes into the Huntsong, the only thing that matters is does this feel good? Chasing and hunting feels good, right? So he does that. And he doesn't care who it is. The only reason I am safe is because I am similar, and I scare it. I can hurt it. So tell me, how will you keep it from hurting you?"

When he looked back up, Sam was looking at him, her eyes clear. She was still hugging Adelyn, leaning on the comfort of her friend, but there was something back in her eyes. Something fierce. It was almost a relief to see it, to see the fire was there in the face of him. To see her push through the panic and fear that he caused her, even if he had to help her to do so. Almost, because it meant that now he was going to have to deal with whatever it was she was going to do.​
 

Sam leveled her eyes on Obsidian. Her hands were on Adelyn, and it was giving her the strength she needed. She could think clearly with her friend in her arms. It was enough to pull her out of the haze that she had disappeared into for a moment. Enough that she heard what Obsidian was saying, and she had a response. She looked up at Adelyn before speaking, making sure that the girl could see her eyes and the steel there, so she knew that Sam was back to the fire she was used to.

"I made a promise to Todd. I promised him I would never let him kill me. I would never let him hurt me. I intend to keep that promise. I'll put him through a wall if I have to. But she's right. We're taking him home. Adelyn?"

She looked up at her friend again, looking to her for her own answer. They both needed to give satisfactory answers before Obsidian let them take Todd, and if need be, Sam was ready to channel the new-found hope into a fight if it meant taking her boyfri– no, Todd was so much more than just that, and had always been– her soulmate back home. She slipped her hand onto one of Adelyn's paws and wrapped it around the smooth and soft beans and fur, holding it at an angle to avoid her claws, but holding it all the same. They would do it together.​
 
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