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.​
 


In response to his question, Adelyn shakes her head ‘no’, still watching the stranger with curious eyes. The following explanation turns her expression thoughtful, and she listens with quiet, calm attention the whole way through.

It isn’t all that difficult to fit this new information in with what she already knows about Todd. She’d already known that he was a hunter, like her, but now that she knows what he hunts, she thinks she can kind of see the moments where he had skirted around the topic.

Which, in hindsight, was just silly of him. If he’d’ve just told her, then she could’ve helped him! He shouldn’t have had to go hungry and get his head all messed up because of it.

She looks back at the bed. That, right there, is one of her first friends, painted snow-pale and too-thin but still alive and breathing and needing her help. Setting her jaw, she turns back to the stranger, eying the self-proclaimed predator up and down with a measuring eye.

He doesn’t scare her. He may be a people-eater, but she isn’t just a person. She’s a panther, and panthers eat people too.

A kind of expectant fizzing fills her mouth, like she’s just taken a sip of soda. Adelyn runs her tongue thoughtfully over her front teeth and meets Sam’s eye. A similar determination is mirrored in her blank gaze, eyes suddenly sparkling with a mischievous glint.

Bolstered, she turns to the stranger and grins, feeling the fizzing like a buzzing in her teeth as the Panther gifts her its fangs. Her smile only grows, delighted and wild, as she stares him down, a clear challenge in her eyes. “Yeah. If he tries to eat me, I’ll bite ‘im first.”

“Besides,” she adds, a thought occurring to her as she feels the lazy swish of her tail passing through the air behind her, “if he’s looking for ‘human’, I don’t think he’d be all that interested in me.”

“We’ll just find him something” -someone, she means, but doesn’t clarify- “else to eat.”

 

"You can't just find something else for him to eat. I've shared enough about him, more than he would be happy with me for doing so, but ask him about why you can't do that. What you need to do is make sure you can fight him off. Make sure you're prepared to do it. Steel yourselves for it."

Obsidian paced a bit, moving back forth at the foot of the bed, hands held tightly behind his back. He was watching the two of them, eyes flickering behind the shadows. His coat moved dramatically around his legs as he stopped abruptly, facing them. He extended his hands outward, away from his body, wide and open. The movement was just as smooth and graceful as every other move he'd made.

"So you'll fight him! You'll fight him and you'll defend yourselves. You'll let him go find something to eat, and you'll be there for him when he comes down, when he wakes up and he's afraid. Good. That's good. I believe you. Samantha, Adelyn– I love Todd. Just as much as you do. He's family to me, too." His hands dropped to his sides, his shoulders falling slightly while he held his head higher.

There was a thrumming against his skin of both their energies. They believed it. They believed they would fight him and protect themselves. They believed they could care for Todd. So Ethan would give them everything they needed in order to do that. He snapped his fingers in Samantha's direction. "You know how to use an IV?"

She blinked in surprise, but then nodded to him, her eyes questioning. Then, as if catching up, her eyes went wide and she looked at the stand that Todd was connected to. "Good. We'll have it delivered to your apartment, along with some saline and an the EKG. He hasn't had any issue with pressure in his brain yet, but if he seems to have complications, give us a call. Rhodonite is a trained physician. I'll send her out immediately."

Now that it had been decided, he was practically buzzing. He had a direction, and he could give directions. Things could maybe move forward. He could at least have this off his hands– not that he wanted it off his hands. But he knew that Todd would have preferred to be in the Diamond, in case he woke up in the Huntsong. He would just have to deal with the fact that his girls wanted him back enough to face him down. In fact, Ethan got the feeling they would have fought him over Todd.

A part of him was pleased by this. It was good that Todd was loved this much. A part of him was also jealous. He was loved by Samantha, the girl he had tried to kill, the sister he had always wanted. Part of him wished he could tell her who he was, right then and there. But that wasn't for then. Maybe it wasn't for ever. But for now, at least, he could be proud of her for facing her fear and coming out the other end with fire burning bright inside her, figuratively and literally.​
 

Sam stood still for a moment too long, maybe, as Obsidian seemed to enthusiastically begin to hand Todd over to them. She had thought for sure he would make them fight him for this. It was turning in her mind– what had caused him to just give in? Was it the certainty in both of them? Was it the way they refused to back down? Did it matter what the reason really was? She licked at her lips and nodded as Obsidian rattled off instructions. Then, he pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text message. Sam used it as an opportunity to turn and throw her arms around Adelyn.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for being here. For doing this with me. I don't know what I would have done on my own."

She buried her face in Adelyn's shoulder, holding her tightly. A knot was forming in her throat, but it wasn't the same as the panic attack she'd had before, when Obsidian had told her she was pregnant and she couldn't have Todd back. It was a regular knot, the same tension as you'd normally expect when you got choked up. She breathed in, leaning her forehead against her friend.

Then, she looked up, her eyes firm and glittering. They had done it. They were going to get Todd home. Sam paused to let Adelyn speak, if she was going to. But before Sam could speak again, Obsidian turned his attention back to them. "Rhody is coming up to unhook him from everything. She'll be the one who brings everything by later as well, Samantha, since you are familiar with her."

"Right. I think we can get him home on our own, though. Just have her bring the things by later. Right, Adelyn? She'll help me settle him back into his own apartment."​
 


Adelyn just blinks at the man, two quick flutters followed by another Look, this one slightly more concerned for him. Yes, that was what she’d said. Wasn’t it? She tries to share a glance with Sam, but the stranger just keeps moving in her peripheral vision, and she can’t quite bring herself to take her eyes fully off him.

“Ehhh?” she kind of squeaks, startled stiff by the admission of his familial love (???) towards Todd. She just kind of stares at him for a good long minute, utterly confused, because he doesn’t even look anything like Todd! If anything, he looks more like…

Oh. Ohhhh. Okay. Yeah. That would make them… hmm… brothers-in-law? Oh, but Sam and Todd aren’t married. Er, not that she knows of, at least, so… brothers? Not by blood, though… Surely there must be a better term for that sort of thing.

After another minute of thinking, complete with counting the family-tree-branches off on her fingers and getting turned around at least twice, Adelyn is forced to admit that there just isn’t any clearer way to put it.

She tunes back into the conversation just in time for Sam to throw herself into her arms, sending her stumbling back a step before she recovers and returns the embrace. “Huh? Oh! Yeah, yeah of course! I’m glad I could help! I know how worried you were.”

She strokes her hand gently over Sam’s hair, minding the curls, and just holds her for a second, mind still quietly whirring. When her friend draws back, she smiles for her, though something in her eyes is distant, working through a puzzle she’s only just realizing she’d gotten the pieces to. She doesn’t quite find the words to voice the question brewing in the back of her mind before the stranger speaks up again.

“Yeah. I can carry him, no problem.” It might be a bit of a struggle, what with how tall he is, but she’s sure she’ll manage. “We’ll get him all set up.”

She pauses for another second, belatedly realizing that she should probably ask her next question nicely, considering everything Sam’s been going through. Her mouth twists up into a thoughtful pout, and she gently bites just the tip of her tongue between her sharpened canines. After a second, she lets it go, turning to the stranger with a furrow carved between her brows.

“Hey, mister?” she finally asks, a struggle in her voice as she really, really tries to keep her tone polite. “Before we go. Uhm. Why didn’t you just tell Sam you had her boyfriend in the first place? If you knew ‘im, and you knew how she’d worry, I mean. That just… well, it isn’t a very nice thing to do to your sister, keeping her in the dark like that. Even if y’all don’t like each other, family shouldn’t pull those sorts of tricks.”

She might be sticking her nose in things better left un-sniffed, but she can’t help it - it just doesn’t add up. It’s obvious how much he cares about her, so why would he hurt her like that? And, for that matter, what’s to stop him from doing something like that again, if she doesn’t say something about it now? No, it’s best to get to the bottom of this before it festers any longer. Family doesn’t treat family like that, so what’s his deal?

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top