|
|
Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 19:31:24 GMT -5
Femi walked through the Wood with her husband and their son Alphonse, early evening having dimmed the sky through the canopy of trees into a light glow that didn't let through any actual light. That way her poor little vampire didn't burn in the sunlight and he could hunt his prey without fear. For his part, a six-year-old Alphonse was more than happy to be out at night with his parents in search of actual live prey. If he could find any small animals wandering around, he would try to catch them and drink them dry. If he had too much trouble with that, his parents would try to help him. Normally they went out and got the animals themselves, or asked a neighbor if they'd caught anything fresh that day, but he'd pestered them enough that they agreed to go with him for up to an hour to hunt. No more than that, though, or the Bad Things would start coming out and hunting him. And them. His mother wasn't exactly thrilled to be out in the Wood while the sun was going down, but it wasn't late enough for her to be especially worried and they were only about twenty minutes away from their house anyway. |
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 20:10:45 GMT -5
Kazifel walked slightly behind Alphonse and Femi. His mind was somewhere else, but that was nothing new. He was worried about Rosemary being left alone to cause chaos with the other children. When she had figured out how to crawl and shortly there after walk, it was complete and utter chaos. She had only gotten worse. Then Kazifel snapped back to reality when he caught a scent on the wind. They were out at a "safe" hour weren't they? Then what the hell was that? He prevented himself from growling, but he slipped ahead of Femi and Alphonse. No, there was no mistake he could smell something rotting. "I think... we should go back," he said quietly turning back to look at Femi. He meant I think you two should go back, but it came out otherwise. Meanwhile not too far away there was a very frantic heron. She did not want to be in the Wood, the weird radiating from it was overwhelming and she was standing in it. No this wouldn't do. "H-Hatter, I think we should leave," she whispered. |
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 21:18:15 GMT -5
Femi looked at Kazifel with confusion painted across her features. He'd just gone ahead of them, and now he was talking in a too-quiet voice and giving her a look that meant business. "What is it?" she asked softly, moving up beside him and taking his arm. She couldn't smell what he did and hadn't heard or seen anything out of the ordinary, but sometimes his senses could be a lot sharper.
Ignoring his parents, Alphonse half-crawled along, unable to walk properly because of his wing-arms and not flying because his mommy had told him to stay close. He looked around, trying to spot anything moving or scurrying or twitching so that he could point it out. Nothing was obliging and it made him chitter in agitation.
"Why is there no prey?" he whined plaintively, six years old and frustrated. "There should be things to hunt." The fact that there wasn't displeased him immensely.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Mar 22, 2008 22:15:23 GMT -5
It had been a long time since Hatter had been in The Wood. He hadn't expected the Weird of it to be so intense, either. The last time he'd come, though, he'd been younger and more brash and considerably lacking in company that was disconcerted with the atmosphere. Ah well, he was glad for Loreta's company even if it did make it harder since he couldn't exactly transform into a native like this. It was, however, growing dark and Hatter knew very well that Bad Things happened in the dark... especially when you went further in. Hatter briefly thought he heard something further in, but Loreta's voice drowned it out. Smoothly he wrapped an arm around her shoulder as his eyes sparked delightfully, adrenaline pumping happily through his veins. "We're too far in to turn back now, love. We'll just have to keep going!"Doorie was with them, scampering along nearby and occasionally darting ahead to act as a 'scout'. Hatter didn't want to walk headfirst into something stupid and Doorie knew, from their last trip to this place, the consequences of letting that happen. Quietly he darted forward and, in doing so, skittered through the brush in front of the chittering squirrel-bat. Oops. |
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 22:29:01 GMT -5
Kazifel growled, he definitely heard someone talking. And that smell was getting stronger. His head snapped around to see something skitter out of the bush. Had Alphonse startled something or... there were people around. They were close. It was close. Something was close and if it was from the Wood it still smelled like rotting flesh.
Loreta wasn't reassured by the grip around her. She was quite terrified being in a place she wasn't supposed to be in. How many times had her mother told her don't go into the Wood because something would eat you alive. Why had she even decided to go. When the heron took a few steps forward she saw something through the trees.
Oh. Oh crap. There were people there. She simply tugged on Hatter's sleeve and pointed in shock. Something was very white and something was very red, both things matched the description Rocky had given them.
And was... that wolf... looking at them? Crap.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 22:39:45 GMT -5
Alphonse saw the movement and immediately he pounced, young enough not to care what it might have been or to worry about disturbing a wild bander or any number of other nasty things. He just knew it had to be small to be in that bush and that it was prey. He was one to bite first and ask questions later at this age.
He found the creature and bit into it, his abnormally capable teeth sliding right through... metal?! And then, BZAP! He screamed and dropped it immediately, falling back and clutching both wings to his mouth. It... it had shocked him! He wailed and started crawling towards his mother.
Femi's head snapped around at her son's scream and she immediately let go of Kazifel's arm to scoop him up, trying to figure out what was wrong and what had just happened. She looked at the bush he'd jumped and saw something gleaming and... sparking... what?! "Kazifel," she said sharply.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Mar 22, 2008 23:03:22 GMT -5
Hatter had, for a moment, caught sight of the strangers through the trees and was about to comment when, to his horror, Doorie let out an awful noise and sparks lit up a bush nearby. Loreta would feel the human jerk against her side, his hole body tensing and then releasing and then he was rushing forward and dragging her along. He couldn't leave Loreta but he couldn't, oh lord..
"DOORIE?!"
Hatter let go of Loreta seconds before reaching the bush, hopped over it and was suddenly on the ground with Doorie. People were staring and he'd left Loreta just on the other side of the bush, but nothing mattered until he knew if Doorie was alright. She was twitching on the ground, making terrible little noises, and sparking dangerously but Hatter had her pressed to his chest in a heartbeat.
It was, undoubtedly, an odd sight: a strange man clutching a malfunctioning hunk of metal in the middle of The Wood and crooning soft reassurances to it as if he held a wounded child instead of a robot. In fact, he surely resembled Femi with Alphonse in her arms...except that Hatter would have to disable Doorie for the time being and he surely hoped the squirrel's child would not have to be turned off.
"G'night Doorie, I'll wake you back up soon." There was a soft whirring of protest and then Hatter flicked a switch and the Mome Rath fell limp in his arms. The Joker winced and his shoulders slumped, but her sparking had stopped.
Shirt singed from Doorie sparking and a rather frazzled expression upon his usually cheerful face, Hatter looked up and finally acknowledged those around him. "Er, hello. That was a terrible first impression, but your..." his gaze flicked to Alphonse and then back up again. "Your child appears to have done quite a number on my pet. Is he alright?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 23:13:22 GMT -5
Kazifel watched in horror as his son found his mother's arms. He moved forward quickly only to watch a man hop over a bush and hug whatever was that was sparking. Uh no, this wasn't happening. There wasn't a brightly colored stranger near his wife and child.
Yes their was, and Kazifel was angry. Angry enough to snarl before Hatter finished his sentence. Without warning he grabbed the man by the shirt and jerked him up so he was face to face. Hatter was tall, yes, but Kazifel was taller at the moment.
"GET OUT NOW," he snarled as his grip tightened around the man's shirt collar. Then he threw the man down to the ground, his teeth were bared, his ears back. For once in a long time Kazifel actually took on the air of frightening.
Loreta watched whatever was unfolding in front of her. She squeaked, there really wasn't anything she could do besides stare and hope that no one noticed her.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 23:30:32 GMT -5
Femi clutched her wailing son to her chest and just stared as the bizarre-looking human jumped out and picked up the whatever-it-was that had just shocked Alphonse. Not only that, but the man was an Outsider and something that belonged to him had just hurt her baby.
She was so angry she could spit. She hadn't felt this angry in a long time. This was just... beyond excusable. If he hadn't stopped that nasty little thing from sparking, she would have created water on it and seen how those sparks reacted then. None of her other powers would be especially effective at the moment. Unless... well. She could wait to see just how stupid or awful he really was.
Or you know, maybe she couldn't. This man... whatever he had brought into the Wood, it had hurt her baby and made him wail. She looked at a small tree not far away, by no means full-sized, and narrowed her eyes. Break. The tree cracked through the middle and started to fall towards Hatter. Whether it hit him or not, that wasn't the point.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Mar 22, 2008 23:51:19 GMT -5
This was not going very well. Doorie was not supposed to be hurt, neither was anyone else, and Hatter... Hatter was not particularly fond of being roughed up by a pissy papa wolf either. Bad first impressions were settled far more easily over tea than all this huffing and... His churning thoughts were cut off by a creaking sound and his two-toned eyes swept upward toward the tree that was falling at him.
OH BLOODY HELL! IS SOMEONE WAS TRYING TO SQUISH ME NOW TOO?!
No one ever said this was going to go smoothly but like this!?!
He had no time to think about those around him, he just moved.
With an earth-shaking crash, the tree hit the ground. Hatter shook for a moment, scanned the area to make sure everyone was in one piece and no one was under the tree and then turned his attention onto the obviously paranoid group. He only had one chance, judging by the chaos of everyone around him, and he tackled it while he could.
"Pardon my saying so, but perhaps we could stop and talk for just a moment?" He was on his feet, clutching Doorie protectively, and trying to figure out the smoothest way to go about this. Something told him tea was out until he could calm everyone down. "I swear on my Hat I don't mean anyone any harm, I just came to find out about a doll maker I heard rumors about... Supposedly dappled in living dolls, things like that and, y'see, that's sort of my line of interest..." And he held up Doorie to show the evidence of this. "So perhaps, you could just tell me if that doll maker is you or not...and then I could apologize properly for Doorie 'n' all and just go and then there won't be anymore need for...all of this, yeah?"
He took a breath and smiled lopsidedly at the wolf and his mate. For all that he was very much not a Tugley, there was absolutely no denying that he wasn't just a little touched in the head himself to have come all the way into the Tugley for the sake of doll-making tips.
|
|
