undergrounds | Shifter on the prowl

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Shifter on the prowl

1.Abandoned Warehouse (Open to all)
Technically, exploring abandoned buildings was dangerous, and it would be advisable to avoid them, but Roddy's current form navigated the depilated warehouse with ease, his whiskers feeling around him, guiding him along the wall. Leave it to the wolves and big cat shifters to change in the woods and go running, this was his natural environment. His clothes were stashed in a corner of the room, and he felt far more secure in the idea that no one would be messing with them here than if he was somewhere more open.

For a while, Roddy lost himself in the rat, barely aware of time passing, only snapping out of his animal instincts when he realized he was eating something. Wait, what…oh. A cockroach. Lovely. Realizing what he was doing, Roddy dropped the half eaten insect and decided that was quite enough. He began walking back toward his clothes, when he heard the sound of footsteps. Suddenly, he froze, ready to turn tail and run on a moment's notice.

2. Hillingdon House (Open to anyone in Hillingdon)
Roddy didn't come here much. If his dad had his way, he wouldn't come here at all. He didn't come often as it was, and usually didn't say much. Still, part of him was curious. He barely had any dealings with the supernatural world outside of other shifters, and from what he'd heard, most of it would just assume eat him or enslave him. Which was, of course, why he'd rather satisfy his curiosity by listening to people tell stories at the Hillingdon House than by actually running into a vampire.

3. Out on the street(Open to all)
Roddy had been heading home from the store, having picked up some spare strings for his violin. As he walked back, his senses picked up a world of sounds and smells he had to pretend he was completely unaware of. A squirrel, hiding in the bushes, rustling the leaves ever so slightly as it shifted directions, considering bolting from the much larger interloper. The slight scent of food left on discarded wrappers. And then, of course, the scent of…holy crap, what was that?

Roddy paused, scanning the surrounding area, trying to identify whoever or whatever it was he was smelling.

4. Choose your own adventure!

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"Yeah!" he snapped back, taking a step away from the man. "And the second I tried to get out, you fucking pounced! I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fucking awesome you didn't try to disembowel me, it would be even more awesome if you didn't try to slap me around when you're that much bigger than me."

He took another step back, glancing around, looking for an escape route. He wasn't seeing one. Panic was starting to rise up again. If Daryl kept this up...

"Give me some fucking space. I'm serious."

Daryl was getting keyed up and just kept moving in closer as he pointed at the man to emphasize his, well, point, "I didn't try to smack you around! I got startled by you changing so fast is all. Biting me was going too far."

He completely ignored the request for space, instincts running a bit too high now that he had his prey caught where it couldn't run.

"Yeah?" Roddy asked with a slight nod, his shoulders tensing like he was about to swing or run. "'Cause from where I was standing, it looked like a pretty good thing I did. You know what a paw that big could do to a one pound rodent?"

Sure, it wouldn't have killed him, but it wouldn't have felt good, either.

"And didn't I just say to give me some fucking space?" he asked, lunging forward with all of his strength on the last two words, trying to shove Daryl back. If he succeeded, he was going to make a run for it.

Sirius listens, nodding. He's glad that the kid's got a future ahead of him, and a little jealous since he never really got that chance.

"Makes sense. Especially since we're sort of on the outside of most of the major political groups. No real affiliations or alliances."

They've been paid in the past to help out when territory disputes occur, but outside of that, he's not aware of anything formal.

"Even if you're not going for one, the job board's usually a good place to check for things that are going on, and what we deal with usually. Although, I admit I haven't heard of anything specific that we're doing, given recent changes."

Might be worth talking with Faolan about, at some point.

"Yeah, I like it better that way. I don't trust most of the other factions, and I definitely don't trust the vampires, so I'd rather not get too involved with them if I can avoid it."

Sure, he was curious about them, in the way someone might wonder how sharks live, but that didn't mean he wanted to get involved with their affairs in any way.

"I'll check it out. Never really looked at it, because the jobs they offer here aren't really my thing, but it might be nice to see what's up."

Daryl was far stronger as a cat than he was as a human, but he was far more practiced in a fight as a human. When Roddy lunged, his own arms came up under Roddy's and pushed them outward as he put his own hands on the man's chest and pushed him back instead. Only Daryl wasn't the kind to just break away. So when he pushed, he followed by pressing forward.

"If I wanted to hurt you I would have already!"

Roddy stumbled back, being pushed until his back bumped against the wall. Roddy reached up to try to shove the other shifter's arms off of him. He really didn't want to turn this into a full blown fight with someone more experienced and bigger than him who had a more dangerous animal form, but the urge to fight back was getting really strong now.

"Then what the hell do you want?"

Daryl snarled and gave Roddy a final push before finally breaking away and backing off. Only about five feet and he returned to his pacing, eyes staying focused on Roddy. But he didn't actually know what he wanted anymore and that pissed him off as much as anything else anymore. He'd only chased after the guy because he'd been bit and was pissed off about it. The rest had just happened as instinct and anger mixed. The smell of rat was still strong and the cat in him had yet to be fully shaken off post-shift.

Not exactly something he was proud to realize as he took the breathing space to try and figure out what to say to the kid.

When Daryl backed up, Roddy eased up a little, though he was still on edge. At least he had some space now, though, and he continued to watch Daryl, waiting for some kind of answer. As he did so, though, Roddy tried to edge along the wall, trying to position himself so he could make a run for it if he had to.

Daryl caught the edging and his lips curled up into a warning snarl before he could stop himself and immediately after he froze. His shoulders hunched up, hands curled into fists and he breathed heavily through his nose, nostrils flaring. He had no reason to hold the kid there any longer and if he didn't let him go, there was a very good chance he'd do way more that he'd regret in the long run.

"Get," he said, voice low and terse. And then he barked it with another snarl, "Go!"

If he was lucky, Roddy would just attribute it to Daryl being a territorial asshole and they could both be done with it once they calmed down.

Edited 2016-06-10 02:43 (UTC)

Roddy blinked, surprised, but once the man yelled at him to go, he wasn't going to wait around any longer. He turned, taking off as quickly as he could, his natural speed and agility spurred on by pure panic. There was something about Daryl's expression that terrified him, that made him want to run and hole up somewhere safe. And so that's exactly what he was going to do.

"I might be biased, but I think that's a good attitude to have, personally," Sirius replies. He feels the same way for the most part, though mostly towards any faction that's too Daybreak heavy.

"It's a good way to get a feel for what's going on at least, even if you don't take any of the jobs. Most of them are bounties."

And he should probably check if his wanted poster's gone back up so he can take it right back down.

"Yeah, I kind of figured. That's why I never really looked at it."

Roddy wasn't really a bounty collecting kind of guy. However, he figured it wouldn't hurt to look. If nothing else, it would let him know if there were any particularly dangerous individuals lurking about.

"But you're right, maybe I should."

Sirius turns and points through a door.

"If you go out there and turn left you'll find it. You might have also seen it when you came in. It updates fairly frequently. And usually take the poster if you're going to take the job. That way people know it's been claimed."

That smell was probably the dead body. A vampire - one with a daylight ring, no less - had attacked Alex, and now she was trying to find someplace inconspicuous to leave the body. Of course, wandering through London with a dead man draped over her shoulders while bleeding from the neck was really conspicuous, so she'd settled for leaving him behind a thick covering of bushes in a park less than half a block from where he'd attacked her.

A squirrel darted through the bushes, startling her. She growled at it and dumped the body on the ground before kneeling to yank her stake out of the vampire's chest. She was starting to go through his pockets, looking for any information on how he'd found her or whether other vampires knew her location, when she thought she heard someone nearby. She stopped, waiting, hoping that whoever it was wouldn't stick their head through the bushes. She had no idea how she'd explain this to a random passerby.

Roddy nodded, "Thanks, I'll go have a look."

He didn't intend to take any of the jobs, but it wouldn't hurt to see what was there. He turned, heading over to where Sirius directed him. Heading through the door, Roddy stayed out of sight for a second, before leaning back into the room.

"Uh...I have a question."

The smell was too strong. The smell was too dead. He couldn't bring himself to just ignore it, and so he stepped through the bushes, and saw a girl searching a dead body. A girl whose neck was bleeding, and had a bloody...was that a wooden stake?

"Holy fuck, is that a..." he started in a harsh whisper, but stopped.

The last word was going to be vampire, but he stopped himself a moment, not sure he should say it out loud. Maybe he was reading the situation all wrong. Then again, that certainly looked like a bite wound on her neck, and that combined with the choice of weapon made him think it would be a hell of a coincidence if that wasn't a staked vampire. Especially since right now, vampires were more vicious than ever, and more likely to give people a reason to defend themselves with deadly force.

In an even quieter whisper, he added, "Vampire?"

Sirius pauses, his mind on the brink of an "oh shit" moment. Had a new poster of him been put up that he hadn't had the chance to take down or cover up? He'd checked the board earlier today and it had been clear but it wasn't like he could police it all the time. That would just be silly.

"Yes?" he says, trying to keep calm and not look suspicious. Something he thought he'd been getting rather good at recently.

Roddy didn't want to jump to any conclusions. It was clearly the guy he'd just been talking to on the poster, of course, but it also seemed odd for a criminal on the run to be encouraging someone to check the job board. Unless, of course, he didn't know he was on there. Besides, it said he was wanted for murder, and the guy he'd been talking to hadn't seemed like a murderer. On the other hand, Roddy realized he had no idea what a murderer seemed like.

"Yeah," he confirmed, pulling the poster off the board and holding it up for Sirius to see. "What's this?"

Well shit.

Figures the one time he didn't check the job board as part of his routine, a new poster would be put up. And there's always a brief hesitation on how to proceed, especially with someone new. There's always the chance that they won't believe him if he tries to tell the truth. But that doesn't discount talking his way out of it.

"It's a wanted poster," he replies, while trying to come up with the next bit of the explanation.

Roddy's eyebrows went up. Was that seriously the answer he was getting?

"Yeah. I see that. Why're you on it?"

Because while Roddy was going to give him a chance to explain himself, he wasn't planning on letting this guy dodge the question. It was, after all, a pretty big question.

But Sirius likes to dodge questions. It always made him seem more mysterious and witty, minus the parts where it also made him horribly unhelpful.

"It's a bit of a long story, but the short version is that I've been framed and everyone thinks I'm a criminal."

We'll leave out the escaped from prison bit for now.

"Right." Well, at least that was an answer, albeit one with a remarkable lack of detail. Still, he supposed that while this man could be lying, even if he'd given a ton of detail that would remain the case. Roddy looked at the poster again, mentally working through whether he thought he could trust this man at his word.

"So your name's Sirius?" he asked, looking at the wanted poster. "So what happened, anyway? Do you know who did it? How do I know you didn't do it?" Roddy looked back up at him. "Not that I'm saying you did."

And he wasn't. Because he had no idea what to make of this.

"It is indeed. Nice to meet you..." He pauses, prompting for a name.

"Well, like I said, I was framed. I unfortunately don't know who did it, but that's why I'm here. You're just going to have to trust that I'm being completely honest in this matter. Which I am."

And something in his tone doesn't offer much room for argument, at least on his side.

"Roddy," he offered.

Thinking about it, it made sense that this guy might not know all the details. It wasn't like a movie, where the villain made sure the hero knew the hows, whys, and whens of their plot, after all. While it was possible he was lying, he seemed like he was telling the truth, at least, and...well, who ever knew with the people in this town? A bunch of citizens were actually bloodthirsty vampires who killed who knows how many people, and it wasn't like they ever were put on posters.

After a long hesitation, Roddy handed Sirius the poster to do whatever he wanted with it. "I'll take your word for it."

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Shifter on the prowl

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Out on the street

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