Call me animal.

[phantastus]

WHO: Heather Mason and Maurice Hutch (OC)
WHERE: Dogtrot, Texas
WHEN: Just easing into spring.
WHAT: What probably would have been a night spent loitering around the drug store and breaking bottles in the alley like generic malcontent youths takes several unexpected turns when a vampire hunter interrupts Maurice while waiting for his friend from up north.
RATING: Probably PG. CW for violence, mild body horror and transformation.




awsum
ill be outside where the rentareel used to be

Maurice had put out the call and now he was in his place, hands in his coat pockets. He hadn't seen his friend for a while now. One thing or another would come up (said things including worrying mothers, various injuries, and plain bad weather) and now that at least the weather had calmed its bad self down, the world was ready to be trampled again.

And what a night for it! It was clear with chilly breezes sneaking around buildings and down alleyways. An orange moon hung low on the horizon and kept the clouds far on the edges of the horizon. It wouldn't rain for two more days. Spring was coming. The tiny green shoots had just barely started poking out of the ground where there was enough actual soil instead of the red clay of Dogtrot. Crispy dead leaves still hung in the corners where the buildings met the sidewalk. Easter candy all but overflowed on super market shelves.

The vampire thought of all the things they would do once Heather got there. They could graffiti the old building marked to be torn down the following week since it was technically not illegal anymore. They could eat pizza at Tod's until they were sick. And DRANKS. And Sega. If Meranda hadn't taken over the sofa for the night. An outlet in her room had blown (or so she said) so she spent a lot of time on the sofa during her WoW raids.

Something interrupted his thoughts. He had lived in Dogtrot for years now and not a lot surprised him. He knew the local vampires, he even knew a local spook or two. He knew the drug addicts and the few homeless and what they sounded like. What he heard on that empty chilly street was none of those things.

"Quack quack!" It was mechanical. Grainy.

Maurice lifted a brow and tugged his phone out wondering if Meranda had passive-aggressively changed the ring on it again.

"Quack quack!"

"The hell...?" It wasn't his phone. Maurice pocketed it and looked all around. The quack came from an alley across the street between a now defunct QUICK CASH and what was going to be a shiny new laundromat. Maurice looked both ways and ventured forward into the gloom.

The garbage can at the end of the alley quacked. Maurice screwed up his face in thought. Broken toy that suddenly came back to life? Stranded cyborge duck?

Up above on the rooftop, a long and lean and very crafty hunter was watching his prey fall for his trap hook, line, and sinker. His father had been a hunter--a normal hunter. Deer, ducks, rams. He had watched him make odd noises to get the attention of the deer. A whistle or a click to make them stop in just the right place. Sometimes to even lure them in.

Humans were the most curious animals that he knew of and though the thing in the alleyway wasn't human (not in the slightest) he had to watch it in fascination and amusement before he made his move.

Maurice peered into the trash. There was an old Talkboy straight from the eighties in the trash quacking away.

"Oh, man, sweet!" It was all his! He reached for it. Something dressed in full army camo descended upon him and drove a thin knife into his shoulder. Maurice screamed like a wildcat and the fight began.

Comments

[foolishwren]

Heather had never seen that sort of blank look on her friend's face before.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was causing it.

She whipped back to face the singing seductress just in time to see the bobber flying at her face.

She'd had just about enough of being smacked, so almost without thinking about it, the combined reflexes of an Otherworld survivor and an Otherworld creature kicked in and she snapped her beak shut on the line with a vengeance, aiming to give the mudmaid a vicious yank forwards.

[toothaches]

There was a sound that, if written out, would look something like T W O N G as the line pulled taut and the mudmaid's eyes widened. She had no feet so her tail whipped frantically in the water as she was yanked forward. Her song ended in a loud, unhappy screech.

Maurice stopped walking and stood dumb as a stump for a few seconds before blinking and looking around. Freezing pond water was up to his gut and he could feel mud sinking into his shoes.

"Ugh! What the hell! What--" Then he saw the monster battle happening in front of him. He froze with his elbows lifted out of the water. If he moved backwards he might catch the not-a-hooker's attention again.

[foolishwren]

As the vampire stood stock-still before the Literal Kaiju Battle (tm) taking place in front of him, Heather yanked as hard as she could on the line before letting go of it.

And just to prove she meant business (actually, the heat of the moment was getting the better of her), she lifted her giant meaty hands and ripped the stupidly-small vest that was still on her off. And roared. With every ounce of force and spittle she had.

BWOOAAAARHRHGHGGH NO ONE DOES WEIRD SEDUCEY MAGIC ON PEOPLE ON HEATHER'S WATCH, FISHBITCH!

[toothaches]

The mudmaid recoiled, her tail looping in and around itself under the force of the Blackbird's roar. The spines on her head pressed flat and she shot back a weaker but equally unhappy wail.

Maurice just clapped his hands over his ears and hoped no humans were in earshot. And that there was only one mudmaid. As distracted as he was with these thoughts, he had to admit that the sight of his friend performing a taunt above and beyond anything the WWF ever cranked out was fucking amazing.

[foolishwren]

Letting loose with the battle cry instilled feelings deep inside of her that she hadn't felt since Silent Hill.

Well-- actually, she'd felt it a little the other day, when she'd put the fear of God into that would-be vampire hunter.

But it was stronger right now, with this creature before her.

It wasn't anger exactly. It was one part anger, three parts thrill, and one part a weird giddiness. A glee at her own power.

Look what I can do.

She splashed forward, wings flaring behind her, and swung a giant fist, roaring again.

[toothaches]

Feather and claws connected with slick, sticky skin. The mudmaid ceased its keening because a good portion of its face fractured. The fishing rod was flung away onto the bank. For a split second it looked like she was going to retaliate. Water boiled around the creature as it thrashed and rolled in the shallows and clawed its way back to the middle of the pond where, no doubt, its junk-lined burrow was. Something slick and green stained the water's surface and bubbles rose in a foam.

Maurice cringed when he heard the sound of bone on bone. He stumbled in his attempt to shuffling backwards through the muck and wound up landing on his ass with the water up over his nose leaving nothing but a pair of startled eyes peering up at Heather.

She just...punched it. She punched it and it fucked right off. He tried to say, "Woah..." but it just came out as bubbles.

[foolishwren]

The CRACK as her clenched fingers collided with the mudmaid's face brought her somewhat back down to earth and she stood there as it flailed its way back into the depths with a slight look of surprise replacing the wild, confident grin she'd been wearing a moment before.

... O-oh...

Well... she hadn't quite meant to hit that hard...

Oh well.

Reasonably confident that the fishy creature wouldn't be coming back for seconds, she turned to see what had become of Maurice.

"You okay?"

[toothaches]

Maurice struggled to stand. He slipped once--twice--then he stood. He peeled his shirt away from his body and frowned down at it with his nose wrinkled. Eugh, pond muck.

"I got my hair wet."

Maurice patted the heel of his palm against his ear as he sloshed back to shore. This wasn't the first time he'd heard the mudmaid sing but it was the first time it had nearly drawn him to the center of the pond. He was embarrassed that Heather saw him sucked in like a moth to a bug zapper.

"Y'know maybe it's time to find a different fishin' hole."

[foolishwren]

"Uh... yeah, probably. I don't think that thing was very happy with us."

There was an awkward pause.

Then, the somewhat damp ruff of feathers on her neck and shoulders rose in something like pride.

"I kicked its ass though."

[toothaches]

With a sigh Maurice wrung out his hair and then shook his head. It stood up in every direction and it stank. Everything was terrible.

"You sure did..."

Maurice wasn't entirely sure how he felt about his ass needing to be saved becoming a thing. Granted it was nice to have someone watch his back but...that was his job! He was the big supernatural monster. Not Heather!

"I haven't really explored much further than th--ah! Aaah!" Maurice swatted at his jeans. Suddenly he stopped yelling and reached into his pocket only to pull out a very tiny fish.

He stared at it, then he started to laugh.

"I think I won tonight's fishing trip seeing as yours got away!"

[foolishwren]

She couldn't stop a snort of laughter from escaping at the sight of the tiny fish, but it soon became a good-natured growl.

"HEY, shut up. I kicked its ass and I SAVED yours. I win by default. Now where'd-- aw, man."

She'd turned around to try and find the abandoned vest, only to spot it floating pitifully in the water about twenty feet away.

"Gross..."

Maybe she should have stopped to think before just flinging her clothes off in a random direction.

[toothaches]

"Yeah, yeah." He swatted at her words and stomped his way over to where the lantern and backpack were. He sat down and started dumping water out of his shoes.

When he noticed Heather and her vest problem he let out an ugly snort.

"Good job, Hulk. We'll get you a shirt when we get back to the house. I think we're done here."