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

[toothaches]

Maurice's snorting and giggling died away. He was the older brother and he had a job to do. Without asking, he reached out and grabbed up the little bird creature around the middle with one arm and stooped down to fold the attic ladder up to where it belonged.

"We're lettin' all the cold air in here. C'mon."

And he wagged her into the living room where there was more light and a large glass door for her to see herself in. He put her down squarely in front of it.

[foolishwren]

"H- HEY!"

It's her customary response to being picked up unexpectedly, but when she's THIS small, there's even less she can do about it.

But any and all protesting ceases when she's set down in front of the door.

She stares.

".... What the fuck."

[toothaches]

"See what I mean?" He brushed the soot off of his arms. Was he worried? Sure! Maurice was always worried about something. But freaking out wasn't going to help them. Being in his own home helped steady him.

His mom would know what to do.

But did he...really want her to see this? She had a vampire for a son and had seen all kinds of things, but Heather did the spooky halo thing sometimes and he wasn't sure how well that'd fly with Margret Hutch. He shook himself. She wouldn't be back for a while.

"Did you see anything weird up there?"

[foolishwren]

"Wh-- no! I just had a bunch of dust hit me in the eye when I looked up! I thought it was like... spiders and shit!"

She leaned in to squint suspiciously at her reflection, only to startle back when the length of her beak resulted in her INADVERTENTLY PECKING THE WINDOW.

[toothaches]

Maurice puffed out a little sigh and bent down, hands on his knees, and looked into his lack of a reflection next to Heather's.

"Try to change? I mean, if you can make yourself fifteen feet tall..."

[foolishwren]

She went quiet for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut and visibly straining, her bottlebrush tail sticking straight out behind her for a moment.

"... I can't. ... Maurice, I can't!"

A note of panic had entered her voice.

WHAT IF SHE WAS STUCK LIKE THIS?

[toothaches]

Uh oh.

"Don't panic!" He lifted his hands in a sort of shooshing gesture. "Don't panic! I've gotten stuck plenty of times! I think--maybe you just need to wind down. Yeah."

Maurice was the one who was starting to panic.

"You wanna watch some TV?" He abandoned her by the door and rushed to the sofa where he started fishing for the remote between the cushions. "We can watch some TV."

[foolishwren]

Her hair is doing the Ghibli thing.

"TV?! How's TV supposed to help?! I'm like, three feet tall!"

[toothaches]

"TV helps you relax!" He yelled in a not-relaxed-at-all voice as he continued digging for the remote.

[foolishwren]

"NO IT DOESN'T! IT OVERSTIMULATES THE BRAIN AND CAN CAUSE INSOMNIA!"

That's a Harry Mason Fact (tm) that had frequently been brought out when Heather had wanted to watch TV late into the night and it couldn't possibly have any hidden bedtime-related motive behind it.

[toothaches]

The vampire's claws brushed plastic. He held the button-covered rectangle aloft like Link fetching the dungeon-centric weapon from the Big Chest. He quickly flipped on the TV. A fishing show was on, complete with a man in huge aviator shades and wind-muffled audio.

"Oh look! Big Time Big Mouth is on!"

[foolishwren]

Big Time Mouth would not fix what was going on right now!

Making a noise not unlike a dying seal, Heather sunk to the floor and grasped her fluffy yellow head with her claws.

8[

[toothaches]

Maurice's strained, hopeful grin deflated as Heather crumpled into an unhappy fluffy ball. The vampire dropped the remote on the floor. No, this wasn't going to do. Suddenly, and fortunately, an instinct kicked in within Maurice.

Without hesitating, he strode forward and scooped Heather up under the arms before sitting down the sofa and placing her on his knee.

"It's gonna be okay."

[foolishwren]

She didn't quite expect to be yoinked up off the ground. He can pick her up with one hand even when she's normal-sized, and in THIS state, she's light enough that he could probably toss her across the room with a flick of the wrist if he wanted to.

It's with this instinctive knowledge in mind that she allows herself to be plopped down on his knee, eyes wide and circular again.

"... How. How is it okay."

[toothaches]

With her claws in his hands so that she couldn't worry at her hair or feathers, he finally leaned back against the back of the sofa.

"Is this really the weirdest thing that's happened to you?"

[foolishwren]

She had to stop and think, at that.

But finally, reluctantly, she mumbles "Well... no..."

[toothaches]

He jostled his knee, trying to shake her out of her glum mood. "Then relax...maybe this is just a new shape. I sure as hell didn't turn into a bat on purpose the first time I did it."

[foolishwren]

Puffing at the jostling, she folded her arms. At least she was fluffy enough to not feel NAKED on top of being tiny.

"Yeah, but at least being a bat has a PURPOSE. What'm I supposed to do like THIS?"

[toothaches]

"Anything you fuckin' want?" He offered up a shrug. "You can probably fit under the kitchen cabinets and all kinds of places. Maybe it's a stealth mode."

[foolishwren]

"... Stealth mode."

She looked down at her stumpy body doubtfully, but... well, maybe he does have a point.

It'd be easier to hide like THIS than in her hulking normal form.

[toothaches]

Maurice nodded sagely...and then looked over at the far wall. it was one of those decorative walls folks usually had around fire places that were made of stones cemented into place. Theirs was no different, though they just had a three brick gas heater and not a fireplace.

"I wonder..."

He stood up again, lifting her gently, and carried her over to the wall. Which he then proceeded to try and stick her to with her awful little goblin claws.

"I bet you can climb like this!"

[foolishwren]

An indignant squawk escapes her.

"ZILLA! Hey! I'm-- hey!"

She scrabbles at the wall-- ... but what do you know, her claws stick.

[toothaches]

Maurice stepped back and folded his arms.

"Stealth mode. Now you are a wall climbing ninja."

An adorable one.