alonimi
Pooch Poaching [Closed] - Printable Version

+- alonimi (https://alonimi.net)
+-- Forum: Contemporary (https://alonimi.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=71)
+--- Forum: Miscellaneous (https://alonimi.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=87)
+--- Thread: Pooch Poaching [Closed] (/showthread.php?tid=706)

Pages: 1 2

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-19-2017

For some, strange reason, Axel was getting the feeling that he’d be spending a whole lot of his time with this guy trying not to roll his eyes. He was just ridiculous! So solemn, once he wasn’t threatening people in the shower. There was something oddly sincere about the promise he made about his computer, it almost had Axel believing him. But it was safer if he tried to stay jaded. Sure didn’t want to be getting his hopes up only to have them dashed mercilessly when all he got back was a beaten up mouse instead of his baby.

He followed him out of his crappy apartment, saying a silent goodbye as he crossed over the threshold, only to be confused when the samu- Marcus turned back to the door and took out something… strange.

It wasn’t keys. Actually, him having keys on him would explain a hella of a lot about how he was in his apartment to begin with. No, what he took out was a piece of paper? With symbols? Axel watched in silent awe as the ward took effect, unable to stop himself from stepping forward in inspect his door with undivided interest.

“Dude, what the hell was that?” He said breathlessly, more than a little disappointed when the symbols faded away from sight. Once there was nothing left to see, he spun back around to face Marcus, his eyes light up in curiosity. “How did you do that? Can you teach me?”

His questions and curiosity continued as he followed Marcus down the hall, the whole kidnapping thing seemingly forgotten in the face of actual magic. “Wait a minute! You had on armor before. Was that magic, too? Do you have magic armor? Where’s your sword? Is THAT magic too? Holy shit!”

At this point, he’d probably follow the man anywhere if he so much as vaguely answered even one of his questions.

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 03-19-2017

His reaction to the ward was not unexpected given that Marcus now knew his level of knowledge in regards to The Other. But that didn’t mean he didn’t find all of the chatter a tad... too much. He tried to recall if he’d ever been that way when he’d been young. Exuberant, curious, awed—asking questions as quickly as he thought of them. But he couldn’t, not really. It’d be almost too long... maybe.

He was already out the exit doors and into the night air. It was cool; which bothered him, but he couldn’t do anything about it until he got the car where it was decidingly warmer. Seventy degrees wasn’t awful, but he’d have been happier in eighty or eighty-five. Moderate humidity, even.

How he hate northern states. Never warm enough even in the summer.

“A ward to keep intruders out,” he responded as his black boots barely made a sound along the parking lot. “I cannot.” His brow wrinkled as he glanced over at Axel, at his animated face. The computer had been forgotten, it seemed. For now. “I am not mage or a magic-user,” he went on. “It was made for me. The armor is magic-imbued; the katana is as well, but was not originally.” Simple answers; he could handle those for now. But he was still wary until they reached the car.

As he came to it, parked along the sidewalk of the apartment complex, the driver’s door opened, but Marcus held up a hand as soon as the woman appeared. “It’s fine.” She didn’t need to open the doors.

Once she was back inside, he got in the back of the black and very basic-looking custom vehicle. It wasn’t a limo, no, but there were two sets of back seats facing one another that made it just a little longer and roomier than average. He took the one that had him facing towards the front of the car, left side, and shut his door.

As Axel got in the thick tinted glass barrier between the front and back parts of the car slid down. “Itinerary?” the woman asked.

“No special stops. I—,” he hesitated that that as the knot in his stomach reappeared. He’d take care of that in a moment, but... Hm. He looked over at the pup. “Are you hungry?”

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-19-2017

“Did you seriously just put a magical lock on my door?” Axel barked out a laugh. “You could have just asked me to lock it! No one has ever broken in until you.” Jesus! What a waste of perfectly good magic. For some reason, this line of thought amused him greatly. “At least tell me it’ll do something cool like trap intruders in a pocket dimension if it’s triggered. It can’t seriously just been a magic lock because you don’t trust real locks.”

“Aw.” Now he was pouting, disappointed that his cool kidnapper wasn’t cool enough to be able to teach him the magic that he so casually put on his door. “Are there gonna be people who know magic where we’re going?” This was suddenly much more important that what he’d been worried about before. Potentially being murdered and eaten was much less interesting than learning magic.

Axel circled the car and climbed in after Marcus, only casting the driver a curious glance before sitting down right next to the other shifter instead of doing the sensible thing and having an entire seat to himself. His curiosity had overtaken any remaining fear he might have had at getting into a car with a strange man. Clearly sitting next to said strange man would be a much better position to question him from than being all the way on the other side of the car. Axel tossed his duffle bag carelessly over onto the other seat and turned to Marcus, leaning forward a bit with a thousand-watt smile to ask,

“Can I see your sword?”

Luckily, he was derailed from asking more probing questions by the mention of food. At first, he made a dismissive hand wave, but it quickly morphed into bashful smile when his stomach expressed its interest at the prospect of eating something soon. Eating something that was hopefully not crushed corn chips. “Pretty much constantly.” He admitted with a quirk to his lips that faded after a moment. Hopefully this wasn’t the segue into Axel becoming actual dinner. He’d just started to have fun, he didn’t want to be reminded of the potential for murder! Damn.

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 03-19-2017

“You are incredibly lucky for that, given what you are,” he responded as he relaxed back into the seat further and clicked his seatbelt into place. “Were you human it might not have mattered much, but other metas would have taken it as an invitation.” His had a roughness to it then, as if he were scolding him for not doing proper things, but one might attribute it to a grumpy bear more than being truly vexed. “It’s not a waste,” he added just the same. “If you had nothing of value it wouldn’t have mattered, but you insisted that you did.” A pause. "It merely keeps others from entering. A barrier. Forcefield."

He decided against answering questions about magic just yet. Nevermind the fact that he couldn’t speak for Isabella-sama or not, they needed to get moving. As for his sword... He was torn between ignoring the query at all and indulging him. If only Isabella-sama had told him...

...this whole situation was a mess and trying to figure out how to react properly was an even bigger mess. Nothing about it was comfortable. At all. There were protocols for his kind and he wasn’t suited at all to do them for someone so naïve. He was less than suited—tainted eternally. If a nearby pack knew what he was doing... knew what Marcus was...

He sighed visibly, not quite able to catch himself as memories made themselves known. But he did manage to catch the response about the food and nodded. “Burgers on the way, Ingrid.” He looked like the type that would eat junk food; that aside, there were the energy drinks and potato chips to consider.

“Very well. Whatever’s on the way?” she asked.

“Yes, please. And thank you.”

The woman nodded once and the window shut. Then the car began to move as Marcus reached towards the middle of the seat and pulled of a panel. A small fridge. Silver bags with liquid in them, but the liquid wasn’t visible.

“There will be at least one person who knows magic where we are going, yes,” he finally replied as he broke the seal on the small plastic lid; he tipped it up and drank his fill until it was empty, exhaling once as the blood suffused into him and took the edge of whatever nerves had been frayed prior. Once he was done with that, he put the empty packet back in the small fridge and replaced the panel.

He didn’t say anything immediately after that, but decided to—against his better judgement—to rub his tomb across the ring. As he held out a hand next, the katana appeared in his grip. The sheath was a deep blue with a shine on it. The hilt itself was woven in both black and blue strips of traditional fabrics and leathers. The guard was silver in color, and, if he removed the blade from the hilt even just barely, he’d see the kanji on the blade itself—inscribed.

He offered it up, a single brow quirked as he met Axel’s gaze. “Be careful,” he warned for good measure. Probably a bad idea. Maybe.

Not his modus operando. Not even close. But memories had a way of tugging. This was why he stayed away from his own people, formerly his own people. He had no right treating pup as though he were a member of pack he didn't even posses. It wasn't his path anymore, and, there was no going back to a life resembling the closeness he'd known then. The camaraderie.

Not his place anymore.

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-20-2017

Axel wrinkled his nose at the ominous words. He didn’t even know what the hell he was, he wasn’t sure why this guy seemed to think that he’d been in danger before. No one had ever come close to guessing, much less confronting him or breaking into his apartment because of what he is. He leaned back in his seat, bashfully rubbing the back of his neck before his hand inched up to tug at his curls. Finally, both hands fell back to his lap, fingers twitching for something to do. It was hard deciding how to respond to all this, especially his kidnapper apparently valuing his possessions when the guy had been threatening him not that long ago. He didn’t get what his deal was, what angle he was playing. Maybe he really didn’t mean him any harm, but Axel wasn’t stupid enough to actually trust him yet.

Maybe he’d answer some questions that really mattered.

“So, uh… What do you mean by ‘what I am’? What are metas?” For a kid who’d spent most of his life desperately trying to be human, having someone right in front of him who could tell him all the ways he wasn’t human was too tempting to ignore.

He perked up at the mention of burgers. Food always made everything better, especially meat. Whatever Marcus was taking out of the car’s mini fridge, however, was not meat. Axel sniffed the air curiously when the scent of blood hit him, watching Marcus down the liquid with his head tilted to one side. He might not know how to tell the difference between a human and a shifter purely by smell, but he sure knew the scent of blood.

Super sneaky, knows about magic, drinks blood…. naaaaww….

Shelving his wandering thoughts for now, Axel perked up once more at the mention of magic. “Why didn’t they come get me instead? No offense, but if magic is real it’s probably a lot more convenient for kidnapping than showing up with a shower. Unless magic carries a price or something? Oh shit, do you have to have something like mana to cast magic and if you don’t you’re pretty much useless?”

He went on like that for a bit, asking stupid questions as they came to him about whether or not magic in the real world was anything like the magic in his video games. He would have kept going for a while, too, if he didn’t get completely derailed by his kidnapper becoming his new favorite person ever by manifesting his sword and offering it to him.

Axel lit up like a kid on Christmas. He let out a barely-there squeal of delight as he carefully took the katana from Marcus, inspecting it closely as he tested it weight in his hands. “Holy shit.” He muttered, attention entirely focused on the sword and seemingly unaware of anything he might be saying outloud. “This is real. Super real. Like an actual fucking katana real. Shit I haven’t seen one that wasn’t fucking dulled metal or plastic in so long, holy crap, this belongs in like a museum or on someone’s wall…”

He trailed off, hands gripping the hilt and sheath to slowly slip the blade partially out, letting out another soft, delighted squeal as he spotted some kanji. His mouth moved quietly as he tried to parse out the words, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in frustration as he realized that the characters didn’t come to him as easily as they used to. With a sigh, he covered the blade once more and offered the katana back to its owner. He felt like he’d been pushing his luck already, it won’t do to start swinging a damned sword around in an enclosed space on top of it all. “Man, my kanji is super rusty. This the coolest thing that I’ve seen in awhile. Where did you get it?”

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 03-20-2017

The pup was fidgeting, but it didn’t bother Marcus. It probably should have, given that the last few hundred years of his life had been spent primarily in one calm setting or another unless he was in the midst of a fight. His mistress had a tendency to lean toward quiet and contemplative. Their home rarely ever was louder than the sounds of a coffeepot being replaced or a fridge door being shut. She almost never had guests over, more inclined to go out on her own than to invite others over. He half wondered, just then, if she did that out of respect for him, or, if she liked things just the way they were as well.

“Metas are anything other than human—vampires, shapeshifters, fae, angels, demons, elves...” The list went on, but it would take forever. “I’m certain Isabella-sama can lend you a book on the different species if you interested enough.” It would probably be good if he read one, thinking on it now. “You’re therian,” he said, trying to figure out a better way to explain it. “A creature that shifts from human to one of several different animal forms.”

Marcus didn’t like him watching him while he drank, but the komodo didn’t comment on it either. Though, if the sniffing were any indication... he’d figure it out soon enough. Perhaps not tonight, but he would. There was something in his chest that released when he didn’t ask, and Marcus was secretly relieved he’d wanted to know about magic.

“I’m not the person to ask,” he admitted. “But I do know that certain spells take more out of a person than others.” He shrugged. Magic was not his subject despite all the time he spent in Isabella-sama’s company. He simply had no interest in it, not when he much preferred to use his own abilities to achieve what needed to be done. What magic was imbued in his weapons, the ring, were for protections or durability purposes primarily. The ring itself just made it easier for him to hide his weapon and armor.

It was difficult to ignore the way the pup lit up at the weapon. He was once again caught between this being a good thing or a bad thing—the feelings and the conflict that came with them. But he watched anyway, a little surprised that he didn’t do anything stupid with it. “The writing is antiquated now,” he admitted, voice a bit distant as Axel asked his next question. Marcus’ gaze was on the katana. “It was made for me a very long time ago.” A very, very long time ago by a very good friend—brother in many ways. Long dead now.

Marcus swallowed once, pushing aside memories of hard eyes in the crowd—turning away. all of them walking away. Loneliness. Ties cut. Ronin.

He inhaled deeply, one again pushing it away from his mind. “You read kanji?” he asked. Because he didn’t want to talk about it, and, because he probably should ask a few questions of his own.

At the same time he felt the car come to a slow. The window dropped down. "I'm not at the speaker-box yet, but..." Ingrid began.

"Nothing for me," Marcus replied before glancing at Axel, "Order whatever you want." It wouldn't be a long trip, per se, but there was never anything good to eat on the jet. Not really. Nothing he thought Axel would want.

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-20-2017

“Wait- angels and demons are real? Are you shitting me?” Axel said with an incredulous laugh, hardly believing what he was hearing. If it weren’t for the fact that the guy in front of him shifted into something right before his eyes not long ago, he probably wouldn’t have believed it at all. As it was, he was still have a really fucking hard time, because if this was truly real? How had he never run into ‘metas’ before?

Shit. He WAS a meta, apparently.

“And I’m. Therian.” He tasted the word on his tongue, sampling it carefully. He’d just gotten used to calling himself a shifter, knowing that there was a real word for himself and, likely, more like him out there… Axel swallow. It was a lot to take in. “Yeah, I think I’d really like about one hundred books right now. Is Isabella-sama the one who knows magic, too?” What he’d really prefer was a 10 terabyte hard drive with all known information about metas stored on it, but he wasn’t about to be picky around the guy who looked like an actual samurai right out of myth and legend.

Scratch that, he probably needed more like a thousand books. He needed to know EVERYTHING about the actual magic in the world yesterday.

The mood shifted again, however, when Axel unknowingly asked something apparently much more personal than he thought it’d be. He tilted his head again, chewing on his lower lip when his kidnapper- Marcus- seemed lost in memories for a minute. He really wanted to ask more questions. How long, where, by whom, could they make him one, too??? But even he could tell that now wasn’t the time. Instead, he murmured, “It’s beautiful.”

And it really was. He’d probably sell his soul for a sword like this. Or, at least, perform some very questionable illegal activities for it.

“Yeah, kinda!” Axel chirped happily. He turned his attention back to the sword, letting it rest across his lap as he played idly with the hilt and guard. It was nice to have something to do with his hands. Especially when he wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell Marcus about where he’d learned kanji. His past was just that, the past, and he liked to live in the here and now. But it was probably weird for some poor kid living in NY to know anything about japanese characters. Not that he owed Marcus and explanation, but maybe it would hurt to share a little.

“I’ve been in the states about ten years now? But I came here from Japan. I was actually pretty famous there when I was younger.” He added with a snicker, as if sharing some inside joke. If his adult life was exciting, it had been nothing compared to his early years. But he wasn’t sure he was ready to get into that just yet.

Luckily, it was nearly food time. Axel raised an eyebrow at Marcus, a mischievous grin cutting across his face as he turned to the driver to ask for “Get me six bacon double cheeseburgers, everything on ‘em and a large order of fries.”

He was gonna eat so much better than crushed fritos tonight.

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 03-20-2017

“Very real,” he intoned. He was amused... slightly. There’d been a few times when the task of explaining things to newcomers had fallen to him. And he hated how this entire mission had him recalling memories he hadn’t allowed himself to revisit for... it had been a long time, and, he was starting to feel old. Ridiculously old. And yet, the pup’s light-hearted nature over it all—the wonder, even the memories that wonder stirred, didn’t make things ache quite so badly.

“You are.” Marcus wanted to know if he’d done every shift, or, just the omega stage. It wasn’t painful, but some found it startling the first time—frightening. “How far have you shifted?” he asked.

“Isabella-sama is the one that requested your presence, and yes, a sorceress.” At least, that’s what she called it, not liking the term witch; she thought it sounded too ugly. And wicca was so far below what she did, at least the way she told it.

When Axel said the katana was beautiful he nodded once. “Thank you.” The wasn’t bad at reading the mood at least, even if Marcus didn’t like the fact that he’d slipped—that his mask hadn’t been firmly in place.

But his Axel’s did a complete one-eighty as he chirped in affirmation and toyed with the weapon in his lap. The pup seemed contented to hold onto it, so... he didn’t see a reason to take it away just yet. Maybe when he started eating.

“You weren’t born here?” How did he wind up in Japan? His family could have lived there for some reason, he supposed. It was jarring though and didn’t quite fit the image of him at present. He seemed quite American.

“You got it, toots!” Ingrid said with a cheeky grin before disappearing to lean over; because by then the car had pulled up and she needed to order. Marcus could vaguely hear her doing as much. He almost smiled when she added a large Mountain Dew, likely thinking the kid forgot he’d need a drink to wash all that salt and grease down.

“I imagined you would order at least fifteen,” he said lastly as he crossed one leg over the other, the action perhaps too feminine for most Westerners. Though, he preferred to be comfortable, and crossing his ankle of his knee make his leg fall asleep.

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-20-2017

A giggle escaped, despite himself, as the existence of angels and demons was confirmed for him. Man, this guy wasn’t so bad. His super serious self was even funny, almost, when he wasn’t trying to terrorize poor innocent ‘therians’ named Axel. It didn’t hurt that he was pretty damn open about answering questions now they were in the car, for some reason. He could even grow to like the guy like this.

“I can go anywhere between human and hyena easy as breathing.” Axel said with a wave of his hand, grinning cockily. That grin faded down to a slight, nervous smile when he thought more about his shifts. Fuck. It was weird having someone he could actually talk to about this. The learned instinct of hiding, always, had its claws deep-set in his chest. At the same time, he had… questions. So many questions about what he was and what he could do. Plus, maybe he could finally get some insight into the differences he’d noticed between some of his shifts. He’d never had words for any of this before, not actual ones that meant something.

“Sometimes…” He started off slowly, looking for the right way to voice his thoughts. “Sometimes I feel like the shift wants to go further without me. It’s like an itch under my skin, the urge to be bigger, faster, stronger. I’ve always pushed it down ‘cause I can’t- couldn’t risk something happening, like it getting away from me. What other forms are there?” He asked, allowing himself to look at Marcus with surprising vulnerability.

A motherfucking sorceress. He was so pumped to meet her. Axel grinned again, but this time he tried to hide it by looking down at the sword in his lap. He flipped it over in his hands, running his fingers down the smooth hilt as he thought. This was so much. So much information, all at once. And now questions were being asked of him, too, and he didn’t know how much he should share. Could share. Would share.

Trying to get a grip on his spiraling thoughts, he took in a deep breath, held it for a few beats, before letting it all out in a whoosh. Marcus was answering his questions. It was only fair if he answered some back. Maybe… Not everything. But some of it, sure.

“Nope.” He said, glancing over to the man sitting next to him and away again. “I was born in Africa somewhere, probably. No idea where. I was taken to Japan when I was still a cub. Suddenly turning human one day was a real trip, let me tell you. But I taught myself the language, stole tech until I wasn’t shit at it, and made it my goal to get someplace I’d be able to find people who looked more like me. American seemed like a good idea, so I watched TV in English until I learned that language, too. I think I was somewhere in my teens when I finally knew enough to forge documents that’d get me overseas. Been bouncing around the city every since.”

Once he was done with the sparknotes version of his life story, he looked back over at Marcus with yet another grin baring his teeth. “Fuck you.” He said cheerfully, his tone indicating that he did not mean it as an insult, and yet. That wasn’t exactly a polite thing to say. “I’ll have you know I have some self control.”

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 03-20-2017

He was growing accustomed to giggles. It couldn’t be helped since he was a hyena, he supposed. There just too many types of therians to know the full extent of each type's innate habits. There were some things that were always the same, but many more than weren’t.

His listened, moving to rest his elbow on the window edge of the door. It was close, but there was enough space to do that much. He let his cheek rest in his palm as he watched Axel and listened to him explain—grin in full force. Laughter, he imagined, was his protective layer. Which dropped as he revealed that his body itched to do more, but that he held back. The unexpected—though brief—vulnerability in his eyes startled the komodo a bit.

“Four aside from your human one,” he said eventually. It made sense that going from human to gamma was easy for him. At least, it was if he were... Had he been born a hyena? It wasn’t exactly rare, per se, but he hadn’t met many therians who weren’t human to start. Not personally. Though, to be fair, he didn’t go around asking either. "Omega, gamma, beta, and alpha--the last being the the most powerful."

But then it was confirmed when he explained about Africa. Marcus frowned visibly, unable to stop it. The details were vague, but Marcus understood. This definitely explained why he didn’t have any idea about what he was. Especially if he’d been hiding it so desperately—himself. It wouldn’t have been difficult for a pack to find him, but it wouldn’t have been easy either. And sometimes that just happened. Still, it was troubling that other therians hadn’t caught his scent and questioned him. Or maybe the pup was a shut in. Techs sometimes were.

The ‘fuck you’ did startle him however. Shocked him well enough to stare at Axel as a long moment of silence passed between them both. He blinked once, not entirely sure how to react. He didn’t have friends to have said such things to him, not even Isabella-sama. So it took a long minute to settle fully....

...and then he laughed, his face broke into a smile that did nothing to hide the fangs along the top front row—long enough not to cut his own lips and sharp. His eyes closed with it. It was unexpected, completely caught him off guard, and felt totally alien. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d laughed. At all. His carefully constructed mask didn’t truly allow for it.

“I don’t know you well enough to disagree,” he said once he’d stopped, a hand wiping down his face, regaining his control.

Kami... this wasn’t good. Couldn’t be.

He didn't have time to think about it though, because Ingrid was shoving a bang of food back towards them and a large Mountain Dew. Marcus took both items. "Thank you."

"Sure thing. Have fun." And then the window closed as Marcus set Axel's grub in the space between them. The top of the fridge compartment had a cup holder, so he put the drink there.

He rubbed his thumb over the ring and the sword disappeared from Axel's lap. "I can bring it back out later," he felt the need to say.

RE: Pooch Poaching - skiesofpurple - 03-25-2017

Damn. So he had four total forms and he’d only ever explored two of them before. That was sure explaining the itch under his skin, but he was still kinda wary of exploring his shifts any further. Pop culture had taught him to beware becoming some sort of blood-lust crazy murderbeast that went around biting and turning people into were-monsters. Shit, he did not need to become the accidental leader of a pack of werehyenas!

Then again, he’d never heard of shit like that actually happening before, so maybe pop culture wasn’t the best recourse to get his information from.

“Okaaay, so, animal form, weird furry human/animal form. I’m guessing those other two are, like, animal/human monster forms? Like we’re talking movie-monster bipedal werewolves or giant wolf werewolves?” Hey, even if he wasn’t going to trust pop culture for his supernatural know-how, that didn’t mean it wasn’t a good frame of reference for his possibly future beastly transformations. He was almost afraid to ask if any of those forms would turn him into a raging murderbeast, but he had the feeling that the conversation might lead there eventually anyway.

Oh but then he had to go fuck it all it.

Axel stared at the sam- MARCUS staring at him. Suddenly he was having flashbacks to being naked in his bathroom and, hey, that wasn’t all that long ago, yet somehow he managed to almost forget he’d been fucking kidnapped. He’d just begun contemplating the pros/cons of busting a window and hightailing it if he’d seriously fucked this up, but then… then. The best fucking thing ever happened.

He was laughing.

A grin spread over Axel’s face, teeth flashing in a display that would have been threatening if he wasn’t obviously delighted by this turn of events. A low, pleased, rumbling chuckle spread through his chest, but he didn’t let himself succumb to laughter because this was too fucking rich, he wanted to watch like a creeper because serious, non-nonsense, stern, blank-faced samurai man was laughing and it was all because of him.

Shit. All of a sudden, he wasn’t nearly so terrifying. Even the fangs poking out from under his lips were more endearing than off-putting.

Axel hadn’t realized he’d been leaning in, staring at the uncharacteristic laughter, until it stopped. He leaned back quickly, an embarrassed giggle escaping almost like an afterthought as he blurted out, “Wow! Dude, you’ve got a really nice laugh!” Oh, shit, had he really just said that? Why was he so lame? That was such a lame thing to say, oh my GOD, that wasn’t something you were supposed to say to your probable kidnapper even if he wasn’t actually that bad and had a nice laugh and was answering all his endless questions. Shit.

Food! Food was a good distraction from blurting out inappropriate things! Axel quickly shoved his hand into the bag, grabbing a burger and barely managing to unwrap it in time before shoving half of it in his mouth. He still somehow managed to pout when the sword disappeared, eyes wide before his sighed dramatically through his nose a focused on actually eating his food. It was now clear that the kid had, truly, been raised by hyenas because the rate at which he was devouring his burgers was terrifying to behold.

RE: Pooch Poaching - Blade - 04-03-2017

Marcus paused, considering how to answer. Because it had been some time since had to explain this anyone, much less a pup, he was a little confounded. Times had been different before his tainting; the world had advanced since then. And while he would love nothing better than to say he hadn’t watched any recent movies on what popular media deemed the paranormal to be... Isabella-sama had unusual tastes. Primarily for the humor in seeing how humans with no real knowledge of The Other viewed the world behind The Veil. So when Axel asked his questions Marcus found himself trying to figure out a comparison which was adequate—one that wasn’t too Hollywood. Were they not in a car he would simply show him. But they were, and he no desire to do any damage to vehicle, much less cause Ingrid any distress.

“Human,” he began, “is fairly self-explanatory. Omega is what you saw me shift into...earlier.” Because there was no real delicate way to put the misunderstanding, or the situation they had both been awkwardly thrust into. “Gamma is normal animal form. For you that would be hyena—as you were born. Beta is bulkier and more powerful version of gamma. Alpha is... well... typically what you might see in a movie; though, the exact specifics depend on your animal form.”

The grin didn’t throw Marcus; he was growing accustomed to the pup. Though, the closeness did have him taking pause. One might not call it tense, per se, but the Komodo did have to take a moment to gather his thoughts. People generally did not get so close to him quite so easily, and, he had to blame it on the therian in Axel. Closeness was, after all, an inherent trait he missed about being part of a pack.

“...Thank you...” he said in response, brow rising just so, not entirely sure how to take the compliment—especially from someone he barely knew; especially when he couldn't--didn't have the desire to out of some for of guilt--react as he normally did because of what the pup was.

His brow furrowed at that, as he stared briefly at the seat in front of him—eyes softening just barely in thought.

If Axel knew anything about what he was—an abomination in all rights, had he been educated properly among a true pack, none of this camaraderie would exist between them. He knew. And while there was a part of him that soaked it in like a plant desperate for moisture, Marcus knew it wasn’t right—wasn’t fair to Axel.

...Who happened to eat as if he had no idea how to use the limbs or mouth he’d been given.

“You’ve plenty of time to eat, pup,” he felt the need to intone, watching curiously, though not seeming too fazed. Internally, of course, there was a smile.

RE: Pooch Poaching [Closed] - skiesofpurple - 04-12-2017

Axel waved off the thanks with a shrug, trying not to look so embarrassed about it. By the time he trusted himself to speak again without fear of letting out something truly horrifyingly embarrassing, he was halfway done with his fourth burger and was already reaching for the fifth. Burgers one through three had disappeared in a matter of seconds. His hand paused on the way to claim burger number five, eyes widening slightly as he suddenly realized that even distracting his mouth with food had the unfortunate side effect of being mildly embarrassing. He'd somehow forgotten about his complete and utter lack of table manners (hey, some habits are downright impossible to break when you spent most of your childhood living from one meal to the next), which was understandable considering he normally ordered takeout or bought groceries only to devour everything without bothering to cook it because he was hungry and cooking took too long. Anyway.

Axel finished off the last of burger number four by shoving it into his mouth, somehow making the action look bashful, especially when he took a sip of his soda afterwards to give himself something to hold onto. "Sorry?" He couldn't tell if his lack of matters offended or amused Marcus. Either way, it was something to be embarrassed about. Even as he paused in his eating, his eyes wandered towards the last two burgers longingly before focusing back on Marcus. What? He was a growing boy (not really), he was allowed to be hungry. Before he reached for his fifth burger with the resolve to try and eat like he'd learned to eat in public after getting way too many weird looks at various fast food joints (which lead to his serial takeout lifestyle, come to think of it), he paused, head tilted, as he regarded Marcus with an incredibly confused expression. "Dude, did you just call me 'pup'?"

Was that? A nickname? A term of endearment? Pup? Axel was... part embarrassed, part flattered, part confused? But then he remembered that he kept called Marcus "samurai guy" in his head and he felt like maybe it was something like that. But he was still kinda confused about it because, if we were getting technical here, he was not a pup. He was a cub, clearly.

...Only not because he's a grown ass adult. Wait, how old was this guy to begin with? He didn't look that old! ...Then again, he didn't look like he could transform into a weird human-lizard hybrid with huge-ass claws, so there ya go.

"Okaaay so. Anyway. Human, furry, actual animal, giant animal monster, and giant furry monster." Axel summed up right before taking a big bite of burger number five. This time, he took his time chewing his mouthful as he mulled over the different forms he'd be able to shift into, apparently. Because whether or not he'd turn into a giant hyena monster and lose his mind was a much more important topic to pursue than... any of that. Really.

"Do any of the forms make it hard to control yourself?" He asked as he took another sip of his drink, "Yanno, like in the movies, where the werewolves go all batshit crazy during the full moon. Like, the rational side loses out? Ohhhh!" And the questions had only just started. "Dude, can you turn people into were-creatures by biting them? I mean, I've never heard of that actually happening before or seen it actually happen before, but. Maybe it was just all covered up! Does it happen?"

"Wait a minute." This time, Axel paused in bringing up the burger for another bite to wrinkle his nose as another question came to him. "Is it hereditary? I mean, I was born a freaking hyena from the start, but if I had kids would they be, like, cubs? Or human? How does that work?" He finally stuffed another bite into his mouth, chewing as he contemplated the many other questions he should ask while samurai guy was stuck in a car with him and could escape from said endless questions.