Will Lowell || Werewolf of London (mariphasa) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-01-22 00:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | batgirl, robin, roxanne, werewolf of london |
Who: Will, Quinn, Wren, Luke
What: Wolf's night on the town
Where: Somewhere on the streets/alleys around Bathos
When: Wednesday, the Full Moon
Warnings: Awooooo. Nope.
It wasn't as if Will could forget about it, not with the way the moon pulled at him more and more in the days leading up to the full. He'd been irritable for the past few days, and had even snapped at the department office assistant at work three times before he'd given up on getting anything done and left. Wednesday and Thursday were circled in red on the calendar that hung in his kitchen, with the words "SUNSET 4:50PM" written over Wednesday's square in neat capital letters. He spent the afternoon getting things ready in his apartment. His wolf always hated it, but Will locked himself in his bedroom for the day of the full, meat and water set out to keep the wolf as satisfied as possible. It was never ideal, but it was the best he'd figured out.
When the sun set on Wednesday, the shift began, and Will gritted his teeth against the pain until he was forced into the back of the wolf's mind, passenger for the next 24 hours until Thursday's sunset.
The wolf prowled around the room, getting accustomed to his form again and walking off the residual soreness from the shift. The events of the weekend were still fresh in his mind, and he wasn't going to spend this moon locked up. The lock on the window never closed securely, and with a bit of scratching and pushing with paws and nose (and ignoring the growing sense of dread from the human in the back of his mind), the wolf managed to get the window unlocked and open and wormed his way out. Five stories above ground was a long drop, but the fire escape was in good repair and he managed to walk and tumble his way to the lowest level before jumping down to the ground in the alley behind Bathos.
Even with the stench of the city around him, the scent of the tiny hunter - Quinn - lingered around the area, both fresh and old, and the wolf knew she had to live close. There was no other reason for her to be so strong in the air. He tipped his head back and let out a howl, a rallying cry for his pack, hoping that she would somehow answer. Once the sound faded from the air, he slipped out of the alley, keeping to the shadows as much as possible, going to explore and hunt.
Wren was between Bathos and Aubade, trailing a man whose name had come her way from a girl in Rainier. She was heading to the bar he frequented, which was a little more upscale than normal, and she was dressed in the outfit Quinn had given her for Christmas. It was the first time she’d worn the articles of clothing, which had been kept in a box for the better part of a month, and she smelled of Quinn’s apartment and her own scented oils.
Wren didn’t know it was the full moon, and she hadn’t had the communicator on when the wolf was mentioned, so she wasn’t on the lookout for anything except a man, mid 40s with graying hair around the temples.
The wolf caught a scent on the air, and while it wasn’t quite right, it was female and had hints of Quinn to it. He took off at a fast trot toward it, hoping that it would be her. His stride was easy, but ate ground quickly due to the length of his legs.
When he caught up to Wren, he was disappointed that the figure wasn’t the familiar one he’d been hoping for. Up close, he could pick out the separate parts of the scent: oils, woman, new clothing, and underneath, hints of Quinn and strange men. The growl of frustration caught in the back of his throat, but he was close enough behind Wren for it to be easily heard.
Wren whirled around, and the wolf was so large that she froze in place for a second, sheer panic coursing through her. She had her communicator on her (for once) tucked in her garter, and she pulled it out as she started backing away. “Quinn, Luke, Isolate.”
Luke hadn’t yet connected the wolf with the full moon, and he was skeptical at best about Quinn’s suggestion that it could be a Creation with powers. Werewolves were still a little too out there for him, at least until he got a good look at this wolf himself, although that wasn’t high on his priority list. He was clambering up a fire escape, two unconscious muggers in the alley below, when Wren’s voice came through the communicator. He didn’t like the panic in her voice and he’d hauled himself onto the rooftop and broke into a run before even saying one word. “Isolated. What’s wrong?” He reached the edge of the roof and leapt, grappling across to the next one over. “Where are you?”
“There’s a wolf,” Wren said, running now and jumping for the first escape she came to, trying to get height before the wolf could grab her, if he was inclined to do so. “I’m at 5th, in the alley, between Aubade and Bathos,” she said, and she was trying to tuck the communicator in her ear as she climbed, stopping on the second rung of the escape to go for her whip and unfurl it with a loud, electric snap.
The wolf blinked a few times when Wren began to run, and gave chase for a moment until she jumped. Then he sat on the ground and peered up at her calmly as she climbed. The whip was an unwelcome sight, and he stood again to back away from the fire escape a bit. He kept his ears up, trying to look as friendly as possible, and gave her a soft ‘whuff’. He’d never seen her before, but she smelled at least partially like Quinn, untainted by blood or hurt, and there had to be a reason for it.
There’s a wolf. Luckily the location she gave was mere minutes away from where he was, lessening the chance that he’d be too late. “I’m on my way,” he reassured her, listening for any background noise on Wren’s end that would suggest the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Hopefully he’d be able to get there in time.
The first thing he saw once he arrived on one of the adjacent buildings was the wolf, just as big as Quinn had said it was, standing on all fours and looking up at something. He followed the wolf’s gaze and saw Wren on the fire escape, whip in hand. She was armed, which was good; between the two of them they had a fair chance, even more so if Quinn showed up. Luke grappled across to the fire escape and dropped down to a fair height out of the wolf’s reach, staff already in hand. “Wren, you okay?” He didn’t risk a glance at her, instead keeping his gaze locked on the animal.
Wren snapped the whip again, not close enough to hurt the wolf, but close enough to serve as a warning. She was unbelievably grateful to see Luke across the way, and she nodded when he asked if she was okay. “He hasn’t attacked,” she said, which was obvious, as she was still in one piece. “He’s too big to be a normal wolf,” she added, voice carrying on the night air.
Quinn had been at home, cleaning up some debris from the builders who had come through to help put in new windows in her bedroom. The cool air blew in and carried in the sounds of the wolf howl. Before she really knew it, she heard a crackle of Wren’s voice over the communication lines and she had no time for kevlar or masks. She grabbed her grappling gun at least, then was out the window as soon as she could. Her feet pounding at pavement as fast as she could run to the alleyway.
The wolf was a familiar figure at the other end of the alley, as were Wren and Luke. The snap of the whip echoed and bounced off the brick walls around them. She needed the wolf’s attention away from Wren. If it was possible this was just someone trapped in a wolf’s form, then no one needed to get hurt just yet. “Stop!” she shouted, proceeding forward towards the wolf. Her hands up again to show him she wasn’t going to attack. “Both. Don’t move,” she said as she quickly directed the commands to Wren and Luke. She stood a few feet away from the wolf, “You again?” She talked directly to it and held her hand out towards him again.
The wolf hadn’t been pleased by the appearance of the whip or the other figure, the one that smelled young and male. He’d stayed a reasonable distance away, sitting on the pavement quietly and watching the two of them, flinching every time Wren cracked her whip. He could hear Quinn’s footsteps, light as they were, well before she turned the corner into the alley. His ears quirked up to catch the sound, and he waited for her to appear.
When she did, he was happy to see that she wasn’t covered by all the armor she’d had last time. He stood slowly, looking back up at Luke and Wren to make sure they weren’t going to jump down without warning, and trotted carefully over to Quinn. He shoved his head into her hand and made a pleased sound in the back of his throat. She seemed less hurt than the last time he’d seen her, and he was glad she was healing.
Wren glanced at Luke, her expression one of clear concern. Quinn was just going to walk up to the creature? She gave Luke a questioning look, one that asked if they should do something. The wolf didn’t seen to be hurting her, but he was a wolf. Her whip twitched between her fingers, and her voice carried on the night air. “Quinn, what are you doing?” and “Move.”
Luke couldn’t believe that Quinn was actually approaching the wolf without any sort of protection at all, and Wren’s concern was mirrored in his own expression along with disbelief at the entire situation. The wolf was acting more like a dog than a wild animal at the moment, that much was clear, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t attack at any moment. They couldn’t be sure what it would do or even what it really was--no wolf he’d ever seen or heard of was that big or acted so strangely. It was only a matter of time before it attacked someone, or people started to notice an uncommonly large wolf prowling around and did something about it.
They couldn’t just do nothing. He glanced at Wren and slid lower on the fire escape, prepared to act if need be. “What happened to being careful?” His voice was tight, clearly uncomprehending of what the hell she thought she was doing. “That’s not a dog, Quinn, and he’s definitely no pet.”
Quinn held her free hand up at Luke and Wren, gesturing at them to be quiet. She couldn’t tell them why while the wolf was listening, but the wolf appeared to like her well enough. If she could use it to her advantage to figure out what was going on with this wolf, then so be it. “It’s okay,” she assured them again, before she turned all her attention to the wolf. Quinn met the wolf’s eyes and tried to talk to it again, “You understand me..?”
The wolf had turned himself a bit when Luke ventured farther down the fire escape, fighting hard to keep the growl hidden that wanted to slip free, and effectively blocking Luke’s way to Quinn. He gave her his full attention though when she started talking to him again. It took concentration, letting the human in the back of his mind focus on her words, but he did understand. He sat on the pavement in front of her, blinking and cocking his head to the side. He didn’t quite know how to go about responding to her, so he leaned in and shoved at her chest with his nose, leaving a cold noseprint on her shirt near her neck.
When Luke began moving down the escape, Wren started to wonder if he’d gone a little crazy, too, but she couldn’t stay where she was, safe, while they put themselves in danger like that. She jumped down her own escape quietly, the whip in her hand replaced by one of her knives. She took one step forward, and she kept her voice quiet and harmless, because she’d read somewhere that dogs replied to tone, rather than words, and a wolf was just a big dog, right? “Quinn, he’s going to bite you,” she said when the wolf shoved the small girl with his nose. Okay, so maybe that didn’t sound so harmless.
He was liking the situation less and less by the minute. What Quinn hoped to accomplish by talking to a wolf who clearly couldn’t answer back was beyond him, and its dog-like behavior didn’t change the fact that an animal that big shouldn’t have been wandering the streets of Seattle. There were no mentions of any missing wolves or other wild animals in general, which meant that it had to have come from somewhere else; and he was positive that normal wolves didn’t put themselves between people the way this wolf had blocked his way to Quinn. That admittedly sparked a flare of anger in the pit of his stomach. “This is ridiculous,” he muttered, frowning down at the scene before him. “He clearly can’t answer you, and he shouldn’t even be out here. Either he’ll attack someone eventually or someone else will get to him first.” It was very, very tempting to just drop to the ground and forget this whole fire escape nonsense.
The wolf could easily hear Luke’s mutterings, and looked up at the fire escape, eyes locking on Luke. The tone raised the hair on the back of his neck, and the growl that had been kept behind his teeth before began to slip out. It started as a low rumble that was barely audible as more than a vibration against the brick walls of the alley. He placed himself between Luke and Quinn again, using his body to herd her backwards and away.
If they didn’t stop approaching, they were going to get them all killed. “Stop,” she warned at Luke and Wren. “Keep approaching, make him mad. So stop.” When he tried to herd her backwards like he was protecting a tiny wolf cub, she frowned at the wolf. Without thinking, she put her hand on the back of his neck to stop him. “He understands. Stupid. Don’t upset.” Why was violence their first answer with something this huge?
Wren just glanced at Luke again. She took another few steps forward, trying to figure out if her whip could immobilize the wolf without killing him. It could immobilize a grown man, sure, but this was something entirely different. Still, it might be their best option, and so she reached for the whip again, even as she took a step closer, giving Luke a look. Quinn wasn’t thinking right, so she didn’t say anything to her, not then.
This was going downhill at an alarming rate. Luke didn’t like being growled at, and he especially didn’t like it when the wolf tried to herd Quinn backwards like it was trying to protect her or something, when the only danger in the alley was the huge wild animal that was currently blocking their way. “Are you listening to yourself, Quinn?” he asked in disbelief. How could she be defending this wolf like it was some kind of friend, when it had already attacked someone and they had no guarantees it wouldn’t do the same thing again? There was more he wanted to say, but he caught Wren’s glance and saw her take a step closer. Towards the damn wolf.
He couldn’t stay on the fire escape while Quinn was behind the wolf and Wren was advancing on it. Luke dropped to the ground with a grimace, since he knew this wasn’t going to end well at all, but he had to do something. “We’re not going to hurt her,” he said to the wolf, trying to keep his voice calm - which was countered by the weapons they both held, though he tried to keep the staff low. “We’re her friends. Okay?”
The movement made the wolf shuffle backwards more, shoving Quinn as he went, but it was the weapons that made him bare his teeth and snarl, more vicious than he had been up to now. The human voice at the back of his mind tried to come up with a way to diffuse the situation, but it was rapidly spiraling out of control. He felt cornered now, and while part of him knew that the others weren’t there to hurt Quinn, he still felt threatened. He knew that he could easily get to the mouth of the alley and outrun them, but it would leave Quinn on her own, and he wasn’t ready to do that.
Keeping his eyes on Luke and Wren, he stopped snarling enough to curl himself around and try to nudge Quinn toward the opening of the alley. If he was going to run, so was she.
Quinn had to keep her feet beneath her as the wolf kept shuffling them back. She didn’t know what to do to make this situation go better. Wren and Luke weren’t backing down, even though inside this wolf she knew there was a person. They didn’t seem concerned for the person inside -- that the only way to handle it was to take as whip to the animal and hurt him. Was this what they were really about? Hurting someone who may not even know what’s going on? She didn’t want to decide in friends versus a stranger, but this was what she was about. Protecting people, even if it was only enough to get information out of them.
“Go,” she said to the wolf, making her decision and turning to run down the alley with the wolf at her side.
It was the tensing and the sudden motion more than the word that spurred the wolf into running alongside Quinn. He tried to give her enough room to move that they wouldn’t run into each other, and matched his pace to hers. She was fast, but not as fast as him, and he stayed by her side as they ran. He let her lead, not knowing where else to take them.
Wren looked honestly surprised. Quinn had, she thought, just chosen a wolf over them. She didn’t run immediately. She stood where she was, and she looked at Luke with confused eyes. “Don’t,” she said, in case Luke was going to give chase. “She wants to be with him,” she said, and all the confusion was in her voice. “I think she knows him,” she added. She looked in the direction they had gone, and she really wasn’t sure if they should follow or not. The wolf didn’t seem inclined to hurt Quinn. None of it made sense.
Luke was dumbfounded. He hadn’t wanted to hurt the wolf and only planned on using his staff if there was no other option, and he thought that talking to it might somehow calm the situation down enough so that they could figure something out. After what he’d seen there was no chance that it was an ordinary wolf, but could it really have been a person? That he wasn’t sure about. All he did know was that Quinn had just ran off with the wolf, person or not, and it had seemed very friendly towards her. Too friendly for there to have been just one encounter. He had no idea what to think. “I... I think she does too. He seems like he knows her.” He’d taken a step forward but that was it, unsure as to whether they could even catch up - and if Quinn even wanted them to. She’d made her choice, after all.
He looked at Wren and saw his own confusion mirrored in her expression. “She wants to be with the wolf, so... I guess we should just go.”
“We could trail them a little while, just to make sure they’re okay,” Wren suggested, looking up toward the fire escape. The buildings were close enough here that even she could jump from one to the next, and while they would be far away, they could at least observe Quinn and her wolf unseen.
There was a part of him that immediately balked at the suggestion, the part that had been angry at the way the wolf acted as though Quinn was his to defend, but the rational part of him agreed that it was a good idea. If something happened to her he’d never forgive himself. “Okay. As long as we’re not seen.” Luke began to clamber back up the fire escape, turning his head back towards Wren as he went. “Did we do something wrong?”
Wren followed, shaking her head as she climbed over the roof’s ledge. She belated realized what she was wearing. “I bet he smelled her on the clothes,” she said. “They were from Quinn. And I don’t think we did anything wrong. Had she mentioned a wolf to you, before?” she asked, walking to the edge of the roof and checking the distance before hopping to the next.
“Oh.” That explained why the wolf initially only had a negative response to him. “We weren’t going to hurt him, not unless it came to that. I just don’t understand how she could trust that wolf so much.” Luke frowned to himself, following a step behind her and landing on the next rooftop. “Yeah, once. She made a comm call warning about a wolf wandering around near the university. She said it didn’t hurt her, and it was... carrying some kind of bag.” He shrugged. “She thinks it might be a person, a Creation, with some kind of ability.” He scanned the street below before crossing to the next one, barely breaking his stride. “I don’t know what to think.”
The wolf had run alongside Quinn for several blocks, ears quirked back behind them, and was finally satisfied that they weren’t being followed. Keeping in stride and careful not to throw her off balance as she ran, he ‘whuff’ed softly and stretched out to touch Quinn’s side with his nose. He slowed down and eventually came to a stop, slipping into yet another shadowed alley to hide himself, hoping that she would follow.
Quinn couldn’t really believe herself for choosing to do this. If she was going to make a risky decision, she needed it done right now anyway. Getting the wolf alone may be the only way she could be able to get it to understand her. When the wolf nudged her and headed towards the alley, Quinn followed and finally slowed to a stop. Now, she just needed to attempt to talk to...whoever was in there if she was right. “Okay? You..” she gestured to him, “Able to understand? Yes? Ah, bark? One for yes and two for no?” It was a good enough attempt at a basic communication level.
The wolf cocked his head to the side again as he listened to Quinn talking to him. If he focused hard, the human was able to understand more of the words, and the meaning slowly filtered into his mind. He sat on the pavement near where she was standing. He leaned in and nudged her hand with his nose, then gave a soft wuff of breath against it. He sniffed at the inside of her wrist, finally breathing her in.
Quinn reached up tentatively to rub his muzzle, trying to bite back a little smile. He was more like a giant dog than anything else, really. She just needed to see if she could get him to understand that he shouldn’t be out here. People would hurt him or he would hurt something or someone else. “You understand?” she asked again, “You go home. Hide?”
He leaned into the muzzle rub, listening again to her words. It took him a while to process, but one he though he understood, he wuffed twice and then, so very carefully, took the hem of her shirt between his teeth and held onto it, not letting go.
Luke and Wren followed the pair from the rooftops, managing to keep up and stay out of sight at the same time. When Quinn and the wolf finally stopped and headed into an alley, he got as close to the edge as he could without being detected - the wolf was more of a concern due to its senses. All Quinn seemed to be trying to do was communicate with it--him--and it looked like the wolf might have been understanding her after all. Even if there was a person in there it still didn’t change the fact that this was dangerous. A giant wolf couldn’t just go wandering around the streets like it was nothing, not with innocent people around; someone was bound to get hurt or call the police to report a wild animal, and that wouldn’t end well.
He watched as the wolf took her shirt between his teeth, feeling another stab of irrational anger. What was wrong with him? Better yet, why did Quinn and the wolf appear as though they knew each other? Luke turned to Wren and shrugged, trying to convey without words that he didn’t have any idea what to do about the situation. Half of it didn’t even make sense.
Wren had peered over the edge when Luke did, kneeling on the roof to get a better view, and when Luke turned to her, she didn’t shrug back. She didn’t need to. “Luke, I think they’re friends,” she said, carefully, because Luke looked angry in a way she hadn’t seen before. “I mean, she’s worried we’ll hurt him,” she said, looking back down at the pair. “I feel like we’re watching something private.” She stood, tugging on Luke’s hand. “We should go. If you go down there, angry like you are, the only thing that’s going to happen is that the wolf is going to attack you and then she’ll have to choose.” Her voice said she wasn’t very certain which of them Quinn would pick.
Luke knew she was right. There was nothing else they could do and Quinn clearly didn’t need any help. “She doesn’t have to worry about us,” he muttered, wondering if she really thought they would have done anything. Had she forgotten that the wolf had already attacked someone? He looked up and prepared to argue that he wasn’t angry but thought better of it and nodded instead. “Okay. Let’s go.” The doubt in Wren’s voice wasn’t very reassuring, but maybe Quinn knew something they didn’t. Maybe she had the situation taken care of. “She’s not going to be happy with us after this,” he added as an afterthought as he turned away from the ledge, but the tone of his voice suggested that he wasn’t pleased either. For now, though, he had more important things to take care of.
The wolf looked up suddenly when he heard Luke and Wren talking. He knew that they would just continue to follow as long as he and Quinn ran, and while he didn’t want to abandon her, the human lingering at the back of his mind insisted that they were her friends and wouldn’t hurt her. He took a few steps back, looking directly at them for a moment before tipping his head back and giving a long howl. When it faded away, he nudged Quinn’s hand once more with his nose, then headed for the mouth of the alley on his own. He knew he would be able to find her again once she was alone again.